
Zynga Stole Everything It's Suing Us For - DanielRibeiro
http://www.businessinsider.com/vostu-zynga-stole-everything-its-suing-us-for-2011-7?op=1
======
EvilTrout
The screenshot comparisons are quite damning.

Also, previously on Hacker News:

Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1675483>

------
wccrawford
I find it hard to believe that Zynga knew about -none- of those games. I could
believe 1 or 2, but to have pre-existing examples of every game they are
trying to sue over... I just can't believe that.

It sounds to me like Zynga forgot its roots.

~~~
smokinn
What roots are you referring to? As pointed out by another in this article's
discussion, Zynga has a well documented history of not caring about original
production but rather looking around for successfull social games, copying
them and throwing way more marketing dollars and gamification techniques at
them so as to make the original irrelevant.

~~~
starwed
I've heard that internally, they call this practice "fast-following". I guess
they had to invent some double-speak so the game devs didn't feel so bad in
meetings!

They actively look for small games that are just starting to become
successful, since those are easier to displace in the market.

------
code_duck
Seems like these days, ownership of an idea is based on who has more money to
pay lawyers.

~~~
ristretto
Agree with that, and this is part of the whole discussion regarding
intellectual property laws. The problem is that, unless technology finds a way
to bypass them, we need even more lawyers to solve these problems.

------
voidfiles
Mayby Zynga is being offensive about this stuff. Being sued right now wouldn't
be a good thing for Zynga.

If anyone out there was expecting to sue Zynga they just threw an elbow. Now
you know, if you are thinking about fucking with Zynga, they aren't going to
be quite.

------
moonboots
I'm surprised Natsume (Harvest Moon) isn't suing all of these companies.

~~~
cellis
Sim Farm (Maxis)

------
ristretto
If the whole idea is for zynga to win this and claim that their ripoff games
are "original", this will set a terrible precedent for all indie developers

~~~
pagekalisedown
Reminds me of how the Tetris company likes to sue copycats left and right. But
regardless, indies don't care.

~~~
tantalor
The article is about copyright infringement, not trademark. The "Tetris"
trademark is owned by Pajitnov, who _invented the game_.

    
    
      The Tetris Company, LLC (TTC) is based in Hawaii and
      is owned by Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov. The
      company currently owns the trademark to the game
      Tetris, originally conceived by Pajitnov.
    

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tetris_Company>

~~~
pagekalisedown
If you look at the history of legal actions TTC has put forth, wouldn't you
say their behavior is akin to sleazy patent lawyers?

~~~
tantalor
Yes, I cannot agree with the way TTC has pressured developers based on
"copyright" claims.

I wonder if TTC has a patent on "methods to deliver tetrominos to clear
lines."

