3 ms·

Lawyer in the article suggests game mechanics are copyrightable, but that is definitely not the case. Game mechanics aren't protected by anything (and shouldn't

by bpicolo 13y ago

Lawyer in the article suggests game mechanics are copyrightable, but that is definitely not the case. Game mechanics aren't protected by anything (and shouldn't be). Art and music you can make the case for.

Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
Just said this below. Game mechanics aren't copyrightable but the artifacts are. The issue is that this looks identical - if it looked different but played the same I suspect there would be no problem.
- jeena 13y ago
  Like The Great Giana Sisters?
jiggy2011 13y ago
In theory wouldn't game mechanics be patentable? I can't think of any case of this though.
city41 13y ago
A good example is Capcom suing Data East over Fighter's History being too similar to Street Fighter. Capcom lost the lawsuit. http://www.patentarcade.com/2005/08/case-capcom-v-data-east-nd-cal-1994-c.html?m=1 http://www.patentarcade.com/2005/08/case-capcom-v-data-east-...
gioele 13y ago
> Game mechanics aren't protected by anything I fear the US case law does not agree with this statement. (And we are talking about US in this specific case.) It would be quite easy to describe game mechanics as the game counterpart to novels' plot. Now, the US have a tradition of considering certain aspects of the plots are copyrightable [1], for example certain non-stock abilities of characters like "having the ability to grow when receiving a powerup, shrinking when touched by enemies, being able to kill enemies by jumping over them but being killed by them if touched by them". Obviously this is a very grey area, but one doesn't get to easily dismiss the problem because "they shouldn't be". [1] http://www.copyrightcodex.com/infringement/16-infringement-substantial-similarity/infringement-plots-storylines http://www.copyrightcodex.com/infringement/16-infringement-s...

3 ms·

Lawyer in the article suggests game mechanics are copyrightable, but that is definitely not the case. Game mechanics aren't protected by anything (and shouldn't

by bpicolo 13y ago

Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
Just said this below. Game mechanics aren't copyrightable but the artifacts are. The issue is that this looks identical - if it looked different but played the same I suspect there would be no problem.
- jeena 13y ago
  Like The Great Giana Sisters?
jiggy2011 13y ago
In theory wouldn't game mechanics be patentable? I can't think of any case of this though.
city41 13y ago
A good example is Capcom suing Data East over Fighter's History being too similar to Street Fighter. Capcom lost the lawsuit. http://www.patentarcade.com/2005/08/case-capcom-v-data-east-nd-cal-1994-c.html?m=1 http://www.patentarcade.com/2005/08/case-capcom-v-data-east-...
gioele 13y ago
> Game mechanics aren't protected by anything I fear the US case law does not agree with this statement. (And we are talking about US in this specific case.) It would be quite easy to describe game mechanics as the game counterpart to novels' plot. Now, the US have a tradition of considering certain aspects of the plots are copyrightable [1], for example certain non-stock abilities of characters like "having the ability to grow when receiving a powerup, shrinking when touched by enemies, being able to kill enemies by jumping over them but being killed by them if touched by them". Obviously this is a very grey area, but one doesn't get to easily dismiss the problem because "they shouldn't be". [1] http://www.copyrightcodex.com/infringement/16-infringement-substantial-similarity/infringement-plots-storylines http://www.copyrightcodex.com/infringement/16-infringement-s...