Dan Ackerman, editor-in-chief of the tech information web site Gizmodo, has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court docket accusing Apple, the Tetris Company and others of adapting his guide in regards to the online game Tetris right into a function movie with out his permission.
Ackerman claims he despatched his guide The Tetris Effect in 2016 to the Tetris Company, which allegedly copied it for the film and threatened to sue him if he pursued his personal movie or tv spin-offs.
The Tetris movie premiered on the Apple TV platform in March. Ackerman requested the court docket for damages equaling a minimum of 6% of the movie’s US$80m manufacturing finances.
Ackerman’s The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World was revealed in 2016. The guide describes the Soviet historical past of the favored puzzle recreation and the combat for its world licensing rights as a “cold war thriller with a political intrigue angle”, in keeping with Ackerman’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit mentioned that Ackerman despatched a pre-publication copy of the guide to the Tetris Company earlier that 12 months. He mentioned the corporate refused to license its mental property for initiatives associated to his guide, dissuading producers who have been interested by adapting it, and despatched him a “strongly worded cease and desist letter”.
According to the grievance, the corporate’s CEO, Maya Rogers, and screenwriter Noah Pink started copying Ackerman’s guide for the Tetris screenplay beginning in 2017. Ackerman mentioned the movie “liberally borrowed numerous specific sections and events of the book” and was “similar in almost all material respects” to it.
Ackerman accused Apple and the Tetris Company of copyright infringement, unfair competitors and illegally interfering with his enterprise relations.
Ackerman’s lawyer, Kevin Landau, mentioned that the lawsuit “aims to right a wrong and provide the respect and justice to the work, diligence and ownership of someone who is entitled to such respect and acknowledgment under the law”.
Representatives for Apple and the Tetris Company didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the lawsuit.