Things You Should Know if You Play Candy Crush Saga or Are Concerned about Copyright
Now if you are a player, I don't want to take your crack away, but here are a couple of articles on the unethical behavior of the company behind Candy Crush Saga and the growing trend to copyright common English words.
First if you play CCS, consider also buying CandySwipe the original game that CCS was created from:
I Can't Believe They Are Doing This, It's Disgusting
I haven't ever played CCS, but I felt bad enough after reading the above article to give CandySwipe a go and a few bucks. I don't play many computer games, but it is amusing and kills time when I am waiting for something.
And apparently King the makers of CCS think they should be able to copyright "Candy," "Crush," and "Saga" for all time in all game contexts which just seems scary and insane to me. Apparently, having a pre-existing game or using a normal English word is not longer protected from crazy copyright lawsuits. It just matters who has more money to spend on lawyers. Is this really how we want the US legal system to run? Really?
'Candy Crush Saga' Tries to Crush 'The Banner Saga' In Bizarre Trademark Saga
Yes, I am picking on King in this post, but it really isn't their fault as the legal system is currently encouraging this type of behavior and consumers are allowing it by not taking their game playing hours elsewhere. If you have paid for CCS there is no reason to stop playing, but maybe think twice before you pick up another King game.
Also if you want to know more about how game companies are extracting a lot of cash from players, please read my previous post:
http://allisondroberts.tumblr.com/post/62311273063/gamasutra-ramin-shokrizades-blog-the-top-f2p
The Associated Geekery podcast is back again for your listening pleasure!
Carrie’s back with Doc and Ryan to discuss a bunch of news from around the nerdosphere!
First off, we extoll the virtue of writer Matt Fraction, then discussion of comic-cons in New York and Denver- a collection good news, bad news and weird news.
Why you should play Candy Swipe (and not candy crush saga)
I jumped off the love seat and dove across my living room. I tore through my laptop case until I had a hold of my lifeline: a power cord for my Samsung Galaxy tablet which had just alerted me with a low battery notice as soon as I was about to win level 38 on Candy Crush Saga.
With one move left in the game, I had only one jelly left to clear before I won. I COULD NOT lose this one to a battery…
Candy Crush Saga Crushed The Competition--After Stealing The Idea
Courtesy of Phandroid.com
Jayden Sheppard
Staff Writer
@_JaydenSheppard
Candy Crush Saga has found itself in some legal trouble.
Every now and then, an application will appear at the top of the charts for Apple or Android products, which will take over our lives and create a small addiction for all of us, when we are meant to be either working or studying (depending on age).
We have seen it in the likes of FarmVille, Angry Birds, Words with Friends, and more recently Flappy Bird.
The addictive game of 2013 was Candy Crush Saga (more commonly known as just Candy Crush). The game was so popular that it even made an appearance in Psy’s music video “Gentleman”.
In an open letter, Albert Ransom explains that his motivation behind making the game was in memory of his mother, and he is calling off his legal battle with them.
Read the full letter by Ransom below:
Dear King,
Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia. I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the android game, you will still get the message saying "...the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla..." I created this game for warmhearted people like her and to help support my family, wife and two boys 10 and 4. Two years after I released CandySwipe, you released Candy Crush Saga on mobile; the app icon, candy pieces, and even the rewarding, "Sweet!" are nearly identical.
So much so, that I have hundreds of instances of actual confusion from users who think CandySwipe is Candy Crush Saga, or that CandySwipe is a Candy Crush Saga knockoff. So when you attempted to register your trademark in 2012, I opposed it for "likelihood of confusion" (which is within my legal right) given I filed for my registered trademark back in 2010 (two years before Candy Crush Saga existed). Now, after quietly battling this trademark opposition for a year, I have learned that you now want to cancel my CandySwipe trademark so that I don't have the right to use my own game's name. You are able to do this because only within the last month you purchased the rights to a game named Candy Crusher (which is nothing like CandySwipe or even Candy Crush Saga). Good for you, you win. I hope you're happy taking the food out of my family's mouth when CandySwipe clearly existed well before Candy Crush Saga.
I have spent over three years working on this game as an independent app developer. I learned how to code on my own after my mother passed and CandySwipe was my first and most successful game; it's my livelihood, and you are now attempting to take that away from me. You have taken away the possibility of CandySwipe blossoming into what it has the potential of becoming. I have been quiet, not to exploit the situation, hoping that both sides could agree on a peaceful resolution. However, your move to buy a trademark for the sole purpose of getting away with infringing on the CandySwipe trademark and goodwill just sickens me.
This also contradicts your recent quote by Riccardo in "An open letter on intellectual property" posted on your website which states, "We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large - have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create."
