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NAMCO Takes Down Student Pac-man Project

Posted by Soulskill on from the chasing-ghosts dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The core of how people first learn to do stuff — programming, music, writing, etc. — is to imitate others. It's one of the best ways to learn. Apparently a bunch of students using MIT's educational Scratch programming language understand this. But not everyone else does. NAMCO Bandai sent a takedown notice to MIT because some kids had recreated Pac-man with Scratch. The NAMCO letter is pretty condescending as well, noting that it understands the educational purpose of Scratch, but 'part of their education should include concern for the intellectual property of others.'"

4 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Play for free? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look at the source of the page:

    "PAC-MAN's 30th Birthday! Doodle with PAC-MAN & ©1980 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc."

    Perhaps Google actually worked with NAMCO?

  2. More information! by acomj · · Score: 5, Informative

    This page is a detailed history of Pac Man, including history and information on the different ghosts move algorithms and speed changes... I find it interesting... Read it while you can, its hosted on comcast.....

    http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

  3. Re:No, they don't make a good point. by mark-t · · Score: 3, Informative

    "if there's an actual paper trail proving that you _knew_ about the copyright infringement, you HAVE to take some legal action to enforce it - otherwise, your copyright can be overturned."

    AFAIK, what you're describing happens only with trademarks, not copyrights, so I think you may be confusing the two. At most, people that the copyright holder does not take rightful action against might be construed as having been given implicit permission to copy the work, but that should not remotely affect future cases against other people.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. Re:Play for free? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google did exactly that : http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20005528-52.html

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.