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From: dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett)
Newsgroups: rec.games.misc,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: tetris sequels
Message-ID: <1990Jul31.044111.417@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 31 Jul 90 04:41:11 GMT
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Reply-To: dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett)
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>	Also, does anyone know if there was such a game, would it be a
>copyright infringement? Even if the game was based on the same idea but greatly
>expanded and changed?  Since 9 out of 10 games released are ripoffs of older
>games (like defender, space invaders) it would hardly be an exception.

I could be wrong about this, but I believe that game _concepts_ can not
be copyrighted, trademarked, patented, or anything else.  I think only
the game characters can be legally protected.  E.g., the Pac-Man
character's appearance, name, etc. can be (and is) legally protected,
but the concept of "you're in this maze and you have to eat dots"
isn't.  I believe Odyssey lost in the Atari (Pac-Man) vs. Odyssey 
(KC Munchkin) case because the "munchkin" looked a lot like Pac-Man and 
the ghosts in KC looked a lot like the ghosts in Pac-Man.

When it comes down to it, though, these things are determined by whether
or not the company that owns the rights to the game really wants to 
go and sue the company or individual responsible for the "rip-off".  In
the case of Atari vs. Odyssey, it was definitely worth it, since the 
Odyssey II was competing with the Atari 2600 (aka VCS).

One interesting new twists to this whole issue is the "look-and-feel"
verdict in the recent Lotus case.  I suppose if you made a game which
"looked and felt" like someone else's game you'd lose in court.

Considering how many tetris ripoffs (or clones, for that matter) have
shown up in the PD archives, I don't think Spectrum Holobyte would
get too excited about new PD tetris-type games.  Commercial software, 
however, is another story.  If Spectrum felt that the sales of the 
competing ripoff were hurting them, I bet they'd sue in order to get it 
off the market.  (A guess only; I have no affiliation with or special
knowledge of Spectrum Holobyte.)

Dave Baggett
dmb%wam.umd.edu@uunet.uu.net