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US District Court: Game Elements In Tetris Clone Infringe Tetris Co.'s Copyright
elegie writes "In the US, a District Court has ruled that the Tetris clone "Mino" infringes the Tetris Company's copyrights with regard to elements of the Tetris game design and gameplay. On one hand, a lawyer said that 'a puzzle game where a user manipulates blocks to form lines which disappear' would be noninfringing. At the same time, the Mino game's reuse of such Tetris elements as the dimensions of the playing field and the shape of the blocks constituted infringement. In addition, the Tetris game's artistic elements were not inseparably linked to the underlying mechanics and replicating an underlying idea and/or functionality (which would likely be uncopyrighted) would not justify copying visual expression from an existing game."
I'm glad we can make a non-infringing block game, now we just need to figure out how to get those blocks to not infringe.
You say it like copyright was supposed to expire one day...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
If anyone is infringed here, it's basic geometry.
It's The Tetris Company. Don't give them ideas.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
[quote] You see, Tetris is a very simple game, there's no hidden levels of depth to it. It's blocks falling and you arrange them to make lines that disappear.[/quote]
Sir, I pray for your soul that no serious Tetris fanatics get a hold of this comment. You do not fathom the degrees and tournament rules they have developed over what is or isn't allowed. Dare I even mention the black market, and underground games? The unlicensed, hard core stacking where two people enter, one person leaves?
I would recommend that you start packing your bags now and moving to a third world country. I fear they may already be planning for you to wake up with the head of a T block in your bed tomorrow.
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
... not all choices are expressive, merely consequential to the idea, and...
This would have been better said as "... not all choices are expressive, some are consequential to the idea, and.."
I love these, the Idiot Pedant. lolol
All you did is remove information, remove the lessening word, and repeat the rest of the claims. So you changed the proportional meaning of the different parts. How is that "better said?" In order for such a change in meaning to be "better said," you would have to have a full understanding of the precise intent of the author. That is impossible from such a small passage.
Does it make you feel better about living in your mom's basement to show yourself having poor reading comprehention whilst simultaniously claiming to be unable to tell the difference in context between slashdot and an English class? Or the difference between yourself and an English teacher...