Avoiding DMCA Woes As an Indy Game Developer?

androidstevep writes "I was just on the receiving end of DMCA takedown notice for my game in Android Market, 'Super Pac.' Namco Bandai have filed the notice with Google, claiming breach of copyright of their game 'Pac-Man.' Although my version is obviously inspired by the original arcade game, no original artwork or sound has been copied. The problem from my point of view is that the DMCA notice is not clear where or why the breach is alleged. My guess is that maybe the name is too similar, although I did a trademark search for 'Super Pac' before release and came up with nothing. Furthermore, Google have disabled my access to this app, presumably as required by the DMCA, so I am unable to even make whatever modifications would be required. As a part-time developer with limited means (i.e. can't afford expensive lawyers), but willing to make best efforts to avoid legal issues, how does one negotiate what seems to be a difficult minefield of trademarks, copyrights and DMCA? Does anyone have tips in this area?"

Comments

Re:Nothing personal

[goblin777]

Um, you also "designed" a game called "Super Froggy" that strangly looks just like Frogger. Just suck it up and admit you're totally ripping off Pac-Man, and realize the fact that some companies get a little upset when you try and profit off of their games with inferior products. (Inferior is not just a stab. At least 2 people in your game comments complained that Super-Pac freezes after Level 3. That's either bad code, or the lamest kill screen ever. That last part WAS a stab.)

Re:trademark not copyright

[dgatwood]

It's a fine line. Two people draw a picture of the Grand Canyon. One starts by taking a famous photograph and painting it. The other goes to where that photo was taken. At what point is copyright violated? Is knowing that the picture was taken from that point a violation of copyright? Probably not. Is painting the actual photo? Probably. A person paints a picture of Mickey Mouse based collectively on hundreds of images of Mickey Mouse and does so in a style that differs substantively from the original. Is that a copyright violation? It starts to get pretty fuzzy. (It's definitely a trademark violation, though.) Is copying the look of something as trivial as Pac-Man characters a violation? Maybe.

Now given that something a simple as a Pac-Man character would almost inherently look fairly similar to the original, that does raise the question of whether the original work contains sufficient originality to be protectable by copyright in the first place. I don't have an opinion on that, but I wouldn't want to be the one trying to use that as my defense. My guess is that the work is protectable by copyright and that this derivative work is not of a sufficiently transformative nature and looks way too similar to the original, and as such represents an infringing unauthorized derivative work. That said, IANAL, and the original poster should really contact someone who is instead of posting on Slashdot.

Re:Try having an original idea

[TheoMurpse]

Copyrights don't cover the characters. Fan fiction is perfectly legal, for example.

Absolutely, 100% wrong on both counts.

Regarding the copyright of characters themselves, see numerous opinions, including Warner Bros. v. Am. Broadcasting Cos., 720 F.2d 231 (2d Cir. 1983).

Plaintiffs own the copyrights in various works embodying the character Superman and have thereby acquired copyright protection for the character itself.

Accordingly, fan fiction often does infringe copyrights. However, no one sues them because it's just a dumb business move. You're not going to make any money off shallow-pocketed fifteen-year olds, you're not going to stop all of them, you're not going to scare them into stopping since they don't believe it's against the law, it's a tougher case to win than "here's proof she downloaded my song, therefore she infringed" and necessarily will cost more in legal fees to stop, and it's harmful to the fanbase to try and stop them.

Re:Knee-jerking != making an informed argument

[mwvdlee]

One look at the screenshots shows it's clearly copied.
He may not have ripped the original ROM files or even created pixel perfect duplicates, but it's quite obvious the graphics were intended to look identical to the arcade's.
You may remember that copyright law predates the age of perfect digital copies. Hand-made copies violate copyright laws just as well.