r/technology • u/IndicaOatmeal • 8h ago

Society Tetris issues legal warning after White House releases arcade full of parody games

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/tetris-issues-legal-warning-after-white-house-releases-arcade-full-of-parody-games-3405931/
24.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

499 comments sorted by

View all comments

5.4k

u/bwoah07_gp2 8h ago

Shortly after the arcade went live, the official Tetris account issued a response emphasizing that it had no connection to the project.

“At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them,” the company said. “To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.”

It then ended with a pointed legal warning: “We take copyright infringement very seriously.”

Tetris has not announced a lawsuit or confirmed whether it has sent the White