If the only issue here is the name, then the laws regarding copyrighting games needs to be worked on.

TrjnRabbit

as much as I hate groupthink I gotta say I totally agree with peAr nectAr's sentiments.

UbeWoll working on Eternally Retold: A Soul Calibur Tale

Does anyone know how the legal process works in terms of patenting a game's design?

Is it true that you can just clone a game, almost identically, and call it by a different name and be in the clear?

This reminds me of the whole Scrabulous fiasco, which I believe was also in trouble *only* because of the name...

Aggrotank

@peAr nectAr: Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought like this.

h_jeremiah

@peAr nectAr:

Agreed.

Especially when you consider that until recently Alexey Pajitnov himself didn't receive any funds for his genius creation, you make yourself out as a huge asshat when you go around whining that your mod of the game is being taken down.

You made it touchable. Big whoop.

How about asking for damn permission?

Better yet, I hope the Tetris Company releases a free app on the iPhone store to make this guy completely irrelevant.

Mact

thanks for reminding me that i cracked my iphone's LCD screen. :( why, stuart, why?

roscoe

I like how this guy stole the name of the game and THE GAME ITSELF and thinks he has a "case."

bpapa

You cant copyright, or patent the rules to a game. only the logos, color themes and *exact* text of the instruction manuals (like the font, and layout etc)

TheDude06

@tooji: It's free in the 1st place.

NickyJ

@TheMurderer:

LOL ... so true!

EnigmaNemesis

@peAr nectAr: I think you hit the nail on the head there...the guy was asking for a cease and desist order when the game was released...even though the game was free.

Hearts_Are_1

Buy? The game is free :P

"you have a tiny window in which to buy a copy of Tris"

spyker3292

Glad that i got it when i did then.

TF2Soldier914

"There's a point at which I am willing to give up and be practical, to let the world have its way with that ever-mistreated little ideal of 'principle'."

Ummm . . . you stole a game's mechanics and half of its name, and you dare be indignant about this?

. . .

I'm fucking impressed. This is a display of douchebaggery the likes of which are only rivaled by people like Jack Thompson, and Bono. Well done, Mr. Witherspoon. Well done indeed.

peAr nectAr

The reasoning behind this I imagine is almost 100% due to the name, any game that is like Tetris and has tris in the end of the name is a copyright infringement. This is due to lots of games copying the Tetris style. (hatris for example), if he would have named it anything else he'd be in the clear as far as that goes.

DoubleOh-

Good job I got this, oh.. about 3 days ago?? Lucky!

SeriousStu

Poor guy. I guess we'll all have to wait for his next release, "Uper Ario Orld" to enjoy this man's collective genius.

TheMurderer

Don't let the Tetris folks know about the millions of Tetris clones available for PCs. Their heads are liable to a'splode.

ShaggE

I better grab this before it's taken down.

NickyJ

Good thing I downloaded this for free on my jailbroken ipod touch.

;)

tooji

@raptorsrevenge:

Yeah they have every right to. Too bad it won't stop people from passing around copies of this free version over the internet to give them a collective finger.

NeoAkira

This was one of the first apps I downloaded last week. It's free, you don't have to pay for it. I was surprised it was even available and I can't say I'm surprised to see the real Tetris asking for it to be taken down. (They have every right to do so)

raptorsrevenge

I feel your pain man, best of luck with your projects in the future.

stoutbear

Damn. And the world really needed another tetris clone.

GregoriusH

@Aggrotank: Scrabulous wasn't just the name - the board layout was identical too. It literally WAS Scrabble, with a different name - the same as in this case.

The new version, Wordscraper, got around that by changing the name, changing the board layouts (now they've got 4x multipliers, and the bonus tile layout is randomized), and making the pieces circles instead of squares. It's not significantly different, but it's enough to keep Hasbro from going after them again for it.

spiderweb1986

Very creative name.. :P

CockroachMan

@Mact:
Doubtful as Tetris is already available on the iPhone for $9.99. I think I'll take the cheap knockoff instead.

