Quote

Originally posted by Pilky:
You are not paying for the software but infact for the shipping of a CD.

Wake up! You're dreaming. A lawyer would shred that ploy to pieces. How will you be able to monitor your site from behind bars, or were you planning to pay fines out of the money you collect for shipping CDs without a license to do international business?

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/damsels.sit?path=pog/addons&file;=damselsV1.1.sit")Damsels in Distress(/url) - A plugin for PoG.

The reason I haven't gotten into this much detail before is because I know full well that I'm writing something that some people don't want to hear. And some people tend to insist on not hearing. If it's donations you're wanting, then you'll still have to register your company, but as a non-profit organization, which is far more difficult to do and I doubt that any official would buy it. (Pardon the pun!) You try to get money from people and call yourself a non-profit company without registering, you're far more likely to end up in prison.

A friend is someone you go out to dinner with and talk to on the phone. There are no friends on the internet who will pay you in order to have your game, whether it's just payment for shipping it or not. They are customers or clients.

I have experienced people who have tried to prey on me, but my Terms and Conditions for my web design business has protected me. Bad people ARE out there. Please be careful.

Meanwhile, it's your game. If you want to give it away, then go for it! But that means that you'll need to also pay for the shipping yourself. Giving your game away for a while as a promotion or giving your first game away is not a bad internet business stategy. But don't expect it to be free for you. Still, even if you give your game away, like people can download it, and your game has bugs, you can be sure you'll hear about it. And you'll need to deal with that then.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
**Wake up! You're dreaming. A lawyer would shred that ploy to pieces. How will you be able to monitor your site from behind bars, or were you planning to pay fines out of the money you collect for shipping CDs without a license to do international business?

**

RD, calm down. I believe the point has been touched on. I know that you are trying to prove a point, but don't be distasteful on the boards. It just makes matters worse. I would know.

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-The ZeroWarrior

Quote

Originally posted by zerowarrior150:
RD, calm down.

I'm sorry. I do apologize, but he was being so insistant that he wasn't actually selling anything. I will let the matter drop. I really don't care what happens. ~RD

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/damsels.sit?path=pog/addons&file;=damselsV1.1.sit")Damsels in Distress(/url) - A plugin for PoG.

What about the "d.b.a." (doing business as) option for an alias? I don't know the legalities behind setting one up, but according to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Ambrosia+General+FAQs&number;=27&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=")Ambrosia FAQ(/url) "Ambrosia" was Andrew Welch's d.b.a. for years before he actually formed a corporation by that name. Anyone know more about this?

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'You can either be on the stage, just a performer, just going through the lines...or you can be outside it, and know how the script works, where the scenery hangs, and where the trapdoors are. Isn't that better?'
-- T. Pratchett

Would I have to register for a business now if I weren't to sell anything until a year or so (when my game is finished)?

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"And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling police men."
-The Ghost of Human Kindness
"Your lymph nodes must be as big as CATS!"
-Captain Hank Murphy

Quote

Originally posted by Brqgn:
**Would I have to register for a business now if I weren't to sell anything until a year or so (when my game is finished)?
**

Nope. You can have the name up without selling anything. Good for screenshots, story line, etc. until you're ready.

Quote

What about the "d.b.a." (doing business as) option for an alias? I don't know the legalities behind setting one up, but according to the Ambrosia FAQ "Ambrosia" was Andrew Welch's d.b.a. for years before he actually formed a corporation by that name. Anyone know more about this?

You'd have to ask Andrew about this, of course. But these two questions seem to me to be the same. Has the same answer anyway. You can do this legally. The only thing I believe that you'd need to look into is trademarks. Can't use the same name as someone else, not even as an alias.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Glenn:
What about the "d.b.a." (doing business as) option for an alias? I don't know the legalities behind setting one up, but according to the Ambrosia FAQ "Ambrosia" was Andrew Welch's d.b.a. for years before he actually formed a corporation by that name. Anyone know more about this?

It is still a business. There are many types of businesses: C corp, S corp, etc. I expect that Andrew simply was a sole proprietor for the first few years while trying to make a go of things, and once the business took off he felt it would be better to incorporate and receive the additional protections of doing so.

But as you pointed out, dba simply means "doing business as." You still need to be a legal business.

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I asked this question on another board and they said that it was perfectly fine to do what I am thinking.
They said it is perfectly fine to sell things without being a company so long as I don't try to pass myself of as a company by using inc. or corp.
Someone also said that in the states you have to set up a company if you have a payroll or huge income.
about Ł2 to cover a 40p CD and shipping to somewhere would not be illegal. That is what I am trying to say. I am not trying to sell things as a company but as a person. Someone who sells stuff on eBay does not have to be a company in order to sell do they. How many people register a company to sell at a car-boot sale?
If I was trying to make big money and pose as a company I could understand your agument but I am only asking for money to put something on a CD and ship it to someone.

