Tech CEO Riaz Moola, fresh off his legal victory preventing a Disco Elysium writer from creating his own game, announced yesterday the launch of his newest venture: "Creative Inspiration Certificates," available to game developers for the modest sum of $500.
"We're democratizing the creative process," Moola explained during a Zoom press conference from an office adorned with framed injunctions. "For centuries, people have labored under the misapprehension that they could simply have ideas without proper authorization."
The certificates, printed on premium legal-threat-resistant cardstock, come with a 46-page document defining what constitutes a "substantially dissimilar creative work," with the phrase "as determined solely by Riaz Moola" appearing 78 times. Each certificate includes the tagline: "Officially permitted to create—contingent upon quarterly concept review."
"Our Early Bird Creative Special offers the first 100 developers who surrender their original concepts a 10% discount," Moola added while adjusting his "Litigation Enthusiast of the Year" trophy.
Industry response has been cautious. One developer, who requested anonymity, purchased twelve certificates after "accidentally thinking about a dialog tree."
"It's a small price for peace of mind," he whispered. "Last week, I dreamed about a character with existential dread, and a cease-and-desist letter arrived before I woke up."
The certificates are part of Moola's expanding "Creativity Compliance" ecosystem, which now includes an AI system that automatically generates cease-and-desist letters when it detects "narrative similarities" to concepts Moola "might eventually consider developing."
For particularly anxious developers, Moola offers "Creative Infringement Insurance" at $999 monthly, providing "up to $2,000 in legal defense coverage" against his own legal team, which bills at $20,000 per hour.
When asked if selling permission to create constituted a conflict of interest for someone actively suing creators, Moola reportedly muted the call to consult with legal counsel before responding.
"That question infringes on our proprietary question-answering format," he said, "but we're willing to settle out of court."
