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From: terry@helios.ucsc.edu (Terry Ricketts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Disk recall notice
Message-ID: <4209@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 90 16:48:13 GMT
References: <113@fishpond.UUCP> <1990Jun6.224027.13036@cbnewsm.att.com> <4158@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <15425@s.ms.uky.edu>
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Reply-To: terry@helios.ucsc.edu (Terry Ricketts)
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In article <15425@s.ms.uky.edu> phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) writes:
>     Actually, no; not from their point of view. Sure, this will do absolutely
>nothing against all the PD Tetris clones out there; but that isn't the point
>of their action.
>     Under US copyright law, if you do not defend your copyright, you _lose_
>your copyright. I believe this is still true under the Berne convention.
>Since they found out about the PD Tetris, they were obligated to take
>action. If they had not, then it would have been very easy for other
>_commercial_ publishers to whip together a Tetris clone and publish it
>for money.
	I am not trying to argue the right or wrong of the clones copying the
game. That is not the point anymore. Though I don't think you can copyright the
concept of falling blocks, that doesn't matter eithor. The point is that SH 
simply waited too long to take action. There have been Tetris clones out for
several years now, for almost every computer available. In fact Xanth has the
source for tetris running under unix with X windows. They should have been
after the original authors several years ago. To go after Fred now is silly.
Fred may ask for a recall, but I would bet that less than 1% of those disks
will be returned. So even that is a hopeless attempt to contain the spread of
the clones. There comes a time when you must honestly look at the situation and
admit that it is too late to change it. About all SH is going to do at this
point is get people angry at them which is counterproductive (even if they are
right). Have we forgotten what happened to SEA when they tried to defend their
'rights' against Phil Katz?