[casual_games] Copycats -- What Can Be Done?

[Lucas Meijer]

Jamie Carlson wrote:
> However, when I turn up the volume a bit I notice that they are using 
> some of the sound effects that are EXACT copies of sound fx straight 
> out of Zuma! (the "slow down" sfx and "explosion" sfx sound exactly 
> the same)
>
>         Take a listen:
>          
> http://www.bigfishgames.com/downloads/dynasty/index.html?src=bfg12y0xenl0113 
>
>
> I mean, the devs can't do THAT!  Can they?  To be fair, I suppose 
> there's the chance that Bigfishgames lazily just added those sound 
> effects for the video without thinking about it, but I'm very doubtful 
> of that...
>
> Don't get me wrong, I've created a bunch of sound effects in the past 
> by using stock samples from audio libraries and then bringing them 
> into my Audio Editor and would just "tweak 'em" enough to make them 
> sound unique... But to lift "copyrighted" content/media from another 
> product in your own field, that's a no-no from a legal perspective so 
> it's so easy to compare/contrast the two samples.

that's a bit too bold of a statement I'd say.  If the zuma guys own the 
copyright of those sounds, and the bigfish guys do not have permission 
from them to use it, yeah that would be copyright infringement.
Do you know the zuma guys own copyright to those sounds?  Maybe they 
licensed it from somebody else. Maybe that somebody else also licensed 
bigfish folks to use it.

Without more information, there's really no way for you to say this is a 
"nono from a legal perspective".

Bye, Lucas