6 ms·

Is Tetr.io Legal?

83 points by cglong 3y ago

tennisflyi 3y ago
I'm a big Tetris fan. Some of my favorite articles are: - Finesse, https://harddrop.com/wiki/Movement_Finesse https://harddrop.com/wiki/Movement_Finesse - Perfect clear(s opener), https://harddrop.com/wiki/Perfect_clear https://harddrop.com/wiki/Perfect_clear - 180 spins, https://harddrop.com/wiki/Rotate#180_rotations https://harddrop.com/wiki/Rotate#180_rotations Check out King of Stackers, NullpoMino, and Cultris, too!
michelb 3y ago
Can anyone recommend a good tetris game for iOS or just the web? I just want to play a quick round of normal tetris without ads, silly game modes etc.
- yumbrand 3y ago
  Tetr.io is great — it does have ads (unless you have Adblock) but not impactful during gameplay at all and is usually the go-to for multiplayer games. Another normal Tetris game that’s more single-player oriented is jstris.
  - pimlottc 3y ago
    Tetr.io looks great but all the visual flair makes my laptop's fans go crazy and adds small but noticeable amounts of latency to the game. Sure, my 2020 Intel Macbook Air is a bit pokey compared to the newest models, but shouldn't a 3 year old computer be more than enough to play 40 year old game?
    - directmusic 3y ago
      Have you tried changing the graphics settings? I usually turn them down and have great performance.
- WASDx 3y ago
  Use an emulator and pick any retro variant.
chrismorgan 3y ago
> I simply ensure it's not easy to strike me in a way that puts me at a disadvantage. I don't use software distribution platforms like Steam (despite even having been invited to such platforms), nor do I publish for mobile app stores. Doing so would put me at risk of becoming the underdog in a DMCA lawsuit, which is an impossible task to win unless you already have the assets. > Instead, TTC would have to sue me directly, which would put us at equal footing. I’m not certain of this, but aren’t the domain registrar (in this case Namecheap), DNS host (in this case Cloudflare) and web host (uncertain) also parties that DMCA takedown notices can be sent to, and who will consequently disable the domain in some way? Or at least one or two of these three? Sure, it’s probably a slightly higher barrier, as the typical software distribution platforms often make takedowns easier than they need to be and the attacker is more familiar with their procedures, but you’re still using others’ platforms to distribute things.
- toyg 3y ago
  Web host very likely (and cdn), DNS host depends on country and it's trivial to circumvent anyway, dns registrar not (unless there is direct trademark infringement).
- jasoneckert 3y ago
  Registrars and DNS providers are often wary of taking domains down and will look at the contents and legitimacy of any requests to do so. And for a registrar or DNS host to take tetr.io down, the domain name or content it points to would need to include the word 'tetris', which it does not.
- latexr 3y ago
  > web host (uncertain) I can attest it happens. > it’s probably a slightly higher barrier And the barrier isn’t that high. I’ve seen a web host company (Hetzner) take down an entire website because a company made a bogus claim about a single page amongst thousands. I don’t even think it was DMCA, they just had their lawyers send an email. Had a human at Hetzner taken the time to visit said website, they would’ve seen the company’s request wasn’t legitimate.
usr1106 3y ago
[flagged]
- starshadowx2 3y ago
  What does this mean? How does it have anything to do with "lack of historical understanding, lack of empathy" ?
  - invalidusernam3 3y ago
    I had also never heard of this, so did a bit of googling. Seems to be: The problem for companies using the .io domain is that it represents the continued oppression of the original people of the Chagos archipelago. All proceeds from the registration of domain names goes to the Internet Computer Bureau, a former British company now owned by Affilias, a US company. Some of the profits from sales were supposed to go to support the territories, but the British government declared it has never received any money for this, and subsequently denied any responsibility for the support of the Chagossian people. https://tamouse.github.io/blog/politics/2019/10/02/why-is-the-io-domain-problematic.html https://tamouse.github.io/blog/politics/2019/10/02/why-is-th...
    - bspammer 3y ago
      Expecting a random software developer to be aware of this is beyond unreasonable.
      - orra 3y ago
        You're putting words in other people's mouths. Nonetheless, OP was raising awareness. The more awareness is raised, the more developers will be aware. Then, more developers will have to make a conscious choice (whether good or bad).
    - greeniskool 3y ago
      The irony of this article being hosted on a github.io page...
