EA suing Zynga for copyright infringement

[Tanuki]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118884-EA-Sues-Zynga-for-Copying-The-Sims-Social

If EA wins this has the potential to be very, very bad for gaming.

[Skid]

If EA win Zynga get what they deserve, I'm not sure how The Escapist Magazine has resented it but Rock Paper Shotgun quoted internal EA e-mails and the basic jist is they are going after Zynga because this isn't the first time they blanketly ripped off a popular game but it is the first time they did it to a large company. You have seen the news about Zynga in the past right, they apparently have a habit of picking a popular current game, copying it, almost completely, in form and function, then release it as there own.

We aren't talking about the sort of crap that patent trolls get up to, we are talking about an outright clone that they are claiming as there own and selling it, not a spin off, not using features and improving on, just copying. If Zynga really do do that, to both large and more importantly small developers, then they need to be sued for all they are worth.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/03/ea-suing-zynga-over-the-ville-to-take-a-stand/#more-118754

[Tanuki]

The thing is they are copying gameplay and graphics style. All the assets and code are made by Zynga(hopefully). And I don't think it can be proven that their games are actually being advertised and misrepresented as other products.

http://kotaku.com/5931661/ea-sues-zynga-says-the-ville-rips-off-the-sims

By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don't have the resources to protect themselves.

I don't believe this. I think this is about money and competing products. I think if given a favorable ruling EA and other large-resource organizations will squeeze successful competitors.

It has been tried in the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter's_History