GARlock

I don't feel too sorry for this guy, though this is one of the many 'American' ways to make a dollar...

And it's a god thing that the larger companies like EA and Actiblizzard aren't releasing exact clones of...let's say... a music game this fall...

Seriously...I've never really understood that, anyone that takes issue with this tris debate must also have a serious issue with the RB / GH releases.

tehkid

@TrjnRabbit: No, in fact they don't.

If you could actually copyright (or patent or trademark) gameplay concepts, then we would have exactly one first-person shooter, one third-person shooter, one hack and slash, one MMORPG, etc. etc. Moreover, since you can't exactly distinguish legally between a "game" and any other piece of software, you would have to extend those same protections to things like word processors or spreadsheets or even web browsers. No two programs of any kind could be alike in concept.

That is the reason why games cannot be protected. Only their titles can, along with otherwise copyrightable or trademarkable components such as artwork. But a colored block does not qualify as "art" in the eyes of the USPTO.

badasscat

@CrashOverride777: oh ok, so that's the REAL reason. Well at least it wasn't taken down just for the principle of it.

jp182

@LuigiHann: well if they aren't asking for money, and they are making it for a platform that the original company didn't make it for, what's the difference? Something tells me that the original developer would not have made a port for the iPhone but call me crazy.

@TrjnRabbit: while that's true, copyright laws are pretty antiquated for other forms of media, like music for example. But I'm sure all of you are perfectly fine with the way record labels handle that.

jp182

Uh oh. Don't piss off mother Russia. They may attack your 3g network.

liqideos

I know why its taken it off, I saw an ad for Tetris and EA is publishing it for Apple on the iPhone and iPod touch. Its still lame.

CrashOverride777

You see this? This is the world's tiniest violin playing just for Noah Witherspoon.

Making a Tetris clone is a fine academic exercise and good programming practice, but if you want to be "published," make your own game.

On the other hand, there are plenty of cheap game compilations which feature unlicensed versions of Tetris, but I think the companies that make those are douches too.

LuigiHann

@peAr nectAr: Nailed it. My thoughts exactly.

MrBionic

Seriously guys, its free. Grab it while you can. Even if you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, download it. Support the developer. If you have an iTunes account there is no excuse why you can't grab it now.

[phobos.apple.com]

Quicksilver4648

Oh, God. Why are freeware games being put down now for copying retail games? I thought we should all like free stuff!

I suppose I'm an evil person for having Quinn (a free version of Tetris for the Mac), huh?

Seroth

I don't have an iPhone, but I downloaded it, anyway. You never know when it might come in handy...

DukeOfPwn

I'm willing to bet this guy has about 4 million illegally downloaded songs on his hard drive, and 200 or so cracked applications that he considers his property because he went to the trouble of acquiring them.

He justifies it in his own mind by saying these things are the products of large, faceless corporations, and he's just taking something back for the little guys out there, everywhere. When kids pretend they're Robin Hood, it's cute. When college students pretend they're Robin Hood (in a bad Robin Hood knock-off costume), it's just sad.

Idealism so readily flourishes while living in the basement of one's parents, all nestled in snug next to grammy's preserves, where reality never quite gets around to checking.

TitillatedOcelot

Just changed the name to "Te".

dowingba

@TheDude06: You've got to be kidding me. I would think the shapes of Tetris are iconic enough that they would equal the likeness of Mario appearing in Ario Bros.

Yet I digress, a rose by any other name...

Anarchist_Gamer

Hmm, if Tris is free and doesn't get any ad-revenues or whatever (as in "Tris is completely free"), then his case is completely disputable afaik. That's why just changing the name can do the trick (to something that doesn't remind of the word 'tetris').
@badasscat explained it well

somarix

@Kyouryuu: How about this kid/guy just wanted to make a free game for iPhone. He isn't a real development studio, just one guy. If he wanted to go the origional route the game would have cost money.

Quicksilver4648

So, he blatantly and unapologetically rips off the entire game, and half of the name, and has the gall to whine about "principles"? Boo fucking hoo.

