Su Jinyu said, "Manager, shouldn't we sue them?"
Jia Peng nodded, "Yeah, send them a lawyer's letter!"
Chen Mo shook his head, "It won't work."
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Why? Manager, don't jump to conclusions yet, let's hire a lawyer to ask. "
Chen Mo said, "Borrowing the rules of a game can't be considered plagiarism. The easiest way to determine plagiarism is if the art is similar, or if the content of the rules document is the same. If you can't prove that it's plagiarism from either of these two aspects, then it'll be difficult to defend your rights.
"Therefore, even if we send them a lawyer's letter, they'll probably throw it into the wastebasket."
Su Jinyu wasn't convinced, "But this game is too similar to Plants vs Zombies. Anyone with eyes can tell!"
Chen Mo said calmly, "But that's not enough to convict them."
Su Jinyu was a bit angry, but couldn't refute that.
Actually, Chen Mo had already done some research on the video game industry in this world after traveling to the parallel world, especially when it came to 'game plagiarism'.
Similar to his previous world, there were two main ways to determine plagiarism in this world. One was the art, music, sound, and text, and the other was the rules document, which was roughly equivalent to the source code in his previous world.
These two were the easiest ways to determine plagiarism, as long as they had concrete evidence, they would be able to sue.
However, it was the most important 'gameplay' that was difficult to determine if it was plagiarism.
In his previous world, the famous board game Legends of the Three Kingdoms filed a lawsuit against Legends of the Three Kingdoms, claiming that Legends of the Three Kingdoms plagiarized someone else's work.
However, Legends of the Three Kingdoms argued that the work done by the game designer, including the direction of the design, the design framework, and the details of the design, belonged to the concept of copyright law, and wasn't protected by copyright law.
Purely in terms of the rules of the game, Three Kingdoms Slayer suggested that the entire design concept of Three Kingdoms was modeled after the Italian card game Bang!. It was a false accusation.
In the end, the case came to an end with Shengda withdrawing the lawsuit.
There were many examples from his previous world, where 'borrowing' and 'plagiarism' were common. Other than a few cases with sufficient evidence, most cases of 'plagiarism' ended without a conclusion.
Of course, this was not entirely because the law was not perfect. One of the most important reasons was that the boundary between plagiarism and borrowing was very difficult to define.
Even the famous Monument Valley in his previous life was suspected of borrowing (plagiarizing) from Infinite Corridor.
Of course, the so-called "borrowing" was, to put it bluntly, "plagiarism", but to put it nicely, it was "inheritance" or "tribute".
It was the same in the parallel world. Although people had a much stronger awareness of copyright infringement and plagiarism, it was still easy to infringe and difficult to protect one's rights. Litigation would take a long time, and it would be very difficult to provide evidence. The time and money cost would be very high, and it would often result in the profits of the litigants being far lower than the costs.
Therefore, there were also cases of "plagiarism" in the parallel world, but they were all left unsettled.
Chen Mo took a quick look at the content of Lunar Defense. The art, music, and sound effects were all completely new, with no traces of Plants vs Zombies left behind.
As for the rules of the game, although it was similar to Plants vs Zombies, it was obvious that the designer had rewritten the design document from start to finish, making many changes to avoid legal risks.
It could only be said that Flying Limit Entertainment was a repeat offender. They knew where the boundaries of the law were, perfectly skirting around it.
Therefore, Chen Mo knew that even if he were to sue them, he wouldn't be able to gain anything from it, even if the public opinion was one-sided.
…
However, this didn't mean that Chen Mo was helpless, as he had expected this to happen.
Chen Mo downloaded the game, entered Defense of the Moon, and beat the first two levels.
"Don't worry, the game won't be popular," said Chen Mo.
"Huh? Why? "asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo handed the phone back to her, "You'll know once you try it out."
"It won't be popular? Manager, are you sure? "Wen Lingwei frowned.
Chang Xiuya nodded, "Yeah manager, the graphics are pretty good, and it's free."
Chen Mo said confidently, "I'm sure, it won't be popular."
Jia Peng asked after some hesitation, "Then, manager, are we still going to leave bad reviews?"
Chen Mo smiled, "Sure, whatever you want."
With that, Chen Mo turned around and headed to the second floor.
"Manager, don't go yet. You still haven't told me why the game won't be popular!" said Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo turned around and said, "I still have to plan a new game. As for why the game won't be popular, you're a videogame designer now, you should have your own ideas."
Chen Mo went upstairs.
Su Jinyu pouted and started playing Lunar Defense.
She was quite curious as to why Chen Mo was so sure that Lunar Defense wouldn't be popular.
The others were also curious.
Jia Peng was confused, "The manager seems very confident, how does he know the game won't be popular?"
Wen Lingwei said, "Maybe it's because of the ratings. Look, everyone's boycotting the game. How many people would play a game with a reputation like this, even if it's free? "
Another guy said, "I think it's because of the fees. When the manager made Plants vs Zombies, he didn't charge for advertising spots, so he must have his reasons. "
Jia Peng said hesitantly, "Then, are we still going to leave bad reviews …"
Wen Lingwei said, "Of course. Come, let's leave bad reviews, we'll uninstall after that!"
Su Jinyu felt that what everyone said made sense, but she still felt that Chen Mo had another reason.
Su Jinyu decided to play Defense of the Moon.
In the first level, the game guided the player to set up an energy supply station on the Moon base, then install a Cannon Tower to defeat the incoming Zergs.
In the second level, new Zergs were spawned, unlocking new defenses.
In the third level, new gameplay was also unlocked …
Su Jinyu played through level after level, and was about to uninstall the game by the time she reached the third level.
It was too similar to Plants vs Zombies, to the point that Su Jinyu felt like she was playing the second run of Plants vs Zombies adventure mode. She was already sick of the content, but Lunar Defense was still guiding her through it.
"Weird, why is the content so similar to Plants vs Zombies, and the quality of the game isn't bad, but I can't get into it …"
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