Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis
From: dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Francis Heffernan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Tetris variants
Keywords: justifications for ripoffs all = greed
Message-ID: <26765a47-21a9.3comp.sys.amiga-1@tronsbox.xei.com>
Date: 13 Jun 90 22:00:51 GMT
References: <21774@snow-white.udel.EDU> <25270@usc.edu>
Lines: 29


	RE More Tetris Nonsense

	You can neither copyright *nor patent* ideas.  If you could patent
ideas, we'd have some rich SF authors floating around.  Bob Heinlen invented
the waterbed, the waldo, and a few other goodies in his stories; Arthur C.
Clarke invented geosynchronous satellites.

	I know a game designer who had to sit there and watch another company
publish a game 99% similar to his design.  His company could do NOTHING.

	In the case of a game, all that's protected is your EXACT, SPECIFIC
implementation of the game.  If it's something like a roleplaying game and
the other guy bumps all your numbers by 10%, you're pretty much screwed.
The specs for the game Tetris can't be protected.  They can cover the trade-
mark (Tetris) and keep other people from putting out versions with pictures
in the background and Russian music (does the Spectrum Holobyte version have
the music?  I forget.)

	Honestly, the real problem here is that the Spectrum Holobyte version
is a piece of crap.  They can't sell it because it's a bad program, not 
because PD versions have destroyed their market.  But they want to belive
the latter, it seems.


Dennis Francis Heffernan	|  "Remember the words of your teacher,
dfrancis@tronsbox		|   your master: Evil moves fast, but
...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis	|   Good moves faster!"
Original text (c) 1990  	|   --Partners in Kryme, T-U-R-T-L-E Power!