MechaTama31

It's ten times better than the shit EA released.

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM!

Whew... good thing I downloaded it yesterday!

Bort

@badasscat:
Not really.

A lot of puzzle games follow the "blocks falling down" concept, but you'd be hard pressed to find many commerical games that aren't immediately distinguishable in that format. There's a distinct difference between core mechanics (blocks falling down) and specifics (tetriminos falling down to form lines, causing the lines to disappear).

It should be completely reasonable to be able to copyright specifics like that unless they reflect a real world application or are obvious extensions of previous concepts. Which is why FPSs and RPGs can be very similar but they're different enough to be more than just Tetris with a different name.

I'm not a huge fan of copyright law, I believe artists and other people who create content should be allowed to protect their creations but a lot of the ways it is applied seems to only protect the commercial aspect of the content.

TrjnRabbit

@badasscat:

You can actually patent software in the US and (to some extent) in the EU. Both the design and specific implementation details can be patented as a "Computer Implemented Invention" if they are novel.

Amazon used this to patent "one click shopping". They patented the idea of having the web store keep your credit card and shipping information, so orders can be completed without re-entering that information. They have since signed licensing agreements with other vendors allowing them use this "innovation".

Software patents haven't been widely used for games, but there are a few examples of patents being granted for game mechanics:
- Konami was granted a patent related to football games in 2006, and they also have a patent for the "workout mode" in DDR.
- Microsoft was granted a patent relating to "style points" in games (as used in Project Gotham Racing II).
- Sega has a patent related to pedestrians fleeing from cars in games (as used in Crazy Taxi).
- Koei has a patent on calculating attack strength of characters based on their proximity to other characters (as used in Dynasty Warriors).

More info at:
[www.gamasutra.com]

So, while you may be able to avoid copyright infringement by changing the "look and feel" of a game, patents can actually be used to protect gameplay mechanics.

I doubt the Tetris company have any patents on Tetris, so this isn't an issue in this case... but I wouldn't be surprised to see gaming patents become increasingly common in the future.

Marlor

I'll be honest, if you're bright enough to build a reasonable clone of Tetris, you could have spent that energy creating a brand new puzzle game. There's no need to copy what already exists.

Kyouryuu

@peAr nectAr: Yeah that's what all us who don't download millions of copied crap and try to justify it think so +1.

This guys a shame on game makers.

Llost

@peAr nectAr: My thoughts exactly. Except I wasn't impressed.

mfwahwah

Hold a second...you can't copyright a game, but you can patent concepts. Consider Namco's various patents.

stevesan

@MechaTama31:

This.

All these people saying shit like

"I FEEL YA MAN" etc don't understand a thing about law.

He CLEARLY is making money off of someone's game he DIDN'T make.

If I make a clone of Mario, I most likely wouldn't have the balls to call it M'rio and not change a thing.

Terance!

I picked it up a few weeks back.. I wasn't about to pay $9.99 for Tetris.

PlasmaMachine

Sweet! I already have this. And it's awesome.

Aethyr

Well if EA would have a $5 version I would get it. But for $10, I'll stay with Tris (until Apple forcefully removes it from my IPhone.)

MSUHitman

Btw, I hate my inability to proofread as much as you.

Theoutlet

I saw this up on the app store the other day. Frankly, I was surprised it wasn't taken on down the first day, but you gotta live the legal shit people can pull. For the record EA does a Tetris that they made for the touch/iphone that has great features and is fun to play. So, please, let me tell you that this douche does not have my pity or sympathy for ripping off a great game from a guy who didn't get paid for his creation for ten years.

In the end, all pirates need to shut the fuck up and have respect for the people who make the things you love and obsess about.

Theoutlet

@CaptainConfuzion: Not for him, obviously, but for me.

While I don't think it should be taken down, this is basically a re-hash of the Scrabulous fiasco. EA will get away with it again, but that's the point of copyright law.

CaptainConfuzion

I just downloaded this today. Great timing.