I myself was only trying to protect my hard work.
I wanted to take this moment to write you this letter so that you know who I am. Because I now know exactly what you are. Congratulations on your success!
Sincerely,
Albert Ransom
President (Founder), Runsome Apps Inc.
http://www.tickld.com/x/i-cant-believe-they-are-doing-this-its-disgusting
Open letter to King.com who wants to cancel the registration of the CandySwipe trademark.
Dear King,
Congratulations! You win! I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia. I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the android game, you will still get the message saying "...the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla..." I created this game for warmhearted people like her and to help support my family, wife and two boys 10 and 4. Two years after I released CandySwipe, you released Candy Crush Saga on mobile; the app icon, candy pieces, and even the rewarding, "Sweet!" are nearly identical.
So much so, that I have hundreds of instances of actual confusion from users who think CandySwipe is Candy Crush Saga, or that CandySwipe is a Candy Crush Saga knockoff. So when you attempted to register your trademark in 2012, I opposed it for "likelihood of confusion" (which is within my legal right) given I filed for my registered trademark back in 2010 (two years before Candy Crush Saga existed). Now, after quietly battling this trademark opposition for a year, I have learned that you now want to cancel my CandySwipe trademark so that I don't have the right to use my own game's name. You are able to do this because only within the last month you purchased the rights to a game named Candy Crusher (which is nothing like CandySwipe or even Candy Crush Saga). Good for you, you win. I hope you're happy taking the food out of my family's mouth when CandySwipe clearly existed well before Candy Crush Saga.
I have spent over three years working on this game as an independent app developer. I learned how to code on my own after my mother passed and CandySwipe was my first and most successful game; it's my livelihood, and you are now attempting to take that away from me. You have taken away the possibility of CandySwipe blossoming into what it has the potential of becoming. I have been quiet, not to exploit the situation, hoping that both sides could agree on a peaceful resolution. However, your move to buy a trademark for the sole purpose of getting away with infringing on the CandySwipe trademark and goodwill just sickens me.
This also contradicts your recent quote by Riccardo in "An open letter on intellectual property" posted on your website which states, "We believe in a thriving game development community, and believe that good game developers – both small and large - have every right to protect the hard work they do and the games they create."
I myself was only trying to protect my hard work.
I wanted to take this moment to write you this letter so that you know who I am. Because I now know exactly what you are. Congratulations on your success!
Sincerely,
Albert Ransom
President (Founder), Runsome Apps Inc.
Cuando llegué hace algunos años a Barcelona me encontré con la sorpresa que la palabra 'donut' estaba registrada por la marca Panrico. Aunque me causó muchísima extrañeza que una palabra tan común estuviese registrada por una empresa privada, me imaginaba que debían de haber registrado la palabra hace muchos años -quizá durante el franquismo- cuando los anglicismos aún no eran tan populares en España. Cabe mencionar que estaba equivocado, y que lo que ha hecho Panrico es lo mismo que ha hecho la empresa King -las creadoras de Candy Crush Saga- que han registrado para su uso comercial exclusivo dos palabras muy comunes en el idioma inglés: candy y saga. Esto, pese a que el juego Candy Swipe había sido lanzado al mercado dos años antes, y que mediante una sentida carta de su creador Albert Ransom denuncia las malas prácticas de la empresa King en conjunto con el plagio que Candy Crush Saga ha hecho de ciertos aspectos de Candy Swipe.
Es innevitable preguntarse hasta que punto los sujetos e instituciones del mundo corporativo pretenden apropiarse de algo tan cotidiano y público como es el lenguaje, registrando palabras genéricas como Candy o Donut, y hasta que punto también los estados permiten esta apropiación. Los casos de Panrico y King son casos que sin duda debemos analizar, tomar en cuenta y denunciar como malas prácticas de una industria mundial que no escatima esfuerzos en la apropiación ilícita de nuestros recursos culturales para luego cobrarnos por ellos.
Nerds Assemble episode 76: Do exclusives hold sway over you?
This week: suspect trailers, Watch Dogs, the plight of Candy Swipe, Ellen Page and videogame exclusives.
Paul, Paul and Paul (sorry, no Emily this week) discuss:
This trailer for Tarzan 3D
The delay of Watch Dogs for Wii U
What Candy Crush Saga developers King has done to Candy Swipe
Ellen Page's recent news
And we spend the final part of the show discussing console exclusives in videogames from what happened with the Xbox 360 and Mass Effect to games that have stayed with one console manufacturer, like the Uncharted series on PlayStation 3 and 4. Plus: how much will exclusives continue to play in our decisions to upgrade to either the PlayStation 4 of the Xbox One.
So, are you sitting comfortably?
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