Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
Does EA own the copyright for Tetris, or did they license it? I'd think that the copyright holder would have to be one to file any complaints?!
 

hawk1226

macrumors member
Jan 8, 2008
55
0
Does EA own the copyright for Tetris, or did they license it? I'd think that the copyright holder would have to be one to file any complaints?!
I'm not expert, but because of the relationship that apple has with EA...EA wants the app down and apple is willing to comply.
 

Niiro13

macrumors 68000
Feb 12, 2008
1,719
0
Illinois
Does EA own the copyright for Tetris, or did they license it? I'd think that the copyright holder would have to be one to file any complaints?!

A game can't be copyrighted, only patented...

But EA does have a license, since they bought one of the variants that was originally founded alongside the tetris company.

I'm not expert, but because of the relationship that apple has with EA...EA wants the app down and apple is willing to comply.

And The Tetris Company decides, not EA :/. Since the Tetris company has the trademark and patent.
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
@Small White Car

Still. It's stealing sales of the EA tetris app. So they would probably be pissed either way.

It doesn't matter if they're pissed.

It only matters if they have the right to force him to take it down. This guy seemed to think so. The guy who made Quinn did not seem to think so.

Why the difference? That's my question.
 

Rojo

macrumors 65816
Sep 26, 2006
1,328
241
Barcelona
It doesn't matter if they're pissed.

It only matters if they have the right to force him to take it down. This guy seemed to think so. The guy who made Quinn did not seem to think so.

Why the difference? That's my question.

There may be no difference, other than the Tris guy is playing it safe...?
 

ogdogg

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2008
487
0
Arizona
Tris needs a button to drop the piece all the way down. Having any decent long experience with the game is impossible until this update is put in place.
 

jcde7ago

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2008
478
0
San Francisco, CA
There may be no difference, other than the Tris guy is playing it safe...?

If you read the Gizmodo article, the Tris developer simply doesn't have the resources to go to court and battle should The Tetris Company decide it wants to settle things that way.

Seriously though, i saw this coming the day Tris became one of the top apps...this reminds me EXACTLY of the Scrabulous debacle (for those of you in the Facebook know).

For those that don't know, Scrabulous was basically a re-branded Scrabble game, but gained a huge amount of popularity (literally hundreds of thousands were playing it). At first, Hasbro, the owner of the original Scrabble, didn't do much, but once Scrabulous became increasingly popular and once EA's official Hasbro-backed version of Scrabble (which sucked and never gained any popularity) was set to launch on Facebook, they hit Scrabulous + Facebook with pretty much a C&D order, much like how The Tetris Company is doing the same by taking it up to Apple + the Tris developer. It's all about money, folks....this isn't really so much about copyright infringements but about the fact that Tris stands as one of the top free apps and has taken away sales from the official Tetris app. Oh well, what can you do other than grab it while you can....:(
 

marksman

macrumors 603
Jun 4, 2007
5,764
5
The author is an idiot if he does not think he is clearly violating their copyright.

He knows he is and is being a smart aleck about it.

I don't care if he had 1 billion dollars he would not win.
 

Rojo

macrumors 65816
Sep 26, 2006
1,328
241
Barcelona
Tris needs a button to drop the piece all the way down. Having any decent long experience with the game is impossible until this update is put in place.

Uh...don't think you're going to get an update now. (At least not through the app store).
 

jcde7ago

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2008
478
0
San Francisco, CA
The author is an idiot if he does not think he is clearly violating their copyright.

He knows he is and is being a smart aleck about it.

I don't care if he had 1 billion dollars he would not win.

How is he CLEARLY violating copyright and being a smart aleck about it? He's obviously standing down and not risking having to go to court.

The coding, the images, graphics are all original and created by the developer. The Tetris Company has copyright claims to the "Tetris" name, music and game itself, but copyright doesn't cover the CONCEPT or IDEA of a game, which is the only thing that the developer "copied". Apparently, you have no idea how many hundreds of clones of Tetris and other games have been running around with impunity for YEARS. This is clearly a case of EA being greedy because their own official Tetris (cr)app is losing massive amounts of potential sales due to a free clone. Hell, if the developer would have named it "Trys" instead of "Tris," he'd probably be in the clear.
 

otis123

macrumors 6502a
May 4, 2006
555
0
those tetris people are nuts when it comes to protecting that game, I think they will get anything with a T block in it removed.
 

donga

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2005
841
1
AZ
How is he CLEARLY violating copyright and being a smart aleck about it? He's obviously standing down and not risking having to go to court.

The coding, the images, graphics are all original and created by the developer. The Tetris Company has copyright claims to the "Tetris" name, music and game itself, but copyright doesn't cover the CONCEPT or IDEA of a game, which is the only thing that the developer "copied". Apparently, you have no idea how many hundreds of clones of Tetris and other games have been running around with impunity for YEARS. This is clearly a case of EA being greedy because their own official Tetris (cr)app is losing massive amounts of potential sales due to a free clone. Hell, if the developer would have named it "Trys" instead of "Tris," he'd probably be in the clear.

right. it's big corps throwing their weight around. if it weren't for him, when would tetris come to the app store? scrabble didn't come to fbook until after scrabulous became popular. if anything, these guys are helping the big corps find new markets
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.