Tetris Clones Pulled From Android Market

sbrubblesman writes "The Tetris Company, LLC has notified Google to remove all Tetris clones from Android Market. I am one of the developers of FallingBlocks, a game with the same gameplay concepts as Tetris. I have received an email warning that my game was suspended from Android Market due to a violation of the Developer Content Policy. When I received the email, I already imagined that it had something to do with it being a Tetris clone, but besides having the same gameplay as Tetris, which I believe cannot be copyrighted, the game uses its own name, graphics and sounds. There's no reference to 'Tetris' in our game. I have emailed Google asking what is the reason for the application removal. Google promptly answered that The Tetris Company, LLC notified them under the DMCA (PDF) to remove various Tetris clones from Android Market. My app was removed together with 35 other Tetris clones. I checked online at various sources, and all of them say that there's no copyright on gameplay. There could be some sort of patent. But even if they had one, it would last 20 years, so it would have been over in 2005. It's a shame that The Tetris Company, LLC uses its power to stop developers from creating good and free games for Android users. Without resources for a legal fight, our application and many others will cease to exist, even knowing that they are legit. Users will be forced to buy the paid, official version, which is worse than many of the ones available for free on the market. Users from other countries, such as Brazil in my case, won't even be able to play the official Tetris, since Google Checkout doesn't exist in Brazil; you can't buy paid applications from Android Market in these countries."

Comments

I wonder if you made a Pac-Man clone instead?

[seanvaandering]

I wonder if you made a Pac-Man clone what Google might think of that?

How about replying?

[Issarlk]

Doen't the DMCA allow you to just send a "No I don't infringue on the copyright" back to Google and have your app not taken down?

Re:How about replying?

[Fnkmaster]

Yes, essentially. The procedure for content at another Google division is explained here. A similar procedure should apply.

In this case, the complaint seems to be primarily a trademark complaint which is probably easily addressed (you can say "Compare to Tetris(R)!" in a game description but you can't call your game "FreeTetris"). And a secondary, very vague claim that because the games are "similar" to the company's game that they use copyrighted material of the company. I don't know whether case law supports that or not, but according to what I've read in a quick Googling it probably doesn't.

According to Wikipedia, this is standard operating procedure for The Tetris Company and they've done the same with Apple's App Store. Not clear that The Tetris Company has ever won a lawsuit on these copyright grounds, but use it to beat small developers up.

Additionally, they pressured a company Biosocia last year via lawsuit to take down their Blockles game. See the statement on the outcome of that (it was settled, not litigated to conclusion - sounds like Biosocia got tired of spending money to fight the lawsuit and just agreed to take the damned game down while stating that they thought that Tetris Company was full of shit).

Re:How about replying?

[erroneus]

WRONG!!!!

That is not how the DMCA works. The DMCA was partly designed to enable a rights holder to get content removed from the internet at a pace faster than the courts system can provide. The process is "complain to the host. host notifies the client. host removes content. client counter-claims. host restores content." Now the issue is between the client and the rights holder and the host has done his due diligence to avoid being sued directly.

Re:How about replying?

[ICLKennyG]

This is one of the biggest problem with the DMCA. You have given all the power to the big conglomerates without making them risk anything in return. They just indiscriminately fire C&D letters like shotgun blasts and use them to anti-competitive effect. The only thing Tetris has is their trademark claim and a prevention on decompiling/copying their code or graphics in an exact manner. Feist We need a broader application of Assessment Technologies.

I'd be less critical of the DMCA if they had a penalty, $10,000 plus costs, for reckless or malicious take-down notices. You wouldn't get companies sending 25,000+ a day for 2 seconds of their content used in a fair use manner. This is what scares me so much about the MPEG 7.

Could be worse..

[draxil]

Of course with Android you always have the option of getting software from sources other than the main sanctioned market. Unlike a certain other smartphone OS I could mention.

Re:Instead of whining educate yourself

[Halo1]

You believe that gameplay can't be copyrighted. You cherry picked some unnamed and unknown sites that support your believe about gameplay and copyright.

One web search shows as the first hit a nice page from the US Copyright Office that demonstrates he's right. And that's not specific to the US (left as a web search exercise to the reader).

Re:Oh noes,

[MrNaz]

I guess you're typing this on your original IBM branded PC, right?

(To everyone else: I hope to God he's not using a Mac, coz if he is, my flippant remark will be blown out of the water and then buried under a veritable Mt Everest of smug)

Re:Put it back up

[MrNaz]

Will the rest of your body be joining your head on its expedition?

