Copyright question regarding clones

Anyone who made apps similar to mainstream apps got your app pulled or outright banned before? I got a tetris clone banned on Amazon. It didn’t use the tetris name, only used similar shaped pieces for one of the game modes. Before I made it, I noticed that there were a lot of tetris clones on google play and amazon, so I thought it would be okay. There are still clones of tetris in there now. How do they remain up there despite being on the 1st page of the search results? Do they have a license from the tetris company or are they additional accounts made by the same company pretending to be different indie developers in order to crowd out competition and also to bait new developers into wasting their time? I find it strange they went after me despite my app only have less than 7k downloads and only popular in 3rd World countries while they ignored the more popular clones.

I emailed them asking how my app violated copyright, but they never gave me details, except “infringed on the visual representation.” I asked them if we could work it out by letting me modify the app so that it doesn’t violate their copyright, but they ignored me. :frowning:

Before they took action on Google Play, I unpublished the app, modified it so that none of it resembled the copyrighted elements (which I discovered after my app was pulled), and then republished it. Is my app safe from being DMCA’d?

Often the mature results you find are just not being picked up by Google/Amazon/reporting users or a copyright owner.
In many cases its the newer apps and games that get targeted. The only reason I can imagine this may be is due to them only monitoring new content from a certain stage, since there is already so many apps and games out there on these markets.
With that said, I don’t see that as being an efficient way of them tackling the problem, especially when these companies often use automated systems aka “bots” to handle lots of this type of work.

If you are removed via DMCA you will be told that in most cases.
If the removal is from a DMCA then you’d think all the other content you believed was also in violation would be removed. Again this sometimes is not the case.
Either the filer of the DMCA doesn’t see a violation/they don’t believe they have grounds to file a violation/they somehow didn’t come across the other content.

So when a new app/game is removed, like yours was, many developers believe the removal was triggered by the established competitors. While this may be a paranoid statement, it is definitely a feasible one.

In response to your final question, a DMCA cannot be filed on content which is no longer publicly available, so unpublishing an app/game will make you safe from a DMCA.

I think he wanted to know if the new version of his tetris clone - after he removed all elements that resembled the original game - is in danger. I think if the graphics, music, sounds and name are all different he is safe, it’s just a clone. His mistake seems to have been in using almost identical graphics to the original Tetris.

Often the mature results you find are just not being picked up by Google/Amazon/reporting users or a copyright owner.
In many cases its the newer apps and games that get targeted.

I don’t think mature apps are immune. I haven’t seen those Tetris clones before. They were uploaded/updated recently. My app has been on amazon and google play for over a year. I just got back into android development recently. I’ve noticed two aged Tetris-clone apps, Torus and Traris are gone from the google play market as well as from the amazon app store. Whatever they’re doing, it’s inconsistent and unprofessional. It looks more like the activity of someone or a group of people reporting apps rather than a systematic effort to purge all clones from the market.

His mistake seems to have been in using almost identical graphics to the original Tetris.

All graphics I used were completely drawn by myself using a graphic editor in a style and selection of colors that were never used in any Tetris game. The only resemblances are the variety of strongly contrasting colors, similar size of play field, and the placement of various graphic details: score, next piece, and lines cleared. I’ve learned that even removing/altering the display of the score, next piece, and lines cleared and changing the size of the pit aren’t enough. Just using the same Tetris pieces is enough for them to make a copyright infringement claim.

I still can’t rule out the possibilities that they’re baiting new developers into wasting their time and that the popular clones are made by the same company under a different name. Since Google allows multiple accounts from one person, these are good strategies to fight against competition.

The tetrinomoe “pieces” are copyrighted by the tetris company. And the tetris company is one of those companies like disney who actively try to protect their copyrights.

What a world. :confused: How can you copyright simple shapes?

Apple has a copyright on the rectangle shaped phone. It’s basically what they sued samsung for and won.