Jamin W.Collins wrote:
On Fri, 18 Oct 2002 10:24:53 -0500 Gianfranco Berardi <linuxmail@gbgames.com> wrote:I agree. Debian and Linux in general sorely needs a decent Pacman gameYea... but can we do so without infringing on some copyright?B-) Just to make sure we're all on the same page, no one should expect to make a MMORPG anytime soon!Ah man... there goes my hopes for an Everquest/UOL clone... =)
I get this question every time I talk about making a Pacman clone. So long as it isn't something that sounds like Pacman or looks like Pacman, it is fine. It can even have the same basic gameplay - objects chasing another object that is collecting objects in a maze. It can be a spaceship, an Indiana Jones-like character, a cat. So long as it isn't a sphere and cartoony ghosts. That is one of the purposes of copyright: to allow people to make works, even if they are inspired from another work. Automatic piano playing devices were under attack for violating copyright (the original song writers thought that selling music sheets belonged to them, and the music sheets for these automatic pianos should fall under that). The courts disagreed, and so the right to sell the music in that form was not under the original artists jursidiction. I do believe, however, that the artists were given a small compensation fee as a percentage of the sales, similar to what currently is in effect for music CD-Rs (that is why they cost more than regular CD-Rs for the same thing - the extra money goes to the RIAA).
So in terms of games that are based on stuff like Pacman, we can basically call it something else and use other objects, and we won't be violating copyright...Unless you're Hasbro, and you think that you own the rights to every Asteroids clone. B-)