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A comment on Small Basic: Programming Is Fun.

Re:Small Basic: Programming Is Fun by chaosmachine on Saturday March 06, 2010 @09:32AM (#1171569)
Microsoft claims to respect intellectual property, but they're blatantly infringing on the Tetris trademark in their game example.

Certainly they'd send a cease and desist if someone made a "Linux Halo" so why do they think it's ok to make a "Small Basic Tetris"?

The company that owns Tetris hasn't exactly been shy about enforcing their rights, either: http://mashable.com/2008/08/26/iphone-tris-app/

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Re:Small Basic: Programming Is Fun by algolicious on Saturday March 06, 2010 @12:19PM (#1171777)
Don't be so sure that they don't have permission. Microsoft has implemented Tetris before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Entertainment_Pack

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Re:Small Basic: Programming Is Fun by chaosmachine on Saturday March 06, 2010 @12:54PM (#1171843)
That was released 20 years ago (1990), the licensing situation for Tetris has changed a lot since then. There's actually a specific set of guidelines The Tetris Company enforces for a game to carry the Tetris name. They dictate everything from the piece colors to the playfield size:

http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Tetris_Guideline

Aside from that, if they were using it under license, there would be a licensing blurb, similar to what you see in the footer of tetris.com.

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