Suits: Let the Wars begin

Ya, I know, the title might be a bit misleading. Because the post is in no way related to the Second Season of Suits, the hit TV series based on, well...lawsuits.. As much as I love the show, its not the current topic of discussion. The focus right now is on two lawsuits that are going to change the rules of the game, one of them quite literally! If you haven't been following the tech buzz, well here's a glimpse.

Yes, the Apple-Samsung trial is finally underway. Apple and Samsung had long been technology partners, Apple being a world leader in innovation spearheaded by Steve Jobs, and Samsung being a household name in electronics arena. With the release of Android, Samsung upgraded its arsenal of mobile phones, but everyone knew that Iphone was a different league altogether. Thats until, Galaxy S hit the market, a phone very similar to the Iphone in design, but most importantly in features particularly some that Apple had not licensed to any company. Samsung meanwhile, riding high on the Android wave, knocked Nokia to emerge the leader in the mobile market, also making Android the top selling mobile OS. Back in 2010, Apple preferred that Samsung had applied for a licence beforehand and asked for a royalty of $30 per Smartphone sold in US which in 2010 meant around 250million for Samsung, with Steve Jobs personally handling the deal. Not only did Samsung decline, it unveiled new products in the market including its own tab. Finally, Apple filed a much publicized lawsuit against Samsung for 2.5 billion US dollars, but it doesnt end there, the stakes are too high. If Apple wins, Samsung would have to stop the production and shipment of its smartphones infringing the licenses in US.

Also if Apple wins, surely HTC and the likes will be attacked. The lawsuit is clearly a Apple-vs-the World kind, because apart from the mobile giants, Google's Android would be severely affected. Steve Jobs said once that he wanted to "destroy" Android which he considered a "wholesale" ripoff of the Iphone. Samsung on the other hand has accused Apple of counter-infringement and has even said, that "Apple is fighting over a rectangle! If customers want a rectangle phone, we will give them rectangle phones." Samsung has backing of Google which although isn't directly involved but has a lot riding on the outcome. The case is currently on going in California, and will be ending around August 24. From releasing of sensitive material to jury, which was not to be disclosed, to the destruction of emails, the case has all the ingredients of a hollywood potboiler. Even a lot of Apple's secrets are being spilled  including the design secrets of the Iphone, the company sales figures, the revenue Apple makes from each Iphone sold(100-150$), to the agreement between the biggest rivals Microsoft and Apple, that they would never copy each other's technology. The most prominent evidence till now has been side by side comparison images of icons and graphics used in both phones. Apple has even managed a preliminary injunction against Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the judge using the statement , "Although Samsung has the right to compete, it does not have the right to compete by flooding the market with infringing products." Currently, Apple has presented their case, and is now resting. Lets wait and watch, what Samsung has to say.

Zynga, a pioneer in the Social Gaming arena, particularly known for titles like Mafia,FarmVille and Zynga Poker, has been in news lately for all the wrong reasons. The company has been accused of insider trading. Last year, when Zynga's stock prices were high and the company had met the annual projections, Zynga projected even higher returns for the next year owing to its steeply increasing userbase. And then Zynga's stock crashed. The company is being accused of providing wrong estimates even though insiders had prior knowledge of the same. During the public offering, CEO Mark Pincus and a number of investors cashed out, selling 516million in stock. While the company is now at an all time low, lingering near the stock price of $3 from $12 in april this year, CEO Mark Pincus has purchased a 16million mansion on Gold Coast. But this isnt the least of Zynga's trouble.

          Over the years, zynga has developed many titles that had "close resemblance" to many games developed by smaller publishers like the tiny tower resemblance to Dream Heights. But nobody raised an eyebrow because basically Zynga is a big dog, and you dont mess with a big dog. So when Zynga released The Ville, it appeared as a simple follow up to FarmVille and Co, but a closer look revealed that it was very much like our beloved Sims Social, part of the Sims series released by EA and for starters, you don't mess with EA. Gaming giant Electronic Arts has decided to put a leash on the big dog saying, "The legal reasons are solid, but for creative teams who feel that their hard work and imaginations have been ripped off, there is an emotional element too". Zynga retorted that "It's unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles." So what did Zynga really mean?? Clearly zynga has been utilizing a very basic loophole in Laws of Copyright in games, that there is no clear law! First of all, the laws for video games are not very well defined, so if this lawsuit makes it to court, the best that it would do is to redefine intellectual property rights in games. The key problem here is the idea/expression dichotomy, idea can be the same but its expression has to be different. But how similar can the expression be, the visuals, the sound, the gameplay, there are too many factors at play!

K. C. Munchkin and PacMan(right)

         When Atari(PacMan) slammed a lawsuit on North American Phillips(K. C. Munchkin), the court ruled in favour of PacMan even though K.C. Munchkin had only a dozen dots, the walls shifted and the dots moved to avoid being eaten. EA clearly has the upper hand, claiming that the many things have been copied directly like design of the furniture, the shape of the fridge, even the evil character called "The Villian" has been replicated with the exact skin tone and gestures particularly the bend of the knee shown in the screenshot.

           Zynga on the other hands released a statement saying that it was proud of its developers quoting examples of Facebook as not being the first Social Network or Google as not being the first search engine. The ideas had been implemented before them(Facebook and Google) too, but they survived because they were the best.

Whatever be the result of the lawsuit, EA would do the gaming community a big favor by defining the boundaries of expression. The gaming industry has not seen a lawsuit of this scale, and independent game developers couldn't be happier. As for Zynga, the nightmare has just begun.