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Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubed.cjb.net")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~pilky/coldstonecentre/home.html")Coldstone Resource Centre(/url)
Cheesiest film line of all time "Flash I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the earth" from Flash Gorden

Quote

Originally posted by Pilky:
~snip~

When in doubt, contact an attorney. Tax collectors usually do not take, "I heard it was legal on the internet" as a valid excuse.

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Quote

Originally posted by Debra:
Nope. You can have the name up without selling anything. Good for screenshots, story line, etc. until you're ready.

Thanks, Debra. How about if I put up freeware and stuff for a while. Will I have to register, or not until I decide to sell things?

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"And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling police men."
-The Ghost of Human Kindness
"Your lymph nodes must be as big as CATS!"
-Captain Hank Murphy

Quote

Originally posted by Brqgn:
Thanks, Debra. How about if I put up freeware and stuff for a while. Will I have to register, or not until I decide to sell things?

Businesses sell things. If you aren't selling anything then you don't need to be a business.

If you are providing a good or service for sale then you had best create a company to do business under.

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Quote

Originally posted by Brqgn:
Thanks, Debra. How about if I put up freeware and stuff for a while. Will I have to register, or not until I decide to sell things?

You can put up freeware and stuff until you decide to sell things. I suggest that you make it clear that you're an individual who wants to give stuff away and that you're a young entrepreneur who is learning the internet business. I also strongly suggest that you communicate what you're doing with your parents, as they are ultimately liable at the moment. It IS something to be proud of, after all! Best wishes to you.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

(This message has been edited by Debra (edited 09-17-2003).)

I'm confused. When you get hurt and go to the doctor, you go to, for example, Dr. William Brown. You don't go to The Dr. William Brown Company. Yet, he is selling something. In this case, it is medical care. I always have to pay at the window on the way out. Why doesn't he have to have a company name?

If someone named John Smith has a personal web page which talks about his family and hobbies then somewhere on that page he says he made a game and it can be bought and downloaded, does he need a business name for that section of the screen?

I always thought that someone could be self-employed and operate under their own name such as a doctor, lawyer or CPA.

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Insert profound thought
or clever witticism here

Quote

Originally posted by Codewizard:
I'm confused. When you get hurt and go to the doctor, you go to, for example, Dr. William Brown. You don't go to The Dr. William Brown Company. Yet, he is selling something. In this case, it is medical care. I always have to pay at the window on the way out. Why doesn't he have to have a company name?

Why don't you ask your own doctor if he had to register his medical business?

Quote

If someone named John Smith has a personal web page which talks about his family and hobbies then somewhere on that page he says he made a game and it can be bought and downloaded, does he need a business name for that section of the screen?

He has to have a license to sell something. He can use his own name as his business or choose another. To get a license, you have to register as a business.

Quote

I always thought that someone could be self-employed and operate under their own name such as a doctor, lawyer or CPA.

Yeeeesssss. Self-employed means owning your own business. You can register your own business as your own name. But to be a business you have to register.

There are people who don't register as a business, grown men even. I have a friend who does construction work and he says that he doesn't pay taxes on what he does because it's just odd jobs. If EVER the IRS finds out, he's in serious trouble. I have no intention on blowing the whistle on him. But know that odd jobs around the community is one thing and selling on the internet is another. (Even though my friend IS doing something illegal.) We're all engaged in something far more public and, consequently, need to be far more careful.

To ALL --

Between the two threads, I've tried to make it as clear as possible about how to go about selling your own game legally. I've told you how to go about doing it. Whether or not you choose to do it is up to you. But I hope you choose to do things legally. And unless there's a question that I haven't already answered, I don't plan to write further on the topic. My patience wanes. Sorry.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

To ALL --

Between the two threads, I've tried to make it as clear as possible about how to go about selling your own game legally. I've told you how to go about doing it. Whether or not you choose to do it is up to you. But I hope you choose to do things legally. And unless there's a question that I haven't already answered, I don't plan to write further on the topic. My patience wanes. Sorry.

(/B)(/QUOTE)

Really. It's getting useless now. Debra has made it clear (infact the first post mentioned by her was the most helpful, and now the information, questions and answers are becoming extremely redundant. You helped me out by the first post, and I believe that was all that were needed. You don't need to post anymore Debra, I got the picture. I know what I got to do if I need to sell stuff. I don't think others have gotten it yet, or just don't understand.

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-The ZeroWarrior

Quote

Originally posted by Codewizard:
I'm confused. When you get hurt and go to the doctor, you go to, for example, Dr. William Brown. You don't go to The Dr. William Brown Company. Yet, he is selling something. In this case, it is medical care. I always have to pay at the window on the way out. Why doesn't he have to have a company name?

Doctor offices are many times called "practices" which is just a fancy name for a medical business.

Your doctor has his own company. If he didn't then he couldn't purchase essential things such as medical malpractice insurance.

As Debra stated, it is most likely that he licensed his business under his own name which is quite legal.

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