Stolen Ideas

[Dominico]

I just noticed so many ideas from this new expansion are stolen from Galactic civilizations. Not a problem to me since i loved that game but i wonder how that works out legally? I guess many ideas for Gal civ were stolen from Civ...

The points i am talking about were the civ demands and events, i thought these were great inclusions in gal civ. Also the espionage slider which told you facts about the other civs. Will be interesting to see how they fit into the game!

 

[bonafide11]

I just noticed so many ideas from this new expansion are stolen from Galactic civilizations. Not a problem to me since i loved that game but i wonder how that works out legally? I guess many ideas for Gal civ were stolen from Civ...

The points i am talking about were the civ demands and events, i thought these were great inclusions in gal civ. Also the espionage slider which told you facts about the other civs. Will be interesting to see how they fit into the game!

Well, think of it like this. Galactic Civilizations stole the name and the entire game concept from Firaxis, and Firaxis only took a couple small ideas for their expansion pack. If Galactic Civ ever tried to raise a suit against Firaxis, I'm pretty sure Firaxis could counter them pretty easy...

I would never have even bothered playing Galatic Civilization if it didn't have Civilization in the title, but I don't think I ever made it more than a few turns anyway...

 

[Lord Neil]

Ya I recently got Galactic Civilazation thinking it was similar to civilzation... turns out it was but not quite as good... now I am really happy that civilazation is making one like it...

 

[Inhalaattori]

Events were already in Civ1.

 

[sniprpenguin]

Civ is an immensely better game than GalCiv, and the coincedental resemblance to it from a MOD is purely a coincedence.

Besides, I think they're going to borrow heavily from Alpha Centauri more than GalCiv anyway. Sid has stated that he would love to do a Alpha Centauri 2, and considering that he can't, he'll just make a mod of it for Civ IV.

 

[Ammar]

I just noticed so many ideas from this new expansion are stolen from Galactic civilizations. Not a problem to me since i loved that game but i wonder how that works out legally? I guess many ideas for Gal civ were stolen from Civ...

The points i am talking about were the civ demands and events, i thought these were great inclusions in gal civ. Also the espionage slider which told you facts about the other civs. Will be interesting to see how they fit into the game!

Many ideas are so old that it's hard to say who thought of it first. For example, there was a spy slider in Master of Orion 1. Events were in Civ 1, Master of Magic and also in Master of Orion. So, the ideas may not be original but they are stolen from GalCiv.

 

[Traitorfish]

"Civilizations" ripped off "Galactic Civilization"? Sort of like saying that England ripped off New England, isn't it?
Edit: Corrected to make even the slightest bit of sense.

 

[civzombie]

"I just noticed so many ideas from this new expansion are stolen from Galactic civilizations. Not a problem to me since i loved that game but i wonder how that works out legally? I guess many ideas for Gal civ were stolen from Civ..."

Copyrights protect how an idea is expressed, no the idea itself. That's a mouthful, so maybe an example would help. If you are selling a board game, you could get copyright protection on the layout of your rules manual. If somebody copied your rules manual, you would have a claim against them. However, if they wrote a totally different looking rules manual you would not have a claim... even if the rules in both manual were the same.

To protect the ideas themselves, you need a patent. I seriously doubt the owners of Galciv have patented rules/features or other gameplay components of their game.

So that's a rough analysis of how it works out legally.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

"Galactic Civilizations" ripped off "Civilization"? Sort of like saying that England ripped off New England, isn't it?

I thought Galactic Civilizations was only a few years old? Yes, copyright 2004-2006 according to the readme. That might be a couple years off since it is from the complete version.
But Civilization is many years older than that. Unless I'm missing something, Civilizations is the England, Gal Civs the New England.

 

[Dida]

"I just noticed so many ideas from this new expansion are stolen from Galactic civilizations. Not a problem to me since i loved that game but i wonder how that works out legally? I guess many ideas for Gal civ were stolen from Civ..."

Copyrights protect how an idea is expressed, no the idea itself. That's a mouthful, so maybe an example would help. If you are selling a board game, you could get copyright protection on the layout of your rules manual. If somebody copied your rules manual, you would have a claim against them. However, if they wrote a totally different looking rules manual you would not have a claim... even if the rules in both manual were the same.

To protect the ideas themselves, you need a patent. I seriously doubt the owners of Galciv have patented rules/features or other gameplay components of their game.