CaptainConfuzion

I'd admire the fact that this game was free (as opposed to the $10 charged for most mobile versions of tetris). But lets be real, this game was a COMPLETE knock-off of tetris.

This guy had to know this would get him in some trouble.

'let the world have its way with that ever-mistreated little ideal of "principle".'

Give me a break. I didn't know being a dumbass was a matter of principle. Then again, that might explain why there are so many dumbasses in the world.

legacyed

who didnt see this coming?

DL for free, its good

except for those minor encounters with sensitivity

Ice-9

Terance!: "He CLEARLY is making money off of someone's game he DIDN'T make.

Except for the fact that he isn't charging anything for the game.. I understand EA wanting to take it down, but I don't understand all the flak the guys getting for this when he isn't charging anything for it.

PlasmaMachine

Are you not aware of the hundreds of free Tetris clones available on the PC. Would you really go spend $30 on a Tetris PC game when you know you can get a freeware one that's probably better? Why shouldn't there be freeware Tetris on the iPhone? WHY? You have no legs to stand on. Tetris at it's core is a concept that can legally be copied, as long as you leave the art and trademarks out of it.

americanpegasus

Are you kidding me? You people calling this kid names have NO legs to stand on. First EA releases their version of Tetris for an eye-gouging $10 and this then this kid comes along and programs a *FREE* version which is by all accounts *BETTER* than the $10 turd EA threw at us and you talk shit to him for it? Despite the fact that it takes a significant amount of talent to program an iPhone tetris game this good (which you need to evaluate whether you even have before you start letting your comments run amok), a history lesson could also benefit most of you. Namely, look into how the original rights to Tetris were stolen from the ORIGINAL creator of Tetris and you'll quickly realize that you are 100% in the wrong for standing by the company on this one. Unless of course, you've never downloaded an mp3 illegally yourself. Which I'm sure you haven't.

americanpegasus

This thread is pretty disgusting. First of all, the creator has every legal right to distribute a tetris knockoff. Whether it's name is close enough to tetris to be considered copyright infringiment is pretty stupid.

You are all celebrating the reduction of choice for yourself by a company that is buying clout, and you guys are complaning about a college student explaining why his game is coming down in slightly terse language?

That shit just floors me.

char

@americanpegasus: I'm sorry, "help out the community"?

...really? By copying another person's game and distributing it for free?

Spoony Bard

Notice how all the people talking the nastiest about this young man had similar posting style, grammar choice, stylistic choices, etc. It just feels too hateful at this college programmer who just wanted to give the iPhone community a free Tetris app, way too soon. Real gamers don't act like that. Real gamers don't immediately crucify one of their own who tries to help out the community. This is something different.

americanpegasus

I have half a mind to accuse a multitude of the above posters as being EA corporate shills. It's not below them to hire groups of people to troll the internet, looking for stuff like this and decrying those who don't want to play by *their* rules. How else can you explain how free gamers would so nastily criticize a fellow gamer trying to do the community a favor? It just doesn't make sense. This kind of stuff is all over the internet, trying to make gamers think that the popular opinion is on the side of the companies, when in fact, it couldn't be further from it.

americanpegasus

Of course they want it pulled, there have been tetris games that include his entire 'new' game idea as part of additional modes to play. I believe I'm referring to a DS version in particular but I can't remember as Tetris isn't really relevant to me anymore.

student23m

You're obviously not reading the thread before you post. You're doing it wrong.

He didn't 'copy another person's game and distribute it for free'.

It was already discussed that the concept of Tetris is free for all. You can't copyright the rules of a game. His only mistake was probably calling it 'tris'.

But maybe you're right. Maybe only one company should be able to produce Chess games. Wouldn't the world be great if EA owned the rights to Checkers and were the only ones who could create Checkers video games? What about Tic-Tac-Toe? For the Xbox 360? You better not dare make a free version or they'll come get you!

And once again, for those who refuse to look up the history lesson: The rights to Tetris were STOLEN from the original creator to begin with by a major company.

