Stolen Ideas

[Lance of Llanwy]

Using similar abstract ideas can't be something illegal or unethical, or you can even accuse the turn-based concept is a rip-off of chess.

Regarding random "events", it's really nothing special. There was a very old strategic game developed by Japanese named "Romance of the three Kingdoms" back in the Dos 3.1 era (if I'm not wrong it's from 1987). In that game it already had all those events like flood, locust, earthquake, femine, good harvest season etc. Can the Japanese sue us for ripping them off?

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is still going strong today, believe it or not. Plagues, popular revolts, floods, blizzards, typhoons, poor harvest, earthquakes, locusts and rich harvests have all been in the series at one point or other.

Seriously though....copyright laws aren't that stringent. Otherwise, the vast majority of writers wouldn't be published because they're using similar ideas or settings...

 

[botur2young]

Civzombie, from what you're saying, it sounds like I could make a game with the same rules as an already existing game and, as long as I made some superficial changes so that it wasn't identical, sell it without fear of legal repercussions. Surely I'm misunderstanding you, right?

 

[civzombie]

"Civzombie, from what you're saying, it sounds like I could make a game with the same rules as an already existing game and, as long as I made some superficial changes so that it wasn't identical, sell it without fear of legal repercussions. Surely I'm misunderstanding you, right?"

Superficial changes is kind of a loaded word.

Do you mean a game written from scratch with completely different code such that the code of the original game was not consulted while making the code for the new game?

Do you mean a game with completely different grapical style?

Do you mean a game with completley different art content, such as different music and sound effects?

Do you mean a game with a completely different interface such that the user controls are organized in a completley different locations?

Do you mean a game using all new names for characters, locations, etc.?


ALL of the above expressive elements are different but ONLY the rules of the game are the same? I hardly call that supericially different. If that is what you meant by superficial changes, then yes in that hypothetical I think you would be clear of copyright infringement.

 

[Greeneyedzombie]

Yes, although you wrote it more black and white then a lawyer might like I quoted the copyright office for their example with respect to recipes... you should be able to see some analogy to the board game rules example I used. BTW - nice handle...

I like it black and white, so much clearer. You lawyers like to talk to much without saying anything. But I liked the recipie.

@Botur2young, staying with the recipe example, superficial change like boilings instead of frying, you would be ok. frying gives different taste then boiling. But if you use green salad instead of red salad then your in trouble. It doesn't change anything except looks. So it depends what superficial changes you do. It must make it different in some essential way.
But then again with games, everybody nows how many clones of games there are.