Tetris clones

[Hans de Goede]

Kelly wrote:
> On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:50 am Wart wrote:
>> It was recently brought to my attention[1] that the bsd-games package
>> contains 'tetris-bsd', a curses-based tetris clone.  This was an
>> oversight on my part, because if I had paid closer attention during the
>> review I would have stripped the name 'tetris' and replaced it with
>> something less objectionable.  Now that I know, I'll do that anyway.
>>
>> But the bug report is claiming that all tetris clones are illegal and
>> should be removed, not just the name 'tetris'.  What is the legal status
>> of tetris (and other game) clones?  Can we get some "official" word from
>> a legal department on what is and isn't allowed?
>>
>> --Wart
>> [1]https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=238526
> 
> IANAL, but it is generally not possible to claim copyright over a game, so 
> only the title would be in a state of legal violation (as the term Tetris is 
> a registered trademark).
> 

Correct, otherwise for example the makers of unreal would be in great trouble 
with ID software, using the name and using copied / drawn over graphics is a 
problem. But as long as the graphics (and levels, sounds, etc). are original, 
and the name of the original game isn't used there isn't a problem

Regards,

Hans