The whole thing is about as childish and nasty as a little child (EA) screaming, "That's not fair, I paid some other guy for the rights to that idea fair and square because he stole them from some other guy. You can't just go and copy that idea! It's my idea!"

americanpegasus

@americanpegasus: If you think Tetris is anything like chess or checkers, you obviously don't know anything about copyright law.

Hint: one came out after copyright law, the others were created long before.

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

@americanpegasus: And if you bothered to pay attention to what I was implying, I was pointing out that by saying "helping out the community", you're acting like this guy has just performed an act of charity that will help sick kids to survive.

I am well aware of Tetris's long and sordid history. I haven't made the assumption that he should, or should not have the right to distribute the app.

But don't treat it like he's saving the world here. "Real gamers wouldn't do that"...oh, OK. Because YOU'RE a real gamer, and no one else here is, right? Hah.

Spoony Bard

What the hell is this still doing on the store? It's a blatant copy of Tetris. If he wants to practice coding games, fine, but he shouldn't be selling it. There's such a thing as intellectual property, and when all he's done is changed the name, it's still the Tetris Company's game, not his.

VengefulRonin

I don't really sorry for this guy. He ripped off Te"tris", its an IP that does not belong to him. I can't believe he thinks his theft was somehow justified by "principle". I'm glad the Tetris company took him down, darn crook.

PrivateJ0ker

Something tells me EA made a big stink about a free tetris app, when theirs costs $9.99

ThisCharmingMan

@PrivateJ0ker: Once again, it wasn't 'theft', no more than you drawing a game of tic-tac-toe on a piece of paper is 'theft'. I have a question. How much does the ESA pay people to come onto video game message boards and spew blind, factually incorrect hate speech towards independant and open-source programmers?

americanpegasus

It doesn't matter. Copyright law protects both equally. It protects the mechanics that define chess just as well as it does those that define Tetris. Of course only people who have vested interests with EA or the Tetris Company would want you to believe differently.

And he is definitely 'helping out the community'. Obviously by that one would assume the community of gamers, because now instead of having to pay for EA's crappy Tetris game we *had* a better version for free! It's a classic trick when you know you have no valid argument to take what some one else is saying, twist it out of context and then attack that new and mutated expression. Don't do that here.

HE'S NOT SELLING IT. IT'S FREE.

Once again, only a lackey of EA would insist that the gaming world is a better place when EA has the sole rights to make a certain type of game. Tetris has officially been ruled as a genre of game, rather than a protected game in itself. Anyone can make a tetris game; they just can't call it tetris.

And this is a classic case of a big company bullying a little guy who is trying to do some good for all of us by releasing his app (which he could have legally charged for with a few changes!) for absolutely free.

americanpegasus

Alexy Pajinov (sp?) had his hard word distributed for free across all of the USSR and sold by the soviets for millions upon millions, and he never saw a dime of it at that time...

Now that he's in the US, and he got the rights back to his game, he's finally getting some of his hard earned money... He got screwed over so much, I think he has the right to take down further rip-offs of his work.

bobtheduck

@americanpegasus:

Hate speech? Look tic tac toe is not the IP of any company, its part of the public domain.

Let me give you an example you could understand as to why its theft! Lets say a burgular broke into your home and stole all of your possessions, right? Then went and sold your possessions for cheap prices. Lets say the thief then say their was nothing wrong in principle with what he did, because the people obviously wanted to buy your belongings from him, and the buyers also agreed because they were getting a good bargain on your stolen objects, and saved money that they would have had to spend on the more expensive retail products. Get my point? What he did was wrong, Tetris IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAN. It does not belong to society. All this man is doing is stealing other peoples ideas and trying to sell it, illegally. Think of the "tris" maker as an idea burgular and I think it would make alot more sense.

We are fortunate that the company made the responsible decision to crush him before he trid to steal more ideas.