nubinetwork 3y ago
I believe this was 10 or 15 years ago, but TTC really went hard on getting rid of Tetris clones... Even the x86 bootable one from a couple years back got shut down. I wouldn't risk it personally.
- jsheard 3y ago
  They still do - earlier this year they had Apotris, an excellent homebrew version of modern Tetris for the GBA, removed from itch.io and GitHub. https://itch.io/takedowns/1499978 https://itch.io/takedowns/1499978 They haven't managed to scare the developer into dropping the project though: https://akouzoukos.com/apotris/ https://akouzoukos.com/apotris/
eviks 3y ago
> I am not a lawyer, and this blogpost does not constitute legal advice. And here I was about to do just that - get some professional legal advice from a random blog post...
- scubbo 3y ago
  Don't try to apply standards of common sense to legal protections. You and I, and any sensible person, know if would be foolish to interpret a random blog post as legal advice. But a bad actor acting in bad faith could _pretend_ that they were misled by that advice, and conduct a frivolous lawsuit (or, more likely, the _threat_ of a frivolous lawsuit) for profit. By the simple act of putting ~20 words at the top of the article, the author has protected themselves from this. Simple Cost-Benefit Analysis makes this clearly worthwhile.
  - eviks 3y ago
    > the author has protected themselves from this that's obviously false, nothing could protect anyone from being threatened (nor from some frivolous lawsuit), and to do CBA you'd need to actually do analysis of what the benefit is (also, where is your legal liability disclaimer if it's clearly worthwhile? You've made a public legal assessment of the op's legal liability disclaimer)
    - scubbo 3y ago
      > that's obviously false, nothing could protect anyone from being threatened (nor from some frivolous lawsuit) Apologies - I assumed you had the ability to read between the lines that they were "protected" in the sense that they could safely ignore any such threat because they could be confident that it would fail, whereas without this protection they might feel vulnerable enough to need to defend themselves with it.
      - eviks 3y ago
        You could try reading the lines before impugning someone's ability to read between them. Frivolous lawsuit by definition doesn't care about legal merits, including your own fail criterion: "[frivolous litigation] includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly faill (Wikipedia) So again, no magic disclaimers can help you here, you still face the risks that someone is going to impose (or threat to impose) the burden of legal proceedings regardless of legal merit on you
upon_drumhead 3y ago
That waffle maker with the 1x1 piece on the top right bugs the crap out of me…
- itscrush 3y ago
  Looks like a Z piece rotated to me. Check out the top of the waffle press clam shell, the outline doesn't have a 1x1 there. Do you mean the 1x1 in the middle between T and L without the block imprint?
- GuB-42 3y ago
  You can't get the entire space filled with perfectly aligned tetrominoes. It would make everything disappear. You might get a good score, whatever it means, but no waffle.
prakhar897 3y ago
The home page and the game both look incredible visually. Is this using a library or manually coded?
yieldcrv 3y ago
some basic easy to do things deter many plaintiffs basically you want to discourage filing any complaint at all and then you want a summary judgement to be meaningless and ignorable to you and then you want to be able to rationalize an argument in your favor so forming a business entity with limited liability is the first step the second step is not having publicly listed ownership, which is mostly just choosing the right jurisdiction to form your business the third step is taking advantage of differences in states laws. one state might allow the business to be tied to a PO box, while the plaintiff’s state doesn't allow serving process to a PO box for intermediaries in hosting your digital products, pick them wisely if you expect liability in a certain country
127361 3y ago
A bit off topic: To me the Tetr.io rules page comes across as condescending/paternalistic? I really don't like this. https://tetr.io/about/rules/ https://tetr.io/about/rules/
- treyd 3y ago
  This seems entirely standard for that kind of game. Trolls absolutely will try to rules lawyer so articulating points clearly that ought to be common sense makes it simpler to moderate transparently. What points do you take issue with?
- wlonkly 3y ago
  The first bunch are "Would you jerks cut it out" and the rest is "How not to be a jerk", both seem pretty important. I don't find it condescending because I think I'm not a jerk but I'm aware that a lot of people are jerks.

