Names are not copyrighted, they are trademarked. So Tetris is a trademark of Tetris Co. or whoever. And the fact that the pieces in Tris do closely resemble the "real" Tetris pieces could potentially be grounds for a copyright infringement claim regardless of the fact that the graphic files themselves were created by the Tris developer.
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Gizmodo says Tris getting pulled from the App Store
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Names are not copyrighted, they are trademarked. So Tetris is a trademark of Tetris Co. or whoever. And the fact that the pieces in Tris do closely resemble the "real" Tetris pieces could potentially be grounds for a copyright infringement claim regardless of the fact that the graphic files themselves were created by the Tris developer.
I agree. I thought the controls in general were pretty clumsy.
Is that really true? I understand there are hundreds of clones, but how are these also not in violation of copyright/patents?
Maybe I don't understand video game legality. But this game (and other Tetris clones) are clearly direct copies of an original game, even if they recode it themselves and make "different" graphics. (How different can combinations of four squares really look?)
I understand that it would not cover similar concepts, such as Dr. Mario and all the other falling block games. But you have to admit that this particular game is not based on a concept or idea. It is an exact copy of the Tetris gameplay.
Tris (Aug 12) didn't come out until over a month after EA's official Tetris came out (July 9). My understanding is that Tris is just more popular because it's free.
Tris controls
I think the controls are intuitive - obviously your mileage varied. To drop the piece all the way down quickly you just flick it down with a dragging motion toward the position you want it in.
I think the controls are intuitive - obviously your mileage varied. To drop the piece all the way down quickly you just flick it down with a dragging motion toward the position you want it in.
I'm trying it right now. It doesn't drop the piece all the way down unless you drag it all the way. That's slow compared to other Tetris games, which have a command to instantly drop the piece (separate from this command, which is to move the piece down faster).
Also, as you drag the piece down, if your finger drifts left or right, so will the piece. That's what I was referring to as clumsy. When playing very fast, it makes it easy to put pieces in the wrong spot.
Don't forget, even though you 'have' this application in your library, Apple, now (if it so chooses) has completely remote ability to disable any application on your device, through the iPhone 2.0 software. While I realise it is very unlikely Apple would disable an application people already own, in light on it being pulled from the App Store, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
R-Fly
R-Fly
The Tetris documentary!
Just thought I'd let everybody know there is a documentary about the history of the Tetris game that will blow your mind.
The theme is that the original protoype was made, in his leasure time, by a russian space scientist during the cold war era. In these circumstances, scientists had no concept of the words "product" or "trade" as this was all handled by the government.
It quickly got spread on diskettes, and via via via .. it got distributed commercially from England. Then the Russian government got news that this was actually developed by a russian scientist, and REAL concern about security and all that arose.
Needless to say, hell broke loose.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409371/
Just thought I'd let everybody know there is a documentary about the history of the Tetris game that will blow your mind.
The theme is that the original protoype was made, in his leasure time, by a russian space scientist during the cold war era. In these circumstances, scientists had no concept of the words "product" or "trade" as this was all handled by the government.
It quickly got spread on diskettes, and via via via .. it got distributed commercially from England. Then the Russian government got news that this was actually developed by a russian scientist, and REAL concern about security and all that arose.
Needless to say, hell broke loose.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409371/
this is why i like Cydia. (just about) everything is free and we dont have to deal with this copyright garbage.... 
You're talking rubbish. Copyright covers the entire game, not just the name, music, graphics and game play. Tris is a blatant clone / copy of Tetris end of story. You've even said it in your post, referring to it as a 'free clone' - how can a clone of something not breach copyright? You can change the graphics, music and make small variations on the game play but you're still in breach of copyright.
Sure there are loads of clones out there that the copyright owners turn a blind eye to but that doesn't mean they are legit or legal. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more famous clones involved some form of payment to the copyright holders, ie some kind of licensing deal.
Not sure if you were around when Tetris came out but it was pretty much 100% original when it did - there wasn't anything else like it. Anyone new to the format might not think of Tetris as anything other than one of many similar games, but it isn't as its the original that everything else copied.
I don't know how anyone can view this kind of intervention as being greedy either. Games companies making versions of Tetris have to pay a lot of money in licensing fee's, why should other people profit from it without paying up?
He's lucky they're not suing him anyway, which they could even if he does take the game down - in which case he would be taken to the cleaners.
It would be pointless to sue him because he doesn't have any assets, so the judgement would be uncollectible.
I understand that they have to defend their copyright or they will lose it so this is what they had to do. At least he is giving people a few days to download it before removing it from the store.
On the bright side of things, for most people this game will only be a jailbreak away.
Just for the record. It appears that Tetris Holdings, LLC. has trademark and copyright on the name and game. They have licensed it to The Tetris Company, who sub-licensed it to EA.
I found this information on the first screen of Tetris for the iPhone, which I purchased because it is worth the money.
BTW tris is cute, but the real Tetris is a much better game. One problem with the App store is that you can't test apps (can you?). I think more people would buy tetris if they could play it for 10 minutes for free.
This is actually why I'm downloading Tris now.
I burned out all desire to ever play Tetris again many years ago (ach, the wasted hours of mindless finger twiching). But I'm curious to see if Apple will disable it or even erase it from my phone at some point. I shudda got that lightsaber app when I had the chance...
Hmm isn't that outdated? I think Apple stated they do have such a switch, but it only disables a certain app to access the Core Location framework instead of disabling the entire app.
I think this is all a ploy to get lots of downloads before it transitions to a paid app.
Next thing you know is that Tris will be $9.99 and #1 in Top Paid Apps!
It's been number one for weeks. Doesn't need any more press.
arn
Seriously doubt that. One, if Apple really wanted it out that bad, they would have just taken it down without notice, and not let him keep it up until wednesday. Second, if Apple uses the remote disable for anything beyond malicious apps, they're going to get terrible press from it.
You are right on the first part. However, if a work adds new content/ideas/concepts to the copyright work, the new work is allowed to stand as an original work.
This is how people can copy features in games and add it to their games.
Simply taking a game and adding new stuff doesn't get you round copyright.
Taking features and game play from a game then; changing it, adding to it, altering it, removing from it, modifying it etc etc takes you in to a different ballpark - a ballpark where highly paid lawyers and courts make the rules.
Whilst its not relevant here there is also the separate issue of copyright on the software itself - code, routines, algorithms etc. Not really an issue with games nowadays but it has been in the past. Not long after Elite first came out on the BBC Micro someone released a game that was very similar. Turns out they had actually copied large chucks of the code, something that was easily proved as it had the same bugs in it as the original.
My whole post was that games can't be copyrighted only patented (according to the US Library of Congress). The only copyrights you can hold in a game are the aspects (such as specific characters, weapon names, etc.).
Tetris can copyright the music, trademark the name, copyright the exact shading of the blocks (not even sure if they can do even that)...but they CANNOT copyright the entire game.
As for copying of code, that's another issue...