Your sprite sheet shows up in someone else's game
An indie developer finds her own artwork in another game and has no dated record to show.
You draw pixel art at night. You made a full sprite sheet for your platformer. Six months later the same frames appear in another game on a store page. The other developer says he made them first. You have the files, but the dates on your laptop prove little. Anyone can change a file date.
Modders face the same problem from a different side. A studio asks a modder to show which parts of the mod are his own work. He has a folder with code, models and music, but no record of when each file existed. This post shows what Swiss law says about such files, and how a dated seal can help.
Game assets are works under Swiss law
Code, art, music and video made for a game are protected works when they have individual character.
The Swiss Copyright Act says in Art. 2(1): "Works are literary and artistic intellectual creations with individual character, irrespective of their value or purpose." Art. 2(3) adds: "Computer programs are also works." So your game code and your mod scripts count.
The same Act lists the other things you make. Art. 2(2)(c) covers works of art, so your sprites and 3D models fit here. Art. 2(2)(b) covers musical and other acoustic works, so your soundtrack and sound effects fit. Art. 2(2)(g) covers photographic, cinematographic and other visual or audio-visual works, so cutscenes and trailers fit. Art. 2(4) protects drafts and parts of works too, if they are intellectual creations with individual character. A single character design can be a work on its own.
A mod is a derivative work
A mod built on someone else's game can be protected on its own, but the game's rights stay in place.
A mod changes or adds to a game that someone else made. The Swiss Copyright Act has a term for this. Art. 3(1) says: "Derivative works are intellectual creations with individual character that are based upon pre-existing works, whereby the individual character of the latter remains identifiable." Art. 3(3) adds: "Derivative works are protected as works in their own right."
But Art. 3(4) matters just as much: "The protection of the works used in the derivative work remains reserved." The studio keeps its rights in the game. Whether you may make, share or sell a mod depends on the game's own licence terms. This post does not read any game licence, so check the game's own terms before you publish. We wrote more on this in our post on translations, adaptations and derivative works.
You own it from the moment you make it
Copyright starts when the work is created, with no form to file and no office to visit.
Art. 6 of the Swiss Copyright Act says: "The author is the natural person who has created the work." The person who drew the sprite is the author. Art. 29(1) says: "A work is protected by copyright as soon as it is created, irrespective of whether it has been fixed on a physical medium."
The Berne Convention says the same for its 182 member countries. Art. 5(2) states: "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality". Nobody has to register anything. The hard part is showing, later, what you had and when you had it.
Seal the asset folder with every build
Upload the asset folder on Swiss Trust Layer, seal it, and add a new version at each milestone.
On Swiss Trust Layer you upload your files into a folder. The folder can hold sprites, models, music, code and the mod files together. When you seal it, the platform computes a fingerprint of each file and of the whole sealed package. Only the fingerprint goes to Swisscom Trust Services, the qualified trust service provider. Swisscom signs it and adds a timestamp under RFC 3161. Any change to a file, even one pixel, gives a different fingerprint.
Games grow in builds. Make this part of your routine: one version per build. Every folder has a Version History and a button to add a new version. Each version keeps its own seal. After a year you hold a dated chain. It shows the sprite sheet in build 3, the new boss model in build 7, and the music in build 9. The sealed package stays on your chosen storage, such as Azure or an external store like Google Drive. The raw upload is deleted after sealing.
What the certificate shows, and how to share it
Each version gets a signed PDF listing every file, and a publisher can download it as a Legal User.
Every sealed version gets a certificate of proof, a signed PDF. The first row is the folder itself, with its version number and the version fingerprint. Then it lists every file by name with its own fingerprint. It names the person or organisation it was sealed for. You can verify your identity with a passport or ID chip scan before sealing. The certificate then shows your surname, name, date of birth, country and a masked passport number. It can also carry an ISCC content code per file, under ISO 24138. Files whose format cannot be fingerprinted are still sealed, timestamped and hashed; only the ISCC code is missing.
The certificate carries a QR code to a public verification page that needs no login. Anyone can also drop the signed PDF into the public validator. It reports who signed, when, with which certificate, and whether the content changed since signing. When a publisher or studio asks who made what, share the folder with them as a Legal User. Legal users can only download documents. They cannot change your files or seal a new version.
What a seal does not prove
A seal shows the files existed on that date unchanged, not who drew them or that the mod was allowed.
A seal proves this exact file existed at that moment and has not changed since. It does not prove who created the content. It does not prove the content is true, or that the sealer holds the rights. It does not prove the game's terms allow your mod. And it does not create copyright. Copyright arises with creation, as Art. 29(1) of the Swiss Copyright Act and Art. 5(2) of the Berne Convention say. What a seal gives you is a dated record that is hard to argue with.
Upload the asset folder of your current build on Swiss Trust Layer today, seal it, and add a new version at your next milestone.
