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Well... Looks like the producers of TRIBBLE have some serious explaining to do
lazarus51166
Member Posts: 646 Arc User
in Ten Forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_CnDD_MXq4The tl;dr version: as the video shows, it looks an awful lot like someone involved in the development of Discovery may have stolen the idea of the tartigrade drive from the steam game 'tartigrades' - to the point that the developer has actually commented on it and posted info and images that look far too similar to be a coincidence
That is exactly the kind of thing that could get the series cancelled on the spot, if it turns out to be true. The CBS legal department won't be liking this one bit
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If they bought the rights, then the developer of that game would be cheering that their creation is in Star Trek even if it is Discovery instead of wondering why it is in Discovery. Tardigrades can't be plagiarized since it is an actual microscopic creature. However, giant Tardigrades that allow instantaneous travel to distant star systems could be plagiarism. Although at this point of time, any form of interstellar transportation could be considered as plagiarism due to some novel, movie, or TV show.
There were more 'coincidences' than just the concept of the drive itself. There are alot of minor details such as at least 3 of the characters being oddly similar - to the point the cartoon characters even have the same physical features and two of them are in a TRIBBLE relationship with each other..which you have to admit is oddly specific
and patrick, they didn't buy the rights, the developer didn't even know about it until some of his players pointed it out to him, and as matt said in the video, the reason he did the dev blogs shown in the video were to prevent people from getting the idea that he ripped off ideas from TRIBBLE for his game (note that the game came out about a year before the announcement of the series was made)
So, like I said, something fishy is definitely going on on some level. This is definitely something cbs needs to know about
However, the developer has been making semi-regular updates to it:
The game looks interesting, if point-and-click is your thing. I wonder if he will feel compelled to change story elements in response to this? Unlikely, given the developer's official response:
Assuming someone on the creative staff of Star Trek: Discovery did borrow heavily from the concepts in 'Tartigrades', I'm not certain there is much the developer can do, since it is not finished game.
Uhh.... If anything that blog post heavily implies TRIBBLE ripped off ideas from this guys game. It doesn't need to be a finished game, he came up with his idea and the existence of the game and its concepts have been made public. Its his concept. I mean hell they took character concepts right out of the game by his own admission. He is very much within his rights to make a legal issue of it if he chooses. A company getting caught doing something like this, let alone to an indie developer is liable to get itself into a very difficult legal situation. Its the kind of thing that can easily get a tv series cancelled. Hell some of those scenes and images from TRIBBLE look like they were pulled directly from the game
He can make a legal issue of it if he chooses to, whether he will or not is another matter. At the very least cbs corporate legal should be made aware of this
No. The developer has considerable legal grounds. Ripping specific concepts and plot points from someones game in order to put into your own product for profit is a good way to get sued for violating intellectual property laws. I'll say it again - several of the things that were mentioned were almost identical. That is not legal. It is not 'a collection of ideas' Its a game in development that has has information about it put out there by the dev a year prior to the series going into production. If the situation were reversed CBS would already have their lawyers on him. The game does not need to have been completed, it only needs to exist. Hell we're not even talking about ideas we're talking about explicit plot points for the game being stolen, not just vague concepts. It isn't 'we took the idea to make a first person shooter' its 'we took the idea to make a first person shooter where you're a space marine killing demons on mars right down to the specific features of those demons' and then acting like you did nothing wrong when id finds out about it., or 'we have a faster than light drive' vs 'we have a faster than light drive called a warp drive that uses dilithium crystals to operate' They're doing the same thing here. We aren't talking about vague concepts here.
