Gizmodo’s editor-in-chief Daniel Ackerman has reportedly filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court accusing Apple, the Tetris Company and others of adapting his 2016 published book “The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World” into this year’s feature film “Tetris” without his permission, according to Reuters.
Ackerman reportedly claims he sent a pre-publication copy of his book to the Tetris Company and says the company refused to license its intellectual property for projects related to his book, dissuaded producers interested in adapting it, and sending Ackerman a “strongly worded” cease and desist letter.
According to the complaint, company CEO Maya Rogers and screenwriter Noah Pink allegedly started copying from Ackerman’s book for the screenplay in 2017 with Ackerman claiming the film: “liberally borrowed numerous specific sections and events of the book” and is “similar in almost all material respects” – particularly how it frames the game’s release as a “Cold War spy thriller”.
Complicating the case is that the film and book both draw on real historical facts which are not generally protected by copyright law.
Ackerman’s accusation includes claims of copyright infringement and unfair competition. He has reportedly asked the court for damages equaling at least 6% of the film’s $80 million production budget – or $4.8 million.
The movie itself premiered on the Apple TV+ service in March and starred Taron Egerton in the story of the race to license and patent the video game from Russia in the late 1980s during the Cold War.
Source: Reuters
