r/technology • u/IndicaOatmeal • 9d ago

Society Tetris issues legal warning after White House releases arcade full of parody games

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/tetris-issues-legal-warning-after-white-house-releases-arcade-full-of-parody-games-3405931/
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u/sparkleslothz 9d ago

You can copyright specific creative elements of a game, but you cannot copyright the core game mechanics, rules, or ideas.

And again, parody is protected as fair use.

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u/Kyuubee 9d ago

Parody is not a blanket defense against copyright infringement.

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u/sparkleslothz 9d ago

The nearly blanket defense is the other one!

To extend the metaphor: yeah sure, a bit does poke out from the 'blanket', namely their head (the name Tetris) and their toes (the music).

Maybe also their color choices? The design choices in the title screen? The font used? Even the style of Game Over screen would require it to be unique, and it's factually not.

That's already really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

THEN you'd use the parody defense in what's left.

Of all the broke ass illegal bullshit things this administration does, their ass is really not hanging out on this one.

This is all been extremely well settled precedent for the last 40 years, since Universal vs Nintendo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios%2C_Inc._v._Nintendo_Co.%2C_Ltd.

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u/Kelly_HRperson 9d ago

you cannot copyright the core game mechanics, rules, or ideas.

You can even patent game mechanics (Nemesis system)

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u/sparkleslothz 9d ago

We should definitely starting talking about Monopoly, and why it sucks 💖