Mafia Wars vs. Mob Wars Battle To Take Place In Court Rather Than Online
from the take-it-to-the-matresses dept
Apparently the creator behind the Facebook game Mob Wars is suing the creator of the similar game Mafia Wars for copyright infringement. Zynga, the makers of Mafia Wars have basically built a pretty good business around making copies of other (sometimes well-known, sometimes not) games for platforms like Facebook, MySpace and other sites. But that's fine. Both Mob Wars and Mafia Wars are popular -- and having the two compete with each other shouldn't be a bad thing. It drives both developers to keep improving the overall experience. Besides, both games are based on concepts that have been popular in games for ages -- since well before either came into existence. Could you imagine if only one software company could produce a Texas Hold 'Em app? Or only one company could produce a baseball video game? That would be silly. So why should only one company be able to produce a text-based game about mobsters? Just focus on competing online, rather than in the courtroom.
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Filed Under: copyright, iphone games, mafia wars, mob wars
Companies: zynga
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Re:
Yes, but the article doesn't suggest a trademark claim, but a copyright one.
I'd agree (mostly) on a trademark claim if there is a trademark held by the first company on the name.
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Here it comes....
"I want him dead! I want his whole family dead! I want his house burned to the ground! And god help anybody that tries to make a video game about me!"
Prior art, lots of it, get over the fact that somebody had the same idea as you and make yours better. Or, conversely, whack the opposition. It would be interesting to see a copyright infringement lawsuit fought out on the streets of LA by the Gangs of New York.
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Here it comes....
The point I was trying to make with my pointless diatribe was that there are only so many things you can call Mafia-based video games.
"The Italian Whack-Job?"
"Families settle a score?"
"The Favor Game?"
"Elliot Ness and His Band of Merry Fellows?"
"La Familia?"
"Omerta?" I like that one, but probably already taken.
"Scarface?" Copyrighted. "Scar?" Character in a disney movie so protected by overeager teams of mouse-ear wearing lawyers.
"War of the Five Families and Anyone Else Who Wants to Join In?" Good, but probably too long of a title for whatever IM apps are in use today.
"Capo?" Good, but easily mistaken for a nice, hot coffee brand and get sued by Starbucks.
"Capo de tutti Capi?" Good, but when abbreviated it sounds like a bio-war game.
See my point? We have THE MOB, and THE MAFIA. Based on actual case files and good old fiction. There really isn't anything else to call a good-old-going-to-the-mattresses game.
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Re: Here it comes....
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Re: Here it comes....
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Maybe, but probably not
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Re: Maybe, but probably not
In this case, it looks like it is a direct rip off... They have identical menu systems, fighting works the same, jobs work the same, properties work the same. It looks like the only things Mafia Wars changed was the graphics and some of the names.
To me (and I ain't no laywer) it looks like a violation of copying one's intellectual property. Mafia Wars needs to at least change the experience slightly to make it their own, but right now its just way too similar.
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Re: Re: Maybe, but probably not
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but what if......
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I can't see it either way
Stupid lawsuit, but then again most are.
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Re: I can't see it either way
If Zynga wants to say it's a free game in court so why sue any Rep from Mobsters can contact me i'd be glad to show them my invoices.
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Re: Re: I can't see it either way
Looks as though you're like so many other people that want a shortcut to flaunt your e-penis so you spend money.
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Re: I can't see it either way
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That Would be Silly
What if only one company could produce a football video game? Oh yeah, Electronic Arts solely releases the same crappy football video game every year!
Video games prosper with competition, and I believe it is good. 2K Sports gave Madden a run for their money, if not eclipsing them one year. Now, after the NFL Player's INC exclusive rights were sold to EA, we are left with one crappy game.
You could easily say that 2K Sports copied Madden to get where they were and to be a competetor. So to have Mafia Wars take a model that Mob Wars had a chance to act on doesn't really bother me.[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: That Would be Silly
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amusing
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Mob Wars v. Mafia Wars
Thats why they are suing if they even are.
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Re: Mob Wars v. Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars was a direct rip of Mob Wars plain and simple. Maybe you didn't take the time to play them, Mike. They've both changed to different degrees since this article but it doesn't change the fact they used identical statistical data and the same layout. I'm for innovation but completely against this socialistic world that TechDirt seems to push these days.
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It's about Money
Mob Wars has a pretty good claim of Copyright infringment the way I see it. The damages would be any advertising $$ that they lost out on.
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Have you played both games?
It isn't the same as being two separate games from the same genre, i.e., football, nor are mobwars games based off a pre-existing game either where the rules would be very rigid and there would only be so many ways to create games from that genre. It definitely was a calculated move on Zynga's part to take the success of MobWars to their own servers. Further, poker isn't under the same copyright issues as MobWars since poker is old enough to be public domain.
And to those complete assclowns that think it doesn't matter because the games are free. It is called advertising, donations and a "spare change" system.
Seriously, before commenting on this at least have a shred of knowledge of how the law works and what both games are like.
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Re: Have you played both games?
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Mafia Wars deserves to lose
If Zynga wanted to compete with Mob Wars then they could have just made a totally different game and seen who played what.
If Zynga do not have the imagination to come up with a new game and would like to use Mob Wars' idea, then they owe Mob Wars, they don't actually have the right to 'compete with' and potentially steal their business.
I work in Graphic Design - an industry that relies heavily on copyright law. If I want to use a photograph, an illustration, a font, a logo, I would pay for it, or at least get permission to use it.
If someone comes up with a cool idea, you give them credit for it, you do not steal it and pass it off as your own.
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Added to this, are the constraints imposed by the playing enviroment facebook imposes. This by definition dictate largely that games will have a similar feel to them. A defence would just need to show how there are numerous games out there already that Mob Wars owes itself to. This would just call into question any claim to originality and ownership of the concept they think they own. It would be be like one football game developer claiming the other ripped them off. There are only so many ways to play football as indeed turn based limited graphical games. Yeah, Mafia Wars is simalar but I assume they were clever enough to avoid using any source code from Mob Wars and clever enogh to have checked thoroughly how much Mafia Wars needed changing not leave them likely to loose in court.
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zynga
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Games before them
On the other hand, the scrabble app did get taken doen a year ago from the hasbro lawsuit.
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Mob Wars isn't original
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It's IP fraud
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WTF?
Oh, and if you want to complain about only one company producing something, look at Electronic Arts sometime. Madden is the ONLY football game. Period. Nobody else can make any game using real players or stadiums but EA.
Go peddle your communist crap about property belonging to everybody someplace they'll appreciate it. Like China, where they regularly violate intellectual property without fear of punishment.
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