Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!vsnyder
From: vsnyder@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Van Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Legal action against STrabble game.
Message-ID: <1991May29.212157.27603@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 29 May 91 21:21:57 GMT
References: <1624@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> <3089@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <10107@suns4.crosfield.co.uk> <1991May29.195434.16735@wam.umd.edu>
Reply-To: vsnyder@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Van Snyder)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 25

In article <1991May29.195434.16735@wam.umd.edu> dmb@wam.umd.edu (David M. Baggett) writes:
...
>If Scrabble were a game no one cared about any more (like Pacman), I'm
>sure this wouldn't even be an issue.  The problem comes when a
>shareware author copies a game that still has sales potential.  The big
>bombshell in this area is of course Tetris.  It's a simple concept that
>is unbelievably easy to implement.   Easier, even, than Pacman.  Since
>it's so easy, it's been copied all across creation.  But this does
>indeed affect sales of the official versions, and sure enough, Spectrum
>Holobyte (supposedly) attempted to kill all the shareware versions of
>Tetris for the Amiga.  (Perhaps an Amiga owner will correct me if it
>wasn't Spectrum Holobyte.)
>
>To see things from the other side, ponder this:  How would you feel if
>you'd come up with the idea for Tetris, written the game and put it out
>there (commercially), only to come across equally good PD rip-offs of
>YOUR game idea?
...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the original Tetris WAS PD, and the
folks that have been making money on high-quality professional implementations
don't deserve a copyright on the original innovation.
-- 
vsnyder@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
ames!elroy!jato!vsnyder
vsnyder@jato.uucp