gdeangel wrote:saraith wrote:I did a bit of research... I am after all on the internetand I found this:
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2005/12/hasbro-puts-end-to-google-maps-risk.html Perhaps CC received a similar letter for Hasbro.
Further research Tells me that you can't copyright a game. Neither the name, nor the rules. Only the unique graphics and pieces.
Here's what the US Copyright office has to say about it - and they should know {url]http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html[/url]The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it.
Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author's expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in the development, merchandising, or playing of a game. Once a game has been made public, {b]nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles[/b].
Some material prepared in connection with a game may be subject to copyright if it contains a sufficient amount of literary or pictorial expression. For example, the text matter describing the rules of the game, or the pictorial matter appearing on the game board or container, may be registrable.
So make your Risk game, your Camen Sandiego game, your Sim City game - you can even use the same name. All these attempted smack-downs by lawyers who should know better make me sick. No wonder Shakespeare said "first we kill all the lawyers."
Just my $0.02
You clearly are quoting out of context. Go see my post a few pages back.
The copyright office site you link to even mentions that there can be trademark issues. Also that the rules can be copyrighted. And it says nothing about patenting a process or protecting it as a trade mark ('ve actually never heard of a game patent that I can think of, but that doesn't mean there isn't one - actual physical dice are probably patentable, but I really really doubt anyone holds a current valid patent on them).
When you look at the Google cease and desist letter, it's clear they screwed the pooch. Google is a deep pocket player, and they were calling the game "Risk". There was not choice but to shut them down. There is no reason cc should be concerned by that action and taking this drastic measures.
yeah but look what Hasbro (scrabble) did to scrabulous on facebook...also, this site is not under jurisdiction of American copyright laws, but Canada's.
and to agree with the poster above, trademarks are lost if you refuse to enforce them. So if Risk refused to enforce their trademark against CC, then they would lose their trademark.
