Tetris clones
Hans de Goede
j.w.r.degoede at hhs.nl
Tue May 1 06:01:31 UTC 2007
Kelly wrote:
> On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:50 am Wart wrote:
>> It was recently brought to my attention[1] that the bsd-games package
>> contains 'tetris-bsd', a curses-based tetris clone. This was an
>> oversight on my part, because if I had paid closer attention during the
>> review I would have stripped the name 'tetris' and replaced it with
>> something less objectionable. Now that I know, I'll do that anyway.
>>
>> But the bug report is claiming that all tetris clones are illegal and
>> should be removed, not just the name 'tetris'. What is the legal status
>> of tetris (and other game) clones? Can we get some "official" word from
>> a legal department on what is and isn't allowed?
>>
>> --Wart
>> [1]https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=238526
>
> IANAL, but it is generally not possible to claim copyright over a game, so
> only the title would be in a state of legal violation (as the term Tetris is
> a registered trademark).
>
Correct, otherwise for example the makers of unreal would be in great trouble
with ID software, using the name and using copied / drawn over graphics is a
problem. But as long as the graphics (and levels, sounds, etc). are original,
and the name of the original game isn't used there isn't a problem
Regards,
Hans
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