Zynga Sues The Hell Out Of Brazilian Clone Vostu | Hacker News Reader

Zynga Sues The Hell Out Of Brazilian Clone Vostu

techcrunch.com

43 pointsprofitbaron18 comments

If they succeed, wouldn't it be essentially overturning 17 USC 102(b)? If none of the graphics, code, or names are stolen, wouldn't this fall under a method of operation?

The graphics are duplicated so closely... are they not derivative works? Only the copyright holder can creative derivative works.

Courts have found in the past that copying a game design closely enough is a violation of copyright (http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Atari_v._North_American_Philips) and they've also found the opposite (http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Data_East_USA_v._EPYX).

Also see this discussion on misc.misc, circa 1990, re: the Lotus 123 spreadsheet wars:

  If the plaintiff cannot show that 
  the target customer audience is UNlikely to recognize that the defendant's 
  product is not the same as the plaintiff's then recovery is barred.  Mere 
  similarity between plaintiff's and defendant's products is   not sufficient 
  to support a successful lawsuit.

Zynga may have a case here if they can prove that there was intent to make users think these were Zynga's games.

(i am not a lawyer, i just cut-and-paste from USENET)

There's a trade dress issue here and I'd guess that's what Zynga's claiming. It seems rather clear that a consumer could confuse this company's products for one of Zynga's and that that is their intent. It's as if you made Cleanex Tissues and then copied the design of a Kleenex box.

> and employee benefits

That seems mighty obscure and a weird thing to include.

Is the Brazilian detail relevant? Or maybe it is is more difficult to sue Vostu over there.

It isn't even Brazilian.

A comment from the article: "Vostu is an american company founded by former Harvard grads, with development studios in Argentina and targeting the biggest market for social games in LATAM, which is Brazil. JFYI."

IANAL: But, I bet Zynga ends up trying to buy them when the lawsuit settles. The huge IP threat certainly devalues the company. And regardless of their copycatting they have a big presence in a massive market that Zynga doesn't have.

/me lights up the grellas bat signal.

Zynga gets Zynga'd

>XD

Yep. Pretty hypocritical of them to be outraged by copy-cats.

Well, Zynga did have to settle a lot of lawsuits that other companies brought up. Seems fair to expect the same from other companies.

I never understood why people think just because you are a hypocrite doesn't mean you still aren't entitled to all the rights everyone else is under the law.

It's a sad prospect to suggest that your basic property rights can be taken way for that. Doing one thing and saying another is a part of free speech, IMO.

The spectators can root for whoever they like as long as the outcome is in doubt. Your scold only applies to the judge.

Ideas are a dime a dozen; stealing the execution is another thing altogether.

http://www.allfacebook.com/zynga-farmville-2009-06

"If you’ve played Farm Town at any point in the past few months then you won’t need any education about how to use Zynga’s version of the game as it’s almost an exact duplicate."

Fun fact: farming games on Facebook were actually first made by Chinese

http://www.chinasocialgames.com/?p=400

> myFarm was the original farming game on Facebook. We launched Nov 1st 2008

It's a messy chain of copycats.

Farm Town was definitely not a copy of myFarm. MyFarm was (and probably still is) far inferior in almost every respect.

Farmville was more or less a clone of Farm Town, though it evolved at a much faster pace.

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