PrivateJ0ker

First of all, Tris sucked ass. Second of all, EA's Tetris iPhone game is horrifically overpriced at 10 dollars and having never played a cellphone game worth more than 99 cents, I'm not about to take a 10 dollar bet with the quality of something distributed by Digital Satan EA. Tetris' creator has received our money in some form before without a shadow of a doubt, I mean I've gone through 7 cellphones in the last 2 years and I bought Tetris for every single last one of them. And it only cost 7 dollars. It better be touch screen crack if I'm gonna pay 10 dollars.

Infallible

@PrivateJ0ker, @bobtheduck, @peAr nectAr, @tehkid, many others:

To all the people who have no idea what they are talking about, let me repeat a few things others have already said, but you obviously have not read (perhaps you'll read them now).

1) He's pulling the game due to The Tetris® Company's trademark claim. The name of his game is too close to Tetris, not the gameplay

2) He's not making any money. The game is free

3) The Tetris® Company is making this claim, not Alexey Pajitnov (although as far as I know, Alexey owns at least parts of The Tetris® Company)

4) The Tetris® Company licenses the Tetris trademark to video game development companies. They don't create games. They don't typically go after clones. They simply license the Tetris name

Hope this clears up a few things.

L_K_M

@raptorsrevenge claimed: "They have every right to do so"

I'd dispute that. It seems they sent the takedown notice because they think the name "Tris" is too similar to "Tetris", so it's a trademark claim. The Tetris® Company owns the name "Tetris", and they think "Tris" is close enough to confuse gamers.

Do they have a case? Perhaps, perhaps not. We won't know, because the game is being pulled. This could easily be circumvented by simply changing the game's name (see Quinn, another popular Tetris-style game).

The Tetris® Company also made the claim that they own the copyright to the Tetris gameplay. This is a harder argument to make: Most likely, they would lose in front of a court.

And this is as it should be. It's understandable that The Tetris® Company wants to protect the Tetris name. They should have the right to do so, and maybe Tris was indeed too close to Tetris.

It's also obvious to me that they should not be allowed to protect the gameplay itself. That is patent area, and it's just plain bullshit. Imagine if id software patented or copyrighted the concept or gameplay of First Person Shooters. That could have destroyed large parts of the gaming industrie. Many of your most favourite games would never have been made.

Crap like this is the reason why we can't play minigames while a game loads: Namco owns the fucking patent.

So, does The Tetris® Company have every right to go after Tris? NO. But they do have some rights, and that's the way it should be.

L_K_M

@americanpegasus:

If I developed a great little game for the iPhone and price it at $4.99. Some kid comes along and makes pretty much a copy of my game, changes the title somewhat and gives it away for free, how am I not losing money on that? Besides someone stealing and copying my work?

Madjia

This guy is a douchebag. I have no sympathy for him. He created a rip-off and has no right to whine.

Fetus_God_of_Love

@L_K_M:

The Tetris Company (i.e. Henk Rogers) also codifies the rules for Tetris. That's why all official "Tetris" games now have the obnoxious "infinite spin" mechanic. Henk likes it, so it's compulsory.

Marlor

1. The game is free, he's not making a dime off it.

2. The EA version, by many accounts on the App Store reviews, is inferior to the free version.

3. While I won't give up my copy of Tris until an Apple update blacklists it from my phone completely, this guy is being a total douche thinking he has a right to "fight" anything here.

You had your fun, it didn't pan out, you're not getting sued into oblivion, STFU.

terminalboredom

Yeah, I'm sorry, but the layout of that app is IDENTICAL to the original tetris, just with slighlty polished graphics... from the score area to the preview window, everything is an exact clone.

Because of the fact that you can't patent the rules of a game, the tetris brand is very protective or it's property. How protective? The ONLY game to date that has been removed from MAME due to a request from the manufacturer is Tetris the Grand Master 2.

HowardC

I'm surprised so many people here are giving this guy shit.

"He thinks he has a case!"

"Well no shit it got pulled he stole the game from The Tetris Company!"

"I hope the TC releases one just to make this guy irrelevant.

