Tetris would probably be the one game that got most of us addicted to gaming. Count me as one of the people who spent hours playing Tetris, cursing silently under my breath as I painfully waited for that one brick that can get rid of the five lines I’ve already accumulated. Since this game is one of the most iconic games of all time, it’s no surprise that there are imitators abound.
But thanks to The Tetris Company, LLC (the company that apparently holds the rights to the game) 35 clones of the game have been pulled out of the Android Market. Okay, I understand that they are just trying to protect their copyright. I don’t blame them. But if you read the reaction of one app developer, there’s more to it:
Google promptly answered that The Tetris Company, LLC notified them under DMCA to remove various Tetris clones from Android Market. My app was removed together with other 35 Tetris clones.
So, I checked online on various sources, and all of them say that there’s no copyright on gameplay. There could be some sort of patent. But besides not having a patent, which would last 20 years, so it would be over on 2005.
It’s a shame that The Tetris Company, LLC uses its power to stop developers from creating good and free games for Android users. Without resources for a legal fight, our application and many others will cease to exist, even knowing that they are legit. Users will be forced to buy the paid official version, which is worse than many of the one available for free on the market.
I really don’t know why The Tetris Company decided to act just now, but it’s a shame that app developers consider the official Tetris App to be inferior to the clones. What do you think?