So that's a rough analysis of how it works out legally.

Your understanding of copyright law is wrong or at least not entirely correct.

 

[Saim]

You can't copyright game genres, modes, etc.

So it's techincally not 'stolen'. Like Sony didn't 'steal' Nintendo's control sticks, it was open source.

 

[Psyringe]

I thought Galactic Civilizations was only a few years old? Yes, copyright 2004-2006 according to the readme. That might be a couple years off since it is from the complete version.
But Civilization is many years older than that. Unless I'm missing something, Civilizations is the England, Gal Civs the New England.

The Galactic Civilizations you're referring to is an enhanced remake of the original Galactic Civilizations for OS/2, which was released in 1994. That's still after Sid Meier's Civilization though. Needless to say that Meier copied many concepts from Francis Tresham's board game.

That's how it it goes: Good ideas get copied. As has been said, that's not a legal problem unless something is patented, which is highly unlikely in this case. Personally, I think that's a good game. Having the freedom to copy good ideas from other developers gives you the freedom to design the best game you can. It would be horrible if designers had to leave good ideas out of their games because of patent problems.

 

[civzombie]

"Your understanding of copyright law is wrong or at least not entirely correct."

You forgot the "because"...

Since I am a licensed intellectual property attorney, if my understanding of copyright law is wrong, please straighten me out. Its my job and all, and if I don't understand it, its best that I take the opportunity of your presence and learn it immediately.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

The Galactic Civilizations you're referring to is an enhanced remake of the original Galactic Civilizations for OS/2, which was released in 1994. That's still after Sid Meier's Civilization though. Needless to say that Meier copied many concepts from Francis Tresham's board game.

That's how it it goes: Good ideas get copied. As has been said, that's not a legal problem unless something is patented, which is highly unlikely in this case. Personally, I think that's a good game. Having the freedom to copy good ideas from other developers gives you the freedom to design the best game you can. It would be horrible if designers had to leave good ideas out of their games because of patent problems.

Thanks for the correction.
I agree, there's a difference between borrowing ideas, like "have random events" and borrowing content, like "Have a comet crash event with does xyz" etc.

 

[GoodGame]

Basically you can't copyright a simple abstract idea, else pretty much every game made since the early 1990's would be in court.
Not to mention all those *Brilliant* (not!) fantasy MMORPGs.

Yea and Civzombie is right.

If you really want to debate the topic seriously, check out CFR 37
http://www.copyright.gov/title37/

And also read up on trademarks while you're at it.

 

[Vael]

"Your understanding of copyright law is wrong or at least not entirely correct."

You forgot the "because"...

Since I am a licensed intellectual property attorney, if my understanding of copyright law is wrong, please straighten me out. Its my job and all, and if I don't understand it, its best that I take the opportunity of your presence and learn it immediately.

 

[NKVD]

The Galactic Civilizations you're referring to is an enhanced remake of the original Galactic Civilizations for OS/2, which was released in 1994. That's still after Sid Meier's Civilization though. Needless to say that Meier copied many concepts from Francis Tresham's board game.

That's how it it goes: Good ideas get copied. As has been said, that's not a legal problem unless something is patented, which is highly unlikely in this case. Personally, I think that's a good game. Having the freedom to copy good ideas from other developers gives you the freedom to design the best game you can. It would be horrible if designers had to leave good ideas out of their games because of patent problems.

Events were also in Sim City back in 1989...

 

[Psyringe]

Events were also in Sim City back in 1989...

Yes. They were also in Tresham's "Civilization" board game (which was released in 1982) in the form of calamities, which now are being reintroduced into Civ4.

And this game isn't the first game to incorporate random events, not by a long shot. Basically, Monopoly's chance cards and community chest cards are a perfect example for random events, and this game is more than 70 years old. Both sets of cards were also included in one of Monopoly's predecessors called "Finance". And I'm pretty sure that you can find even earlier examples of random events if you dig deep enough.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Events were also in Sim City back in 1989...

Of course, you could trigger a lot of them at will. Heh, I enjoyed summoning Bowser to destroy my city (SNES version) way too much...

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Events happens also in real life like in New Orleans. I guess this kind of idea is something like collective (mankind) property. For the culture or 'espionage' slider, it could be a luxury slider as well or whatever comes to your mind.