I think it's pretty sad that if the same people bashing him had an iPhone, they would have downloaded this. I mean, come on. The guy wasn't making any money off of this! It wasn't like he was trying to sell you Tetris, passing it off as his own! It was completely fucking free.

The guy was just making Tetris available on the iPhone. Some of the people here are taking it like it's a serious crime, even though they play tons of Tetris-ripoffs everywhere else.

Give the guy a break.

Hopanoe

Ha!
I'm going to sneak into his bedroom
at night, penetrate his asshole,
and call it, "Charming."

In a court of law, they might call
it "rape", but as long as I change
the name, it's something else.

Sexcellent.

Sullyville

@Hopanoe: I think the problem most people have with the guy is not that he made the clone, it's the way he's acting after the copyright stuff came out. Also, as others have mentioned, just because you don't charge for something doesn't mean you're not hurting anyone. EA, who went through the trouble of securing permission to make the game, are losing potential sales if there is a free alternative. In fact, suggesting people download the game to support the developer does just the opposite if this were ever to see a court, because EA could sue for lost sales and if they got a judgment it would likely be based on the number of downloads of 'Tris.

Not that downloading it really matters anyways, Apple has that "kill switch" that they can use to disable any app. And what better app to test it on than one that no one ever payed for and was pulled for copyright infringement.

eelmonger

"In 1996 when Russian restrictions expired, he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company LLC and Blue Planet Software in an effort to get royalties from the Tetris brand, with good success on game consoles but very little on the PC front. The Tetris Company (TTC) managed to secure trademark registrations for the Tetris mark in several countries and has licensed the brand to a number of companies, but courts have not decided on the legality of tetromino games that do not use the Tetris name... According to circulars available from the United States Library of Congress, a game cannot be copyrighted (only patented), which would invalidate much of TTC's copyright claim on the game"

macaddct1984

<"There's a point at which I am willing to give up and be practical, to let the world have its way with that ever-mistreated little ideal of 'principle'."

Ummm . . . you stole a game's mechanics and half of its name, and you dare be indignant about this?

. . .

I'm fucking impressed. This is a display of douchebaggery the likes of which are only rivaled by people like Jack Thompson, and Bono. Well done, Mr. Witherspoon. Well done indeed.>

The only douchebag is this guy coding a program to implement someone elses idea and trying to make money from it without compensating the owner. I imagine that he probably could get a deal going with the tetris company if he talked to them to work the details out.

qamulek

No, probably not.

The Tetris Company probably already sold the rights off to a different company (like they have in the past). My guess would be EA Mobile, since that division handles the iPhone territory.

orakga

@eelmonger: It's not our job to make sure that EA makes more money, you know. They can look after themselves quite well, I think :-)

@qamulek: You can't steal a game's mechanics.

L_K_M

You can actually play Tetris for free on facebook. It's called Tetris Friends.

And it's also at www.tetrisfriends.com

I haven't tested it with a phone though so I am not sure if it works.

GameDesign

I prefer Yoshi's cookies

pillo

@L_K_M: Thanks for making that post. I can't believe how many people beleive nobody should be able to make a Tetris clone. If you take this logic further Will Wright shouldn't be able to make Spore since the early stages rip off Pac-Man.

affenvampir

This is the problem with a closed system. It leaves both the developer and the user at the mercy of the manufacturer. With Apple's little kill switch running in the background, Apple has final say over what goes on your phone and how you should run it. If Apple were a government, it would be accused. It being a corporation and the device in question being flashy cool, people accept the control.

Jezner

Shameless bastard to think he deserved any profit to make a Tetris clone.

ssh83

Lot of these comments make me sad and I'm sure make kittens weep as well. The least I hope for is for people to quit saying he was making a profit from a free game. I have Tris on my iPhone. I got it the first day it popped up in the Apps Store. It's a great play. While I haven't bought EA's $10 version, I cringe simply just looking at the screenshots which seem to have missed the simplicity of the game itself.

I'll continue playing Tris until an update expels it from my iPhone. I do hope something can be worked out and the game can return to the Apps Store some day soon.

PBnZelly