Instead of Whining, Create Something Original

[RobotRunAmok]

I'm always amused by how the same geek crowd that will rip a film-maker or author to shreds over re-hashing some common plot device will support to the death a software developer demonstrating the same lack of unoriginality.

"Falling Blocks!" The guy made a Tetris clone and called it "Falling Blocks!"

Where's the pride?

Re:Instead of Whining, Create Something Original

[loshwomp]

I'm always amused by how the same geek crowd that will rip a film-maker or author to shreds over re-hashing some common plot device will support to the death a software developer demonstrating the same lack of unoriginality.

Citation, please. I've seen nothing to indicate that this is the same geek.

And anyway, no one shuts down the big movie company when they make a re-hash movie.

Re:Instead of Whining, Create Something Original

[delinear]

Complaining about someone's lack of originality while supporting their right to be unoriginal aren't mutually exclusive.

Re:Instead of whining educate yourself

[TeXMaster]

You believe that gameplay can't be copyrighted. You cherry picked some unnamed and unknown sites that support your believe about gameplay and copyright.

Gameplay cannot be copyrighted. There are solid cases in international copyright case history to support this claim, the first that comes to my mind is the one involving Scrabble and the Italian variant Scarabeo. Mattel went after EG, and lost the case because the game mechanics were not protectable under any form (copyright, trademark, patent).

17 USC 512(g)

[tepples]

however, the DMCA does not FORCE them to put it back up when you file a counter. They can choose not to put it back up

If the service provider doesn't put it back up within 14 business days after its designated agent receives the counter-notice from the subscriber, its immunity under 17 USC 512(g)(1) expires, and the subscriber can sue the service provider.

and since there is so little to gain by putting it back up.. no attorney would ever recommend that they do so.

Where do you draw that conclusion? From the statute, 512(g)(4): "A service provider's compliance with [the counter-notification procedure] shall not subject the service provider to liability for copyright infringement with respect to the material identified in the [original takedown] notice."

Re:Falling Blocks is still available

[sbrubblesman]

Somebody made another game called "Falling Blocks". Search for the one made by "MobPlug". You wont find it.

Re:Old news?

[TheCRAIGGERS]

Do you work for The Tetris Company?

This is horrible advice and underlines everything (ok, maybe not everything) that is wrong with the DMCA. The company is being an unlawful bully and bowing to their pressure is not going to help anything.

BitBlocks

[amoeba1911]

Hey, I'm on the same boat. I also made a really awesome game of falling 4th order polyominoes (tetris style game) called BitBlocks. It was wildly successful, had much better ratings than even the official Tetris game by EA. My game was on the Android Market for 3 months, and became one of the top 5 games for the Android. On March 9th it got removed from the Android Market.

Your options are limited. You can't fight The Tetris Company because you can't afford the lawyer expenses. If you did have the money to fight The Tetris Company, you would surely win in court, but the court victory would be a loss for The Tetris Company as well as you because it would mean The Tetris Company no longer has any authority to stop people from making falling block games and there would be a flood of falling block games on the market, perhaps some even better than your game. (See Lotus vs Borland, in the end Borland won, but Lotus and Borland both lost when Microsoft came out with Excel)

What The Tetris Company is doing is anti-competitive. Under The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, monopolizing a trade using anti-competitive practices is a felony punishable by up to $10,000,000 fine and three year jail sentence. According to DOJ web site:

The Sherman Act also makes it a crime to monopolize any part of interstate commerce. An unlawful monopoly exists when only one firm controls the market for a product or service, and it has obtained that market power, not because its product or service is superior to others, but by suppressing competition with anticompetitive conduct.

(http://www.justice.gov/atr/laws.htm) -- that paragraph entirely describes what The Tetris Company is doing with falling block games.

I don't know if the DOJ will care or even lift a finger, but it's worth a try and if people on slashdot can create a big enough wave perhaps they will be swayed to investigate The Tetris Company. You can report antitrust concern here: http://www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.htm

So I urge all slashdotters to file a complaint with the Department of Justice. Show you care about tetris, file a complaint against The Tetris Company! It's time we put an end to their monopoly.

Re:shame

[commodore64_love]

Under DMCA all you need to do is submit a Document declaring your work does not infringe anything, and the item MUST be put back up

- If Google refuses, then you can sue them for breaking the law (the DMCA)

- If they put it back up, then everything should be good. The only thing you need to fear is being sued, directly, by the Tetris Company.