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Gizmodo says Tris getting pulled from the App Store

dejo said:
Actually, no. Copyright does not cover the entire game, in particular the idea for a game. At least, according to the U.S Copyright Office. See here.
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It doesn't say you can copy an entire game and just make changes to the colour of the graphics to get round copyright either. For a games like Tetris, using the same shape of blocks would appear to be a breach. But as I said before if you take concepts and develop them you're fine, you can't make a 100% clone and get away with it.

But I'm not sure if that is really even relevant. Won't the copyright and other protection for Tetris actually be registered in Russia, with the USA and other countries having to uphold this protection due to international treaties?
 
It's a good, free, tetris clone, but the controls are horrible. I mess up all the time because of the way you turn and drop the pieces. He should put one more update out that fixes that. Otherwise, I mainly play Aurora Feint, which is much better and free as well.
 
skubish said:
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.
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so if this is true, cant tris stay up.....because in tris, you can move your piece UP and in tetris, you can't.
 
This just doesn't pass the smell test to me.

Other apps they've pulled (for various reasons -- no of which were outright stated), they've just done it. No heads up to the developer, nothing. So why set a deadline to when it was going to get pulled? Doesn't make sense.

I understand it's a popular app, but wouldn't be a feather in their cap to say, 'we had x number of downloads in four days!'.

I guess we'll see tomorrow. But my money says it stays in the store.
 
iPegboy said:
This just doesn't pass the smell test to me.

Other apps they've pulled (for various reasons -- no of which were outright stated), they've just done it. No heads up to the developer, nothing. So why set a deadline to when it was going to get pulled? Doesn't make sense.
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Presumably it's because the developer is pulling it, not Apple.
 
iPegboy said:
This just doesn't pass the smell test to me.

Other apps they've pulled (for various reasons -- no of which were outright stated), they've just done it. No heads up to the developer, nothing. So why set a deadline to when it was going to get pulled? Doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

Because for the other applications, Apple pulled them off for their reasons. I Am Rich was a "judgement call" by Apple.

However, Apple did not pull Tris from the App Store because technically, it's not entirely clear whether it does violate the patent (remember, games cannot be copyrighted, only patented).

Therefore, Apple probably simply emailed the developer stating that the Tetris Company was unhappy, that's it. The developer can either pull the app from the store, or keep it in there are fight a legal battle.

Aurora Feint and Friend Book were pulled because of breach of privacy. PhoneSaber was pulled because of trademark infringement. Those are clear cut reasons. But since a game can't be copyrighted, and tris never used the name Tetris, it's not really Apple's call (well, technically it is, but Apple's not like that).
 
Fight the corporations! Rebel! Screw Ballmer and Steve! Use Linux!! :p

I bet there has been a serious increase in Tris downloads yesterday, purely because everyone who wanted it HAD to get it.

I'd laugh if it was all just a ploy to make a squillion downloads in one day to keep him at the No.1 spot!
 
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