3 ms·

If you look at the screenshots of the game in question, it's pretty obvious what is going on https://www.luanti.org/en/#gallery https://www.luanti.org/en/#gall

If you look at the screenshots of the game in question, it's pretty obvious what is going on https://www.luanti.org/en/#gallery https://www.luanti.org/en/#gallery Even though those are mods, it's a bad look to be holding those up as reference game images.

maybewhenthesun 2mo ago
Meh. Luanti is nearly as old as minecraft itself. You could say just as well that they copied the style of infiniminer. If your whole shtick is creating blocky games with retro-easy-to-recreate 8x8 or 16x16 textures it's not really weird people easily imitate it.
- RunSet 2mo ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20060117081147/http://www.blockland.us/index.asp?p=media https://web.archive.org/web/20060117081147/http://www.blockl...
Intermernet 2mo ago
Minecraft looks very similar to original Wolfenstien or Ultima Online. Probably a bunch of earlier games that used blocks of simple textures. It's not an original art style, and it's not gonna stand up in any fair court. Notch never claimed that he invented the graphical style of Minecraft. He deliberately used low complexity graphics for ease-of-use and the ability to create large, performant maps.
- account42 2mo ago
  Art style has never been copyrightable in the first place and games copy it all the time.
nvme0n1p1 2mo ago
Um, why? Because they both have blocks? Is Microsoft the only company allowed to use cubes now? Even if they were similar, artistic style is not protected under copyright.
- WarmWash 2mo ago
  But the IP is, and it's jury that would likely decide. So with a straight face, you think a jury wouldn't call this Minecraft? https://www.luanti.org/media/gallery/5.jpg https://www.luanti.org/media/gallery/5.jpg Also Luanti probably could doge all this if they just ditched all the blatant minecraft clone mods. A mining game with blocks is totally fine. If you look back at infiniminer, it's clearly a different vibe of the same concept.
  - rpdillon 2mo ago
    You're confusing copyright with patents, and you cannot patent a game design. Well, you couldn't. I'm not sure about these days. In any case, this isn't a patent claim. It's a copyright claim, and copyright protects expression, not the idea. That'll all become glaringly obvious when this is reinstated, because the copyright claim is bogus.
    - WarmWash 2mo ago
      The design or gameplay isn't the issue, the aesthetic is clearly Minecraft. You can't take Minecraft assets, mix the pixels around a little bit, and then be legally free and clear. If the public looks at pictures of your game, and they say "100% it's Minecraft", you're gonna have a bad time.
      - hotsalad 2mo ago
        What are you talking about? There are no Minecraft assets in that screenshot, even with "pixels mixed around". I play both games and can tell you that screenshot is easily distinguished from Minecraft.
        WarmWash 2mo ago
        A jury deciding the case would exclude people who play the games or play them heavily. IP protection is about reasonable confusion in the public. Not experts in field getting confused.
astrobe_ 2mo ago
Correction: half of the pictures are not from mods, but from Luanti games; Luanti is a platform for voxel games. And there's no screenshot of the two Luanti games that come the closest to Minecraft, both in terms of looks and gameplay. None of them are included in the standard Luanti distribution. One can download games and mods from ContentDB (or directly from Luanti itself); ContentDB administrators are looking closely at the content users submit, from experience they will refuse your submission if everything is not properly licensed, even when the asserts are obviously FOSS (creators often include each other's stuff). They even were cautious about generative AI because the copyright assignment was unclear for them. They also have a DMCA page [1]. Long story short, Luanti is a respectable platform. They respect copyright and licensing (even for FOSS code and assets, unlike some private organizations). They also organize game jams and promote original content. [1] https://content.luanti.org/copyright_dmca/ https://content.luanti.org/copyright_dmca/

maybewhenthesun 2mo ago

Meh. Luanti is nearly as old as minecraft itself. You could say just as well that they copied the style of infiniminer. If your whole shtick is creating blocky games with retro-easy-to-recreate 8x8 or 16x16 textures it's not really weird people easily imitate it.

RunSet 2mo ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20060117081147/http://www.blockland.us/index.asp?p=media https://web.archive.org/web/20060117081147/http://www.blockl...

Intermernet 2mo ago

Minecraft looks very similar to original Wolfenstien or Ultima Online. Probably a bunch of earlier games that used blocks of simple textures. It's not an original art style, and it's not gonna stand up in any fair court. Notch never claimed that he invented the graphical style of Minecraft. He deliberately used low complexity graphics for ease-of-use and the ability to create large, performant maps.

account42 2mo ago
Art style has never been copyrightable in the first place and games copy it all the time.

nvme0n1p1 2mo ago

Um, why? Because they both have blocks? Is Microsoft the only company allowed to use cubes now? Even if they were similar, artistic style is not protected under copyright.

WarmWash 2mo ago
But the IP is, and it's jury that would likely decide. So with a straight face, you think a jury wouldn't call this Minecraft? https://www.luanti.org/media/gallery/5.jpg https://www.luanti.org/media/gallery/5.jpg Also Luanti probably could doge all this if they just ditched all the blatant minecraft clone mods. A mining game with blocks is totally fine. If you look back at infiniminer, it's clearly a different vibe of the same concept.
- rpdillon 2mo ago
  You're confusing copyright with patents, and you cannot patent a game design. Well, you couldn't. I'm not sure about these days. In any case, this isn't a patent claim. It's a copyright claim, and copyright protects expression, not the idea. That'll all become glaringly obvious when this is reinstated, because the copyright claim is bogus.
  - WarmWash 2mo ago
    The design or gameplay isn't the issue, the aesthetic is clearly Minecraft. You can't take Minecraft assets, mix the pixels around a little bit, and then be legally free and clear. If the public looks at pictures of your game, and they say "100% it's Minecraft", you're gonna have a bad time.
    - hotsalad 2mo ago
      What are you talking about? There are no Minecraft assets in that screenshot, even with "pixels mixed around". I play both games and can tell you that screenshot is easily distinguished from Minecraft.
      - WarmWash 2mo ago
        A jury deciding the case would exclude people who play the games or play them heavily. IP protection is about reasonable confusion in the public. Not experts in field getting confused.

astrobe_ 2mo ago

Correction: half of the pictures are not from mods, but from Luanti games; Luanti is a platform for voxel games. And there's no screenshot of the two Luanti games that come the closest to Minecraft, both in terms of looks and gameplay. None of them are included in the standard Luanti distribution. One can download games and mods from ContentDB (or directly from Luanti itself); ContentDB administrators are looking closely at the content users submit, from experience they will refuse your submission if everything is not properly licensed, even when the asserts are obviously FOSS (creators often include each other's stuff). They even were cautious about generative AI because the copyright assignment was unclear for them. They also have a DMCA page [1]. Long story short, Luanti is a respectable platform. They respect copyright and licensing (even for FOSS code and assets, unlike some private organizations). They also organize game jams and promote original content. [1] https://content.luanti.org/copyright_dmca/ https://content.luanti.org/copyright_dmca/