83 points by cglong 3y ago

I'm a big Tetris fan. Some of my favorite articles are: - Finesse, https://harddrop.com/wiki/Movement_Finesse https://harddrop.com/wiki/Movement_Finesse - Perfect clear(s opener), https://harddrop.com/wiki/Perfect_clear https://harddrop.com/wiki/Perfect_clear - 180 spins, https://harddrop.com/wiki/Rotate#180_rotations https://harddrop.com/wiki/Rotate#180_rotations Check out King of Stackers, NullpoMino, and Cultris, too!

michelb 3y ago

Can anyone recommend a good tetris game for iOS or just the web? I just want to play a quick round of normal tetris without ads, silly game modes etc.

yumbrand 3y ago
Tetr.io is great — it does have ads (unless you have Adblock) but not impactful during gameplay at all and is usually the go-to for multiplayer games. Another normal Tetris game that’s more single-player oriented is jstris.
- pimlottc 3y ago
  Tetr.io looks great but all the visual flair makes my laptop's fans go crazy and adds small but noticeable amounts of latency to the game. Sure, my 2020 Intel Macbook Air is a bit pokey compared to the newest models, but shouldn't a 3 year old computer be more than enough to play 40 year old game?
  - directmusic 3y ago
    Have you tried changing the graphics settings? I usually turn them down and have great performance.
WASDx 3y ago
Use an emulator and pick any retro variant.

chrismorgan 3y ago

> I simply ensure it's not easy to strike me in a way that puts me at a disadvantage. I don't use software distribution platforms like Steam (despite even having been invited to such platforms), nor do I publish for mobile app stores. Doing so would put me at risk of becoming the underdog in a DMCA lawsuit, which is an impossible task to win unless you already have the assets. > Instead, TTC would have to sue me directly, which would put us at equal footing. I’m not certain of this, but aren’t the domain registrar (in this case Namecheap), DNS host (in this case Cloudflare) and web host (uncertain) also parties that DMCA takedown notices can be sent to, and who will consequently disable the domain in some way? Or at least one or two of these three? Sure, it’s probably a slightly higher barrier, as the typical software distribution platforms often make takedowns easier than they need to be and the attacker is more familiar with their procedures, but you’re still using others’ platforms to distribute things.

toyg 3y ago
Web host very likely (and cdn), DNS host depends on country and it's trivial to circumvent anyway, dns registrar not (unless there is direct trademark infringement).
jasoneckert 3y ago
Registrars and DNS providers are often wary of taking domains down and will look at the contents and legitimacy of any requests to do so. And for a registrar or DNS host to take tetr.io down, the domain name or content it points to would need to include the word 'tetris', which it does not.
latexr 3y ago
> web host (uncertain) I can attest it happens. > it’s probably a slightly higher barrier And the barrier isn’t that high. I’ve seen a web host company (Hetzner) take down an entire website because a company made a bogus claim about a single page amongst thousands. I don’t even think it was DMCA, they just had their lawyers send an email. Had a human at Hetzner taken the time to visit said website, they would’ve seen the company’s request wasn’t legitimate.

usr1106 3y ago

[flagged]

starshadowx2 3y ago
What does this mean? How does it have anything to do with "lack of historical understanding, lack of empathy" ?
- invalidusernam3 3y ago
  I had also never heard of this, so did a bit of googling. Seems to be: The problem for companies using the .io domain is that it represents the continued oppression of the original people of the Chagos archipelago. All proceeds from the registration of domain names goes to the Internet Computer Bureau, a former British company now owned by Affilias, a US company. Some of the profits from sales were supposed to go to support the territories, but the British government declared it has never received any money for this, and subsequently denied any responsibility for the support of the Chagossian people. https://tamouse.github.io/blog/politics/2019/10/02/why-is-the-io-domain-problematic.html https://tamouse.github.io/blog/politics/2019/10/02/why-is-th...
  - bspammer 3y ago
    Expecting a random software developer to be aware of this is beyond unreasonable.
    - orra 3y ago
      You're putting words in other people's mouths. Nonetheless, OP was raising awareness. The more awareness is raised, the more developers will be aware. Then, more developers will have to make a conscious choice (whether good or bad).
  - greeniskool 3y ago
    The irony of this article being hosted on a github.io page...

