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Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

blog.luanti.org

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Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#141

Post by mortsnort »

culi wrote: post #93
mortsnort wrote: post #83

The game's own website describes it as an "open source alternative to Minecraft". Frivolous or not, MS has financial incentive to try to keep this game offline. I think this is going as intended from MS's POV.

Where do you read that description? Luanti has been around for many years (previously called Minetest). It's entirely built from scratch and a true FLOSS project. It's also not really a "game" so much as a "game engine" so it's not even a direct competitor to Mojang

This is in the source article of this post: "While Luanti is popular as an open-source alternative to Minecraft (as its roots are in blocky sandbox games), it also lowers barriers to bringing creative ideas to life."

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#142

Post by RunSet »

maybewhenthesun wrote: post #65
WarmWash wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the screenshots of the game in question, it's pretty obvious what is going on https://www.luanti.org/en/#gallery Even though those are mods, it's a bad look to be holding those up as reference game images.

Meh. Luanti is nearly as old as minecraft itself. You could say just as well that they copied the style of infiniminer. If your whole shtick is creating blocky games with retro-easy-to-recreate 8x8 or 16x16 textures it's not really weird people easily imitate it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060117081147/http://www.blockl...

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#143

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

api wrote: post #136
rahulyc wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Google is really bad at this. For all the problems with Amazon, they're actually much better at actually following DMCA

A major problem with closed mobile platforms is that if you have an App Store monopoly, why do you need to care? It's why all the app stores are absolute trash. Not sure how Apple handles DMCA but I know they're known for capricious arbitrary actions and being impossible to talk to. Their search and navigation is also total trash.

> being impossible to talk to

That hasn’t been my experience. The first couple of layers are sort of “inflexible bureaucrat,” but it doesn’t take long to get to an actual human, with authority to act. In my experience, I’m usually on the phone with someone, within a day or so.

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#144

Post by nofriend »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #119
SwellJoe wrote: post #80

I know this isn't the point but this post is a master class in how to inform readers when you expect people from outside your community to read it. It explains what every element is, concisely but clearly. I now know exactly what Luanti is, who all the actors are in this conflict, and what the conflict is about. It clearly conveys the who, what, when, where and why of the situation. Also, DMCA is a damned mess, with…

This isn't DMCA. The DMCA process provides for immediate restoration of contested content upon issuance of a counter notice. At that point the internet service is absolved of any responsibility until a court orders the removal. Google has never implemented that process.

This is DMCA. DMCA does not absolve hosts if they "receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity". So if google hosts an app and makes money off of that app, they can't claim safe harbor if that app is infringing. Hence, under the DMCA, they need to take down the app as soon as they have even a suggestion that it might infringe somebody's copyright, and not put it back up until they are certain it doesn't.

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#145

Post by nofriend »

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #36

Outsider here. The screenshots are literally Minecraft screenshots. It's a clone, and not a subtle one either. To call this "Baseless" is hilarious.

Cloning games is not copyright infringement. Think what that would mean for a popular infiniminer clone

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#146

Post by raincole »

jmward01 wrote: post #92

The answer here is simple: If you submit a content strike you must provide a bond. If the content strike is reversed the bond is used to pay damages. The argument of 'people must review' is really just an argument of cost. The amount of content on the web makes it impractical to pay that upfront but a bond makes it manageable.

"Let's ensure big corporations can freely abuse small creators more than they are doing now."

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#147

Post by nvme0n1p1 »

WarmWash wrote: post #132
rpdillon wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing copyright with patents, and you cannot patent a game design. Well, you couldn't. I'm not sure about these days. In any case, this isn't a patent claim. It's a copyright claim, and copyright protects expression, not the idea. That'll all become glaringly obvious when this is reinstated, because the copyright claim is bogus.

The design or gameplay isn't the issue, the aesthetic is clearly Minecraft. You can't take Minecraft assets, mix the pixels around a little bit, and then be legally free and clear. If the public looks at pictures of your game, and they say "100% it's Minecraft", you're gonna have a bad time.

I'll be honest, you sound like someone's grandma who calls every game console a "Nintendo" and every game character "Mario". So what if the general public can't tell the difference between Samus and Mario? That doesn't mean we ban Metroid.

They're the same genre, but obviously not the same game. Is only one voxel sandbox game allowed to exist in the world? What's next, only one platformer can exist? Only one action movie is allowed to exist? Only one power metal band in the world?

Again, aesthetic is not copyrightable.

Re: Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice

#149

Post by danaris »

WarmWash wrote: post #133
Macha wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most prominent object in that scene is the low poly airship. Minecraft does not have vehicles, does not have objects with components with such a small thickness as the railings, does not have angles like the bow of the ship or the ropes. It looks more like a Runescape asset than a Minecraft one, for example: https://runescape.wiki/images/thumb/The_Adventurous.png/1200...

And you would bet your life savings that the general public, including a jury, would know that? They would look at Minecraft and say it's a clearly different game? "Obviously the real Spiderman has an "i" and not a "y" in its spelling!!1!" Explain that to a jury in front of a judge and Disney lawyers and see how your legal theory goes over...

Do you think that the way a jury trial works is that they call the jury into the room, show them a few screenshots, and then immediately say "right, time to give your verdict!"?

If this were ever to go to a jury trial, both sides would get to present their evidence, which includes explanations of how Luanti is different from Minecraft.

If you were correct, then basically every accusation of substantial similarity would be upheld in court because apparently juries are morons and they don't get given the full facts.

However, you also have failed to provide any support for your assumption that this would go to a jury trial; the article doesn't mention any kind of trial. DMCA notices are adjudicated by the platform owner, with very little transparency, and certainly no jury of peers. If it doesn't get resolved by the counter-notice, then maybe Luanti will sue (Microsoft? Google? Tracer.AI? all of the above? who knows!), and maybe it would go before a jury. But given how lawsuits in the US go these days, that's pretty unlikely. Odds are if there is a lawsuit, it will be settled before a jury ever gets selected.

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