[casual_games] Copycats -- What Can Be Done?

[Jamie Carlson]

At 09:06 AM 7/19/2006, Austin Haas wrote:
>How do you know that the sound fx are copyrighted? I'm sure a lot of us pull
>from the same sound fx libraries that we've licensed.

Well, that's my question (phrased poorly, I admit).

If you draw from a source (a royalty-free sound library, perhaps) and 
modify the sample for your needs, is it then your copyrighted work?

I'm not leaning either way, and to be honest I can't say that I 
terribly care - everyone here agrees that gameplay is paramount. But 
in this case it just seems so blatant that they'd use those SAME 
effects in a very SAME context (slowing the progression of "dragon 
eggs" or exploding a series of eggs) in what is a very similar game.

Especially given that the Zuma effects were very distinctive which, 
we see now, makes them easily recognizable when used in another game.

- Jamie