EA sues Zynga, claims copyright infringement in The Ville
Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit against Zynga "on behalf of Maxis." EA claims that Zynga's newly released social game, The Ville, copies "original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a clear violation of the US copyright laws."
Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit against Zynga "on behalf of Maxis." EA claims that Zynga's newly released social game, The Ville, copies "original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a clear violation of the US copyright laws."
"The similarities go well beyond any superficial resemblance," Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw argues. "Zynga's design choices, animations, visual arrangements and character motions and actions have been directly lifted from The Sims Social. The copying was so comprehensive that the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable."
In a blog post on EA's official website, Bradshaw admits that EA is not the first company to accuse Zynga of copying. A few months ago, the developers of Tiny Tower publicly lamented Zynga's Dream Heights. "But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it."
"Some will say The Ville simply iterates; some will tell us to get over it and move on. We are confident in our position, and that we will prevail," Bradshaw concludes. Oddly, our review of SimCity Social points out that EA and Maxis' take on city building feels a lot like Zynga's CityVille game.
Zynga is currently embroiled in yet another lawsuit, one filed on behalf of shareholders accusing the company of insider trading. Zynga general counsel Reggie Davis provided this statement to Shacknews, where the similarities between SimCity Social and CityVille are also pointed out:
We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. The Ville is the newest game in our 'ville' franchise - it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today. It's unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles. It's also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga's CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players.
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Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, EA sues Zynga, claims copyright infringement in The Ville.
Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit against Zynga "on behalf of Maxis." EA claims that Zynga's newly released social game, The Ville, copies "original and distinctive expressive elements of The Sims Social in a clear violation of the US copyright laws."-
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Zynga is going under anyway, just let it go EA
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tbh, I'm not sure why EA hasn't done this, even if its just to dissolve Zynga completely
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YES YES YES bring our message to the masses !!!
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EA's Peter Moore took a dig at Zynga's stock price yesterday: http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/02/eas-peter-moore-zynga-is-like-a-runner-hitting-a-wall/
"To use, if you will, an Olympic analogy, we’re competing in the decathlon and if we miss in one event, we’ve got nine others we can make up on. Zynga is running a marathon. They just hit the wall and dropped to their knees."
Keep in mind that former EA COO John Schappert left to become the COO of Zynga, and Peter Moore is the current COO of EA. -
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I thought the Dune 2 vs Warcraft lawsuit set the the precedent that what Zynga is doing is legal
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Sometimes I am glad I am not a lawyer
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Here's a copy of the actual complaint: http://www.scribd.com/doc/101954002/EA-v-Zynga-Complaint-Final
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Yea, its the artistic stuff they're going after.
And just to note, remember that Tetris creators recently won in a similar lawsuit against a clone that was look-and-feel the same.
This is a really good writeup of all this all applies:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverherzfeld/2012/07/10/thinking-of-creating-an-angry-birds-clone-read-this-first/
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Dune 2 vs Warcraft was like day and night compared to the 2 games mentioned in the lawsuit. Check the pics.
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I'm not in the least bit surprised.
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haha Ian Marsh (co-founder of nimblebit, which made tinytower, which was then copied by Zynga: http://cdn.toucharcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/dearzynga.jpg) just tweeted "This birthday just keeps getting better and better!"
https://twitter.com/eeen/status/231454345873461249 -
Are the differences between COD and Medal of Honor distinguishable to an uninitiated observer?
EA is never going to get any money out of this.-
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They may be similar is so many ways, but they are different enough for copyright law. The layout of the levels, characters, story lines, etc are similar, but not copies. COD and MOH, along with every other military shooter evolved as iterations on older games with a few bigger leaps of innovation. What Zynga does is copy nearly every detail of a game. There's a big difference.
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^^^^^^
I wonder if the Zynga investors are going to sue them over this as well?
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EA. Zynga makes knockoff games that effectively steal from smaller devs; EA still puts out a fair number of quality games, even if a lot of their operation is lol.
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The problem there is how broad the judgment would be. If you can end up copyrighting gameplay and UI methods the industry will grind to a halt while lawyers go over every game in development to make sure nothing is in violation. Also would open up a can of worms for people that made games years ago going after newer games that are "similar" enough.
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What are some examples from the last 5 years?
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Whoops thought it was reversed. Ignore.
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"unworthy lawsuit?" did you even look at the document? EA would be insane to let this slide.
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Late reply but: I feel EAs lawsuit is worthy. My post was too-brief, but i was referring to the possibility of a broad ruling coming out of this that sets a precedent and allows other lawsuits to go through that are predatory, such as EA suing Activition because Call of Duty is too similar to their Battlefield series
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actually, I ended up reading your other post below later that night and I do agree with the danger of broad ruling that could stifle the industry
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also, i wrote a better post here: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=28658411#item_28658411
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I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I agree with you. Although Zynga deserves to be taken down a peg, the legal precedent makes me really uneasy. Among other things, first person shooters, RTS', and fighting games get put in a rather uncomfortable spot by this.
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If EA won this case the game industry would be fucked. Not defending Zynga, but there shold be limits on what you can claim as copyright.
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I didn't, but now that I've read it, it's a mixed bag I still don't like it. They mention a number of things that Zynga is copying that is perfectly legal and should remain legal.
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"The Sims was the first game of its kind, and to this day is regarded as one of the most creative video games ever developed." -- That's nice, it was a special snowflake, and that fact shouldn't lend this lawsuit any additional credibility.
"The Ville was not an attempt to innovate on a game concept ..." -- Innovation on a game concept is not a requirement. It would be bad for the gaming industry as a whole if the court ruled in EA's favor on this.
"Not only does The Ville blatantly mimic the entire framework and style of gameplay in The Sims Social.." -- Again, more of the same. A scary thing for us if a ruling gave this portion validity.
BUT, they also have good points in there:
"it so closely copies the original, creative expression and unique elements of The Sims Social
— i.e., the animation sequences, visual arrangements, characters’ motions and actions, and other unique audio-visual elements — that the two games are nearly indistinguishable." -- If they can prove this to the courts satisfaction, then I'm all for EA on this basis.
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To be clear, I fucking hate what Zynga is doing in terms of slightly-tweaking the look-and-feel / "expression" of other games to the point that the average customer could almost confuse Zynga's game for someone elses. They are riding the shitty line of what is actually legal, and I'd love for them to get beaten down for it, but only if it doesn't establish a bad precedent to encourage lawsuits over "clones" that really aren't clones.-
Yeah I think I'm starting to feel similar to your concerns here. What's funny is EA is guilty of some of the claims they're making against Zynga. I'm all for them getting a big fat settlement from just the fact that they blatantly copied certain elements from the game though (art content for example).
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I did and maybe I should have been more clear. If EA wins outright it will be bad.
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anyone defending zynga's practices philosophy and methods is a traitor to the whole creative gaming community
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Holy shit, check out the screenshots (scroll down)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101954002/EA-v-Zynga-Complaint-Final -
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