3D Realms Sued Over Earth No More

The description of their idea vaguely reminds me of Greg Bear's "Blood Music".

First I should say...I don't know any of the people involved. With that out of the way check this out...

They mention copyright law, but copyright law wouldn't protect them in the bulk of their claims. Copyright, trademark and patent law all work differently...and copyright is in some sense the weakest of the bunch. A copyright does not protect an idea. A copyright only protects the expression of an idea. That's why painters can paint the same scene and even use the same colors. It's also why musicians can write about the same subject or even go as far as having the exact same story line (see country music).

I see people commenting about if the concept art looks inspired or even too similar. With copyright law...you don't even need to go there. Is it the same piece of artwork or not? If it isn't, it doesn't matter if the artwork depicts the same thing. It would be lame, but it isn't covered under copyright.

It gets even more silly with the claim to the game design ideas. You couldn't pick a less defendable position. For example...how many WW2 shooters are there? How many that depict the same exact historical events even? If copyright could protect game ideas...we'd have very few games. The people who designed the copyright code knew that and limited it to expression for that very reason.

The one thing they almost have is the name itself. If they can show that the name was being employed through a reasonable effort in the same kind of business, then yea they'll win that. Reasonable is subjective, but basically spouting off about it in a forum wouldn't fly. The thing is though....it's not worth it. Since the rest of the claim is bogus...no court would ever grant them an injunction...they'd just make them change the name.

But I said it was something they "almost" have. An expression bearing their title did not get published. Their lawyer says they couldn't find any other reference to that name out there. Their intention was to show that the name was rare (or even unique) and thus unlikely to have been "thought up" by 3DR. An unintentional admission is the fact that the guy doing the claim didn't publish the name either...so what was there to copyright?

What law covers expressions of ideas that you had, but never documented for the public? A 4th kind....trade secrets. It is usually used to protect inventions that would make weak patents. For example a recipe. Funny thing about them though...if you give up the secret to someone you're not in a relationship that is considered reasonably secure (ie you're not in business with them)...then you lose the protection.

Anyway you slice it...seems frivolous. Again though...I don't know anyone involved.

Leave 3dRealms alone!!!!!!!!

whoa, sucks if true

Wait, why aren't they suing Spielberg for using that idea for War of the Worlds?

lets see here, a game that started development 10 years ago stole the storyline of a game that was in development 3 years ago?


oh.

This is why a lot of game companies won't even open ideas fans send to them. They just send the sealed package right back.

Well, the premise sounds pretty similar to the anime "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind". But stealing the name and whatever gameplay ideas (if they had any) is dumb and an asshole thing to do.

note to self: keep game ideas to myself.

"a growth of deadly red vines and mutating spores have overtaken the world, perverting whatever they encounter."

So everyone in the world becomes a pervert?

This sounds like a overarching scheme to subpoena Duke Nukem Forever details...

This would be really stupid if it's true. Anyone working in game development (or movies or any other creative endeavor) knows that the initial idea is the easy part. It's the execution that is hard. With that in mind one could almost think of ideas as low-cost or even worthless so why not just make up your own?

If 150k is what there after maybe they should have just settled with them to make them go away rather than jeprodize the investment they made in the game.

On the other hand with the exception of the title the games premise has all been done before and 3DRealms could make a case that like Scott and Polgardy they were inspired by Speilbergs war of the worlds (red vines terra-forming) in fact that movie was mentioned in the PC Zone preview along with the The Thing, Alien and Half Life 2 as inspiration.

Perhaps Scott and Polgardy refused a lower settlement offer hence the lawsuit.

Shouldn't they also sue Steven Spielberg for War of the Worlds ?

i didn't know it was possible to sue someone over something that isn't even publicly available yet nor is there any media or information available yet. doesn't seem legal.