Wing Tang Wong

So.. What Am I Signing Away Today?

That is something I wonder about, each time I sign an NDA agreement, hiring contract, purchase order, package receipt, or sales receipt. Just... what am I signing up for... and what rights am I signing away?

Like many folks, I typically will give something a good long read and try my best to make heads or tails of it. And, like most folks, I will derive a very simplistic understanding of the written agreement and go with it. Seriously, does anyone REALLY read and parse every line of their electronics store agreements? Do you? Really?

A Good Place To Go For Legal Reading...

I was pondering this when I was informed of a rather nice site, which combined law, which I have a secret interest in, and the entertainment and game development world. If you are an independent game developer, it is definitely worth a read. Check the site out at:

Legal Play : http://legalplay.typepad.com/

What I find is that the posts are well informed, fairly lengthy(which is good, in my book!), and written from the viewpoint of someone who really does know what they are talking about.

Of particular interest is the War Hammer NDA blog posting. Quite a good read. I strongly suggest you swing by and check them out.

What's It All About?

The War Hammer NDA posting talks about the role of NDA (non-disclosure agreements) in the environment of beta testers for games. In this case, what happens when testers have bad reviews, but the new testers for the new version of the game can't say word one about the new game... MMmmm... nothing like an uninterrupted stream of bad reviews/commentary and any possible good commentary being kept silent. Seriously, it's a good article and quite enlightening about how NDA(s) can be used to the disadvantage of the company requiring them.