how do I copyright my game/get the right to take down who steals it.

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how do I copyright my game/get the right to take down who steals it.

Velox

I need to know how to make it so I am able to take down anyone who just copies and re-uploads my game.
I do plan to add in something saying I created it which should help but that might not work too well...
so how do I manage the trademark and copyright things and is there a free way? I honestly feel like if I created something and have any bit of proof and someone steals it then it should count as theft and pirating so I should be able to sue them or bring them down as long as I have full-on proof and if this is the case then tell me something I could use to secure the proof that does not give away any of my personal info (they could easily take my username and re-upload and there would honestly be no difference) although I do feel like if I release first then depending on the platform it could be able to know that data thus securing the game to my account. apologies for how long this is and thank you for your time.

cybereality

In the US at least, as an artist anything you do is automatically copyrighted. With written material, like a book, sometimes people will print out a copy and mail it to themselves (via USPS) so they have a sealed copy with a timestamp. This can be used in court. But you have the copyright either way, and there are other ways to prove you are the original creator (such as if it was published on a platform before). As an indie, I wouldn't worry to much. Suing people will cost more than you'd make on your game, and a companies that rip off and clone games are usually in China or other countries that won't do anything. The best you can do is a DMCA request in the US (I think EU has similar) where you can say they are infringing on your intellectual property and that is usually straight forward and may take a week or two. That said, piracy and clones are the cost of doing business and you can only do so much.

Lethn

As @cybereality has already correctly pointed out, in most countries that respect intellectual property you do have the copyright automatically if you created it, I believe the legal term is called 'creative license' however, obligatory I'm not a lawyer on all of this I do know a bit though. Really you should only worry about trademarking and copyright as an indie if you start making a significant amount of money. In my country at least, you can also apply for a trademark on whatever you've made with a fee and then you'll officially be registered.

Really though, I think that the best thing you can do for yourself is constantly make records of your progress, this is why uploading WIP footage of your projects is always a good idea. Even if some douche does manage to trademark your IP at the end of the day, your long term followers will see exactly what you've been up to and even someone new will be able to recognise the fakes by glancing through your social media.

This is also what can hugely separate us from the big companies, a lot of indie devs have no problem showing their whole process and a code snippets which creates a lot of transparency and shows gamers we're legit, these days I'm instantly suspicious of any game dev that doesn't do that. They're either relying on marketing hype or they're doing a third party asset flip and will disappear when they're found out.