Tetris clones

[Kelly]

On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:50 am Wart wrote:
> It was recently brought to my attention[1] that the bsd-games package
> contains 'tetris-bsd', a curses-based tetris clone.  This was an
> oversight on my part, because if I had paid closer attention during the
> review I would have stripped the name 'tetris' and replaced it with
> something less objectionable.  Now that I know, I'll do that anyway.
>
> But the bug report is claiming that all tetris clones are illegal and
> should be removed, not just the name 'tetris'.  What is the legal status
> of tetris (and other game) clones?  Can we get some "official" word from
> a legal department on what is and isn't allowed?
>
> --Wart
> [1]https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=238526

IANAL, but it is generally not possible to claim copyright over a game, so 
only the title would be in a state of legal violation (as the term Tetris is 
a registered trademark).

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