CREDITS IN VIDEO GAMES

Continuing the series of posts on the legal aspects of the Game Dev industry, a separate space should be devoted to the issue of end credits in video games, or the issue of so-called Credits. The problem in this regard primarily concerns who should be credited in such Credits, to what extent and in what way. Due to the fact that the process of creating a video game involves many people, institutions or various types of entities in general, one should be guided by the rules defined, among others, by copyright law – about which more later in the post.

WHAT ARE THE CREDITS AND WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND?

End credits in all kinds of works (not only in video games, but also, for example, in films) are the most common and optimal form of fulfilling the obligation to mark the authorship of a game as a work under copyright law. At the same time, Credits can be (and most often are) also used to thank for non-creative contributions to the creation of a game. As a rule, such thanks are not regulated by law, unless otherwise specified in the agreement between the video game developer and the person or entity in question.

Importantly, when publishing Credits, it is important to keep in mind, first and foremost, the regulations on personal copyrights, RODO, protection of personal rights, unequal treatment in employment and contractual obligations to subcontractors.

CREDITS A RODO

Special attention in the context of Credits should definitely be paid to RODO. In this regard, first of all, it is necessary to point out the legal basis for publishing the data of certain creators. Interestingly, the basis for processing will be different for creators and different for non-creators:

• vis-à-vis creators: performance of the contract or the law (authorization/obligation to mark authorship), i.e. Article 6(1)(b) or (c) of the RODO, respectively;
• vis-à-vis non-creators: legitimate interest, i.e. Article 6(1)(f) RODO (possibility of a broad argumentation in this regard, including in particular: taking care of the image of the video game developer and relations with employees/co-workers, striving for compliance with market practices and relevant standards), taking into account the positive aspect of Credits for the interests of the employee/co-worker and legitimate expectations on his/her part – the above speaks in favor of a positive result of the so-called “balance test”, which makes it possible to invoke the above-mentioned basis for processing.

Of course, over and above the aforementioned basis for processing in this regard, one can also point to the withdrawal of consent for such processing, especially with respect to non-creators, which can be positively evaluated in the context of transparency of such processing and the transfer of actual decision-making to data subjects regarding such processing.

Importantly, however, relying on consent as a basis for processing can prove to be very problematic in practice, particularly with large-scale game production (when many people are involved in game production). The issue here, of course, is the potential problem of obtaining such consent from each of the individuals whose data is to be published in Credits (the inability to guarantee responses from all individuals, the inability to “force” consent, and the ability to withdraw consent at any time – which may lead to the need to frequently update Credits). In the case of basing data processing on legitimate interest, while the data subject has the opportunity to object, the controller has legal instruments to disregard the objection (per case approach).

Thus, it seems that a far better and more practical approach in this case is to base the publication of personal data in Credits on a legitimate interest. Importantly, if the manufacturer decides to adopt as the basis for processing the consent obtained from the data subject, and it proves impossible to collect such consent from some people the final publication of the game may constitute an incident within the meaning of the RODO.

OTHER LEGAL ISSUES

As for the personal copyrights of creators, they include, among other things, the right to decide on the designation of authorship. In this context, special attention should be paid to the provisions arising from the contract between the producer and the creator himself. Usually, it is in the contracts that it is indicated whether the right to decide on the designation of authorship is vested in the manufacturer or in the creator himself. This will also determine whether or not permission for authorship marking is required.

Another important aspect of Credits is the issue of protecting the personal rights of those whose data is or is not included in the credits. If such inclusion or non-inclusion is unlawful or gives the impression of erroneous attribution of authorship to another person, the personal rights of the creator or non-creator may then be violated.

The prospect of unequal employment treatment is also worth mentioning. Importantly, any independent decision by a video game manufacturer not to publish the data of a particular employee (employment relationship) should have an objective justification. Otherwise, an allegation of unequal employment treatment is not excluded. It should be mentioned that the risk of such an allegation may also arise from former employees, but it is lower (depending on when the employment relationship expired).

Good practice in terms of Credits, which allows you to avoid various kinds of ambiguity, is certainly the introduction of internal Credits Policy defining m.in. the approach of the game manufacturer to Credits, with a description of the justification for the collection of in parts of the cases of agreement. Such a policy may also determine the periods of employment/cooperation or other policies that justify or certain persons within Credits and possible rules for the conduct of the accident of receiving objections as to publication.

SUMMARY

The Credits issue is another video game issue that should be viewed from multiple perspectives. Publish the data of the individual or not-creative, manufacturers must pay attention to many aspects of the law to allow themselves to violations and the same not to be exposed to the responsibility or image. The Credits issue as another shows how complex the process of creating a video game is.