![]() If you define the rules very broadly, then the original designer can use copyright to protect every version of the game. The judge’s job in this case boiled down to drawing a line between the core rules of Tetris and whatever additional artistic flourish the makers of Tetris brought to the game.ĭrawing this line is never an easy task. In fact, Mino’s developers’ first step in making the game was to study up on intellectual property law to get a sense of what parts of Tetris were protected by copyright and which parts were not. It was undisputed that Mino was a clone of Tetris. ![]() In practice things can get a bit more complicated.Ī recent court decision finding that a Tetris clone called Mino infringed on Tetris’s copyright illustrates how hard this can be. A specific expression of a game – basically anything not dictated by the rules – is going to be protected by copyright. The rules of a game – which can be thought of as the “idea” of the game – are not protectable by copyright. ![]() In theory, trying to figure out what parts of games are protected by copyright is a straightforward affair. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |