Subject: Re: [stella] Tetris copyright?!!! From: Dan Knapp <dankna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 13:43:12 -0500 (EST) |
Note to the following: yes, I realize that it's not all that relevant to Atari programming (I only delurk for the tangent threads... oh well). Is anyone following this discussion? > Glad you can't patent this is real life. Substituting "player" for > "player sprite", you described "jumping for joy while on a platform > assuming gravity is pulling the player towards the platform in question". > I don't think you could reach the state when describing platform games > where you'd've accurately described something that could be patented (or > else Activision is due a lot of money (or whoever made the first > "platform" game)). The scary part is that this is the sort of > nit-picking that people are doing in our courts about these same matters! > ;) A programming language is a form of description; obviously some description can exist. The readability of this description as an introduction to gameplay is irrelevant for legal purposes; only its scope and nonambiguity matter. Well, we disagree on ethics; I think patents are very important things and the originator of an idea does indeed have a right to disallow others from using it. However, that would be a tangent here. Yes, the description would also have to deal with gameplay goals and so on. So? I claim that anything explicitly put into a game can be precisely described, even to expected strategies which the game has been written so that players may adopt, giving a pretty good idea of the feel of the game. > > Sure it can. Relevant terminology would be "block-location grid", > >"active block-entity", and so on. All depends on the original wording > >actually used, of course. > > Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. > > The operative words were "clear idea". My point is that when you start > using such terminology, you've painted such a broad scope that there's > little that doesn't fit into your description. In this case, just > looking at the words you've thrown out, Breakout and Tetris could fall > under the same look and feel. There's a point where the words are so Of course that was not a complete description; you'd use those terms to say things like "When certain formations - such as horizontal lines from one side to the other - are created in the block-location grid, they are eliminated and the player's score is adjusted." This certainly includes Tetris, Columns, Bust-a-Move, and so on, while excluding Breakout, Concentration, and other games using grids of objects. > broad they don't have any concrete meaning, and I think you'd have to do > that to include Columns in with Tetris. Unfortunately, the courts have > to ultimately draw the line in the sand. Nothing exists (boy I hate > using this phrase) *a priori*. Again that's why lawyers take their jobs so seriously - to prevent things from being decided arbitrarily. > Does anyone know the meaning of the word "is"? (For non-USA-ers, that's > part of the big stink over President Billy Bubba Boy Clinton's testimony. > For a while, he's debating with the lawyers what "is" means in certain > contexts. C'est la vie, n'est-pas?) Sorry, you've touched a nerve. Language is not arbitrary or subjective, at least not intrinsically. (In violation of copyright), here is a definition of "is" from the online Webster's: (One could claim that "equal" or somesuch is undefined, which is why I have actually quoted this definition rather than just saying that it exists.) >>>>> Main Entry: be Pronunciation: 'bE Function: verb Inflected Form(s): past first & third singular 'was'; second singular 'were'; plural were past subjunctive were past part 'been'; present part 'be·ing'; present first singular 'am'; second singular 'are'; third singular 'is'; plural 'are' present subjunctive 'be' Etymology: Middle English, from Old English 'bEon'; akin to Old High German 'bim' am, Latin 'fui' I have been, 'futurus' about to be, 'fieri' to become, be done, Greek 'phynai' to be born, be by nature, 'phyein' to produce Date: before 12th century intransitive senses 1 a : to equal in meaning : have the same connotation as : SYMBOLIZE <God is love> <January is the first month> <let x be 10> b : to have identity with <the first person I met was my brother> c : to constitute the same class as d : to have a specified qualification or characterization <the leaves are green> e : to belong to the class of <the fish is a trout> -- used regularly in senses 1a through 1e as the copula of simple predication 2 a : to have an objective existence : have reality or actuality : LIVE <I think, therefore I am> <once upon a time there was a knight> b : to have, maintain, or occupy a place, situation, or position <the book is on the table> c : to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted -- used only in infinitive form <let him be> d : to take place : OCCUR <the concert was last night> e : to come or go <has already been and gone> <has never been to the circus> f archaic : BELONG, BEFALL verbal auxiliary 1 -- used with the past participle of transitive verbs as a passive-voice auxiliary <the money was found> <the house is being built> 2 -- used as the auxiliary of the present participle in progressive tenses expressing continuous action <he is reading> <I have been sleeping> 3 -- used with the past participle of some intransitive verbs as an auxiliary forming archaic perfect tenses <Christ is risen from the dead -- 1 Cor 15:20 (Douay Version)> 4 -- used with the infinitive with to to express futurity, arrangement in advance, or obligation <I am to interview him today> <she was to become famous> <<<<< ____________________________________________________________________________ |The Mauve Baron| Beep | dankna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx | |---------------| Blip | http://www.bergen.org/~dankna/ | | Dan Knapp | Bonk | C PS SQL Java Unix Mac RPN/L NES SMB1 BM | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: [stella] Tetris copyright?!!!, Ruffin Bailey | Thread | [stella] Free Sprite Editor, Charles Wieland |
[stella] Free Sprite Editor, Charles Wieland | Date | Re: [stella] Tetris copyright?!!!, Erik Mooney |
Month |