NDA doesn’t guarantee that my information won’t be leaked.
For example, Josh was hired by Bob from Unity’s Collaboration Forum to make him MMORPG. Before he could send me GDD, he asked Josh to sign and send him NDA to ensure everything is held in secret. Josh signs and sends it to him. Both are happy and proceed with Bob’s WoW - Killer.
During the production, Josh found the game idea really good and saw potential in it. But he can’t make a game because he signed NDA. To avoid the legal barrier, he calls his friend Jeremy and tells him about the game idea. Jeremy then calls Drake and tells him about the game idea. Drake likes the idea and starts making the killer MMORPG, releases it and profit shares with Jeremy and Josh of course.
Bob then would have a hard time providing evidence that Josh has indeed leaked the WoW-Killer idea since Drake & Josh never met each other.
So, judging from this case study, anyone can practically steal an idea even if an NDA is signed. Or can they? I am not a lawyer so I may be wrong and such trickery could actually be easily revealed by Bob.
I am wondering if I signing an NDA is an actually effective protection against idea leaks and would love hearing your opinions.
Yes it’s very effective because the party does not want to go to court and pay money, in addition to having zero business opportunities in future due to having a bad name. And bad names can never be fixed or repaired in this industry. Once you are done, you are done.
It’s very effective and continues to be so.
It’s not effective if the NDA is given by some kid to another kid with zero chance of legal action. It’s effective for business though. For example our company makes it the most serious matter possible, for us to break NDA is effectively signing a death warrant.
NDA information can often be traced to a single leak. Not everyone on NDA is privy to the same information. If in your case it happens, it happens, but you’re still talking about schoolground / kids stuff.
Companies that are serious in this industry just flat out won’t do it. It’s a bit like MAD. Nobody wants to break NDA because it’s vital to everyone it works. I should point out the kind of NDAs we sign are generally for companies like Intel, Sony, Unity etc, not NDA to test a game so maybe that’s a different scene entirely.
Josh broke the NDA and profited from it. If there is evidence he profited from something so similar there may be grounds for investigating further. It would be difficult in this case, but people are unlikely to break NDA and not try to benefit directly. This case study would be an exception I have never heard of happening, not even by rumour.
Having a lock on the front door also doesn’t guarantee that your house won’t be robbed.
You can’t protect an idea. Only its execution.
It is not a case study. It is a hypothetical scenario.
One thing you should keep in mind that your ideas are not unique. If you got an “amazing idea”, you can bet that there are at least a thousand people in the world that had the same idea, and some of them had it 10 years earlier than you did.
There are also opinions that having an NDA on your project hurts your project, because by adding NDA you limit number of ideas your project could receive via information exchange.
Either way, NDA is not a magical seal, if it is breached, you need to start a lawsuit.
Your case study is junk, and shows a flawed understanding of game dev in general.
First off in order to be worth his time breaking the NDA, Josh has to profit from the breach. Where there is profit there will be a money trail. And the more the secrets are worth, the more obvious the trail becomes.
Next ideas on there own don’t make a WOW killer. It’s unlikely to go anywhere without sharing specific models, scripts, or GDDs. These things can be traced.
It’s also not likely that Bob in the collaboration forum actually has anything worth protecting under NDA. If it really is a WOW killer it’s going to need much more money and resources. And as pointed out, no reputable company is going to break an NDA.
It’s also worth noting that NDAs also often protect specific comercial data. Payment amounts, release dates, content spoilers. This sort of stuff can typically be traced to individual leaks.
For most people, most of the time, keeping NDAs is more profitable then breaking them. If you want future work, you keep NDAs.
Basically the trail starts at whoever did profit from it. These guys get the lawsuit and panic. They then point to the other guy, who points to the original guy who matches the guy who signed the NDA. Then the fun starts.
One thing about NDAs is that they frequently are not that concerned about competition. It’s more often than not about preventing people from talking to journalists about the product or company. The fear is often that a disgruntled employee goes off to defame the company.
It was a mistake calling it a “case study” from the very beginning. It is not a case study. It’s an example I made up to highlight the potential problem of signing NDA online.
From what I read so far, nobody wants to screw with breaking NDAs. That’s a relief.
While I understand the awesomeness of NDA, there are few drawbacks.
Getting your MMORPG idea stolen is same as if you got frauded through an online purchase. You can get frauded by thousands of dollars and finding the seller won’t be a piece of cake if he’s from another country. Such principle applies to NDA as well.
To take someone to court, you must find him first.
Ideas belong to no one. What is yours is execution of the idea. If someone “steals” your idea, they’ll create completely different game compared to what you had in mind.
Idea: “A game about shooting robots”.
Execution: An answer to the question “What do the robots look like?”.
If their game is sold on the market, they can be found. If it is not on the market, they’re not a threat.
In order to sell anything, you have to submit data that makes you traceable. Money will lead to the bank account and bank account will lead to the person.
…and the guy will just reply “I made this idea” and you’re gonna have a hard time coming up with evidence that it’s indeed the very idea he stole from you, considering it hasn’t been altered.
Different countries approach laws differently. China is flooded with Clash Royale copies (not even clones, but copies!) and nobody can do anything about it. And it’s not just games - it’s fake iPhones, Rolex watches etc.
The new thing is to create a website telling all the ideas of your game, do a kickstarter and begin selling ingame items before you even open the game engine.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, the skill and devotion to make a game is what counts.