Situations like this are exactly why licensing intellectual property rights exists and why you don't see a hundred clones of star wars, star trek and a dozen other popular IPs all over the place
CBS is not likely to address it publicly, nor does any company accused of any illegal action. But they very much will respond to it internally and with the developer should he decide to make an issue of it
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
In a situation like this, the indie developer doesn't have the legal position to call them out on it, neither the power to enforce it or the duration to make the case last. it would be best to just change the content and move on. For indie devs, there needs to be extra safeguards to protect these small teams from such abuse from big groups like CBS who can afford their super priced lawyers for a prolonged case.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
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Its not theirs if they stole it from someone else. That is the entire point of having copyright laws
Which is blatantly illegal, and very easy to prove in court if someone does something that blatant
Yes he does. He has them dead to rights and in a very difficult legal position when it comes to explaining themselves
Yes he does, its called getting a lawyer. Duration? He has physical proof predating everything cbs did. He has them by the balls under those circumstances
No it wouldn't. You can't steal something from a person and then make THEM change their own product to protect your theft. What are they going to do? send him a threatening letter? That would put cbs in a very difficult position as soon as what they did came out
The best thing for him to do is to contact cbs directly, explain the situation and tell them to explain themselves
Having expensive lawyers does not mean you will win. It doesn't work that way. You still need reasonable proof. He has physical proof that predates their production. There is nothing to prolong - either they have proof as to where these aspects of their show came from independent of this guys game or a court would be required by law to rule in the devs favor
It will, indie devs don't have the money to throw around on laywers, much less for a long amount of time. What happens when that indie dev runs out of money for the laywer while CBS draws out the proceedings? The challenge ceases to exist. It's not a case of how right or wrong CBS is, it's about having the power, the ability and the money to deal with the situation and the indie devs just don't have anything of the sort compared to CBS.
Even if CBS lost the case, CBS could simply just buy the game and the ip out right at a later date anyway.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Mr. Spock: And the ways our differences combine, to create meaning and beauty.
-Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968)
IF you do wish to make a case for copyright infringements, you may want to look at other cases where ideas were blatantly ripped from other sources and some others are ovbious clones with a different name and slightly different setting, but these are not challenged. Not every case will get to a court room, especially for something so minor or something so blatantly copied.
unfortunate fact is that he can't do anything about it other than changing the content to avoid any type of legal trouble. thats the position he is in right now irrespective of the legality of the content.
That case is long closed and besides a potentially shaky bit of minor content, what have you really got to take to court? and how would it influence the case on axanar?
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
it wouldn't hurt if he did change it and he could keep the original somewhere safe. If one day he wishes to challenge CBS when he has the ability to, he can do that. For him it's just about survival for him and his game at this early point. Again legality aside, he can't do anything about it right now. He either focuses on using his money to defend his content against CBS which would mean a laywer, court fees and what not, or producing his game and working on getting more money through steam.
which choice should he make?
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Not 100% but I believe you have to make a claim within a certain time frame otherwise you give up the right to go after the infringing group.
Mr. Spock: And the ways our differences combine, to create meaning and beauty.
-Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968)
Now, there's a pretty doggone huge difference between using one as a sort of organic supercomputer to tie into an interstellar network of quantum-entangled mycelial threads, and having one envelop you as a sort of biological spacesuit before engaging in transgalactic teleportation under its own power (and why intergalactic travel? Wouldn't interstellar be more than sufficient?). It's simply not reasonable, in my opinion, to claim that the not-fully-produced Steam game Tardigrades inspired in any meaningful way the spore drive in ST:D.
Most likely the producers read in the news about Tardigrades being left in space and went from there.
Maybe they even saw this vid at 2:30 and made a connection
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6H0E77TdYnY
The project was called "Tardigrades in Space", with the shorthand being - TARDIS.
Frankly that's more likely to be an inspiration than the producers buying an unheard of game on steam and using it as inspiration for a major TV show. To be honest it sounds like that's where the developer got the idea from also.
So Discovery has the Tardigrade getting dumped into space (like the above project), where it dematerialises. Meanwhile the game had you get in a Tardi(s)grade and travel. Yup, sounds more likely they got the inspiration from the news, consciously or otherwise.
What is it with sci-fi fans assuming something is a ripoff because something has a very very mild similarity.
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Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
A legal challenge is pretty big as far as negative press goes, and a bid corporation stealing from a little developer even more so.
Mostly unbelievable.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
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