As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit was filed by Dan Ackerman against Apple, screenwriter Noah Pink, Marv Studios, the Tetris Company, and others. The lawsuit alleges that “Tetris” is “substantially similar in almost all material respects” to his book published in 2016 entitled “The Tetris Effect.”
The lawsuit says:
The movie entitled “Tetris” demonstrated the confiscation of Dan Ackerman’s original work and creation of his book “The Tetris Effect.” Plaintiff Ackerman’s book took a unique approach to writing about the real history of Tetris, as it not only applied the historical record, but also layered his own original research and ingenuity to create a compelling narrative non-fiction book in the style of a Cold War spy thriller. Mr. Ackerman’s literary masterpiece, unlike other articles and writings, dispelled of the emphasis on the actual gameplay and fans, and instead concentrated on the surrounding narrative, action sequences, and adversarial relationship between the players. This was the identical approach Defendants adopted for the Tetris Film, without notable material distinction, but often resonating the exact same feel, tone, approach, and scenes as the book introduced several years prior. As demonstrated herein, it becomes readily apparent that the Tetris film is substantially similar in almost all material respects including specific chapters and pages of said book that were simply adopted from the book to the film, without Plaintiff’s knowledge, authorization, or consent.
Ackerman says that he sent a pre-release copy of “The Tetris Effect” to the Tetris Company in July 2016. CEO Maya Rogers, however, allegedly instructed the company not to “license any of the Tetris intellectual property, such as its name and image, for any motion picture or television project.” (…)
I am sure he can prove what in the film came from his book and what didn’t. The article specifies much of the book was written from his own sourcing.
If there is even 1 thing in the film that cant be sourced to a 2nd published article, than that proves his book was in part adapted.
They had multiple people that experienced these things first hand helping develop the script. So even if there isn’t a published article, they easily could’ve just been told by a first hand source.
That is always possible, but in this case I suspect that isn’t so.
This author has independent research and can likely prove that nobody before them ever presented the story in the structure of a spy thriller.
The author can also prove the Tetris company had the galleys before publishing. A professional studio would have likely never allowed one of their screenwriters to ever read the book. I think this case.is going to get settled.
What makes you suspect the people they hired to provide first-hand accounts wouldn’t have done so? They wouldn’t even need to prove that they did, just the fact they had a source they could’ve gotten the information from would be sufficient, as long as the sources don’t testify that they explicitly didn’t give them that information.
And like I said, the story reads like that without much fluff. He may have been the first one to sell a book written like that but it’s not a huge leap at all. I got the same vibe just from reading facts on Wikipedia.
I’m not sure what your last paragraph means. The author can prove he sent the book to the Tetris Company but I find it unlikely he currently has any evidence that Apple read the book and used it in the screenplay. Tetris could’ve easily immediately rejected the book without reading it because they already planned to sell the rights to someone, in fact that’s very common with large companies, specifically to protect themselves from lawsuits like this.
It might get settled, but that would only be because Apple wouldn’t want the press or there’s evidence that hasn’t been revealed yet.