nubinetwork 3y ago

I believe this was 10 or 15 years ago, but TTC really went hard on getting rid of Tetris clones... Even the x86 bootable one from a couple years back got shut down. I wouldn't risk it personally.

jsheard 3y ago
They still do - earlier this year they had Apotris, an excellent homebrew version of modern Tetris for the GBA, removed from itch.io and GitHub. https://itch.io/takedowns/1499978 https://itch.io/takedowns/1499978 They haven't managed to scare the developer into dropping the project though: https://akouzoukos.com/apotris/ https://akouzoukos.com/apotris/

eviks 3y ago

> I am not a lawyer, and this blogpost does not constitute legal advice. And here I was about to do just that - get some professional legal advice from a random blog post...

scubbo 3y ago
Don't try to apply standards of common sense to legal protections. You and I, and any sensible person, know if would be foolish to interpret a random blog post as legal advice. But a bad actor acting in bad faith could _pretend_ that they were misled by that advice, and conduct a frivolous lawsuit (or, more likely, the _threat_ of a frivolous lawsuit) for profit. By the simple act of putting ~20 words at the top of the article, the author has protected themselves from this. Simple Cost-Benefit Analysis makes this clearly worthwhile.
- eviks 3y ago
  > the author has protected themselves from this that's obviously false, nothing could protect anyone from being threatened (nor from some frivolous lawsuit), and to do CBA you'd need to actually do analysis of what the benefit is (also, where is your legal liability disclaimer if it's clearly worthwhile? You've made a public legal assessment of the op's legal liability disclaimer)
  - scubbo 3y ago
    > that's obviously false, nothing could protect anyone from being threatened (nor from some frivolous lawsuit) Apologies - I assumed you had the ability to read between the lines that they were "protected" in the sense that they could safely ignore any such threat because they could be confident that it would fail, whereas without this protection they might feel vulnerable enough to need to defend themselves with it.
    - eviks 3y ago
      You could try reading the lines before impugning someone's ability to read between them. Frivolous lawsuit by definition doesn't care about legal merits, including your own fail criterion: "[frivolous litigation] includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly faill (Wikipedia) So again, no magic disclaimers can help you here, you still face the risks that someone is going to impose (or threat to impose) the burden of legal proceedings regardless of legal merit on you

upon_drumhead 3y ago

That waffle maker with the 1x1 piece on the top right bugs the crap out of me…

itscrush 3y ago
Looks like a Z piece rotated to me. Check out the top of the waffle press clam shell, the outline doesn't have a 1x1 there. Do you mean the 1x1 in the middle between T and L without the block imprint?
GuB-42 3y ago
You can't get the entire space filled with perfectly aligned tetrominoes. It would make everything disappear. You might get a good score, whatever it means, but no waffle.

prakhar897 3y ago

The home page and the game both look incredible visually. Is this using a library or manually coded?

yieldcrv 3y ago

some basic easy to do things deter many plaintiffs basically you want to discourage filing any complaint at all and then you want a summary judgement to be meaningless and ignorable to you and then you want to be able to rationalize an argument in your favor so forming a business entity with limited liability is the first step the second step is not having publicly listed ownership, which is mostly just choosing the right jurisdiction to form your business the third step is taking advantage of differences in states laws. one state might allow the business to be tied to a PO box, while the plaintiff’s state doesn't allow serving process to a PO box for intermediaries in hosting your digital products, pick them wisely if you expect liability in a certain country

127361 3y ago

A bit off topic: To me the Tetr.io rules page comes across as condescending/paternalistic? I really don't like this. https://tetr.io/about/rules/ https://tetr.io/about/rules/

treyd 3y ago
This seems entirely standard for that kind of game. Trolls absolutely will try to rules lawyer so articulating points clearly that ought to be common sense makes it simpler to moderate transparently. What points do you take issue with?
wlonkly 3y ago
The first bunch are "Would you jerks cut it out" and the rest is "How not to be a jerk", both seem pretty important. I don't find it condescending because I think I'm not a jerk but I'm aware that a lot of people are jerks.