As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit was filed by Dan Ackerman against Apple, screenwriter Noah Pink, Marv Studios, the Tetris Company, and others. The lawsuit alleges that “Tetris” is “substantially similar in almost all material respects” to his book published in 2016 entitled “The Tetris Effect.”
The lawsuit says:
The movie entitled “Tetris” demonstrated the confiscation of Dan Ackerman’s original work and creation of his book “The Tetris Effect.” Plaintiff Ackerman’s book took a unique approach to writing about the real history of Tetris, as it not only applied the historical record, but also layered his own original research and ingenuity to create a compelling narrative non-fiction book in the style of a Cold War spy thriller. Mr. Ackerman’s literary masterpiece, unlike other articles and writings, dispelled of the emphasis on the actual gameplay and fans, and instead concentrated on the surrounding narrative, action sequences, and adversarial relationship between the players. This was the identical approach Defendants adopted for the Tetris Film, without notable material distinction, but often resonating the exact same feel, tone, approach, and scenes as the book introduced several years prior. As demonstrated herein, it becomes readily apparent that the Tetris film is substantially similar in almost all material respects including specific chapters and pages of said book that were simply adopted from the book to the film, without Plaintiff’s knowledge, authorization, or consent.
Ackerman says that he sent a pre-release copy of “The Tetris Effect” to the Tetris Company in July 2016. CEO Maya Rogers, however, allegedly instructed the company not to “license any of the Tetris intellectual property, such as its name and image, for any motion picture or television project.” (…)
Gizmodo hasn’t been relevant since they leaked the iPhone 4 and Apple marked them ex-communicado
It seemed like they copied Gaming Historian’s The Story of Tetris, I didn’t know there was a book
That’s how I learned of the history. I doubt they copied that video though. I watched the movie expecting it to be like the video and it really isn’t.
I’ve heard the movie takes some creative liberties with the actual story. Still have yet to watch it.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=_fQtxKmgJC8
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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So his claim is just that they copied the “spy thriller” tone of his book? I did a single PowerPoint slide on Tetris last year and got a pretty similar vibe from the Wikipedia page, so I don’t think it’s impossible they came up with that independently. Ultimately I think it’ll be difficult to prove unless there are fictional scenes in both that are fairly similar. Anything that actually happened that’s similar he couldn’t prove they got from his book. All this to say it’s definitely not impossible they were inspired by his book, I imagine stuff like that happens all the time. I’m just not sure he will be able to prove that enough to win.
The fact that he sent them his book and they rejected a film project and barred him from moving forward with it only to make one with someone else is highly relevant. If it goes to trial, discovery may find employees referencing the book showing they ripped off his idea. Likely they will settle out of court.
He submitted the book to the Tetris Company, but Apple is who he’s suing. Also, it’s fairly common for large companies to receive unsolicited materials and reject them without reviewing them in order to protect themselves from lawsuits like this.
But yeah, if any evidence comes up in discovery, that would change things.
I am sure he can prove what in the film came from his book and what didn’t. The article specifies much of the book was written from his own sourcing.
If there is even 1 thing in the film that cant be sourced to a 2nd published article, than that proves his book was in part adapted.
They had multiple people that experienced these things first hand helping develop the script. So even if there isn’t a published article, they easily could’ve just been told by a first hand source.
That is always possible, but in this case I suspect that isn’t so.
This author has independent research and can likely prove that nobody before them ever presented the story in the structure of a spy thriller.
The author can also prove the Tetris company had the galleys before publishing. A professional studio would have likely never allowed one of their screenwriters to ever read the book. I think this case.is going to get settled.
His book of actual events?
It says he wrote it in the narrative of a Cold War spy thriller. The movie did that too. I get the impression actual events involved far more bureaucratic BS and difficulties in negotiation than thrilling espionage.