2 ms·

If he really cloned games pixel-for-pixel, wouldn't the original authors of those games have a good copyright claim? It'd be hard to fight their lawyers if your

If he really cloned games pixel-for-pixel, wouldn't the original authors of those games have a good copyright claim? It'd be hard to fight their lawyers if your case is iffy, but if the violation is as flagrant as you say, I'm sure the aggrieved could find a firm that would want to relieve Zynga of some of that VC money. Even if Zynga made some changes, it's likely the original authors would still be able to make the case that Zynga's product was a derivative work. The fact that this hasn't happened makes me skeptical of such claims. If the copy wasn't close enough to be considered a copyright violation, then what's the problem? Everyone takes inspiration from others. We're all standing on the shoulders of giants. There's nothing wrong with deciding you want to compete with someone and making a similar product. Not every idea for a new company or product has to be (or even can be) completely original.

davycro 12y ago
Zynga has strong lawyers. They would force small devs to take them to court, if they could afford the legal fees, then settle if they had a strong case. By then Zynga's game went viral and the smaller devs lost their first mover advantage. The SF chronicle wrote a great piece about these tactics a few years ago. The article showed how they cloned FarmVille, then settled with the victim for 11 million (FarmVille would make a billion in rev that year). im on mobile and can't search for the article rn
- cookiecaper 12y ago
  It shouldn't be difficult to find someone willing to help you fend off their lawyers if you have a compelling case. Again, if the violation is really this flagrant, the party alleging infringement would be calling the shots and Zynga would give them any reasonable figure to prevent the case from going to trial. Obviously it's not reasonable to hand over a year's worth of revenue.

davycro 12y ago

Zynga has strong lawyers. They would force small devs to take them to court, if they could afford the legal fees, then settle if they had a strong case. By then Zynga's game went viral and the smaller devs lost their first mover advantage. The SF chronicle wrote a great piece about these tactics a few years ago. The article showed how they cloned FarmVille, then settled with the victim for 11 million (FarmVille would make a billion in rev that year). im on mobile and can't search for the article rn

cookiecaper 12y ago
It shouldn't be difficult to find someone willing to help you fend off their lawyers if you have a compelling case. Again, if the violation is really this flagrant, the party alleging infringement would be calling the shots and Zynga would give them any reasonable figure to prevent the case from going to trial. Obviously it's not reasonable to hand over a year's worth of revenue.