[casual_games] Copycats -- What Can Be Done?

[Lennard Feddersen]

That's where I was when I first read this - many of us license stock 
sound effects.  That said, making a genre title/clone that very closely 
mimics the sound effects AND their placement of the genre leader is 
passing beyond questionable.  I can see something 20 years removed - the 
death chirrup in pac-man is very recognizable and could be cool in 
another context that pays homage to the original.  But this isn't that.

My 2 cents,

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



Lucas Meijer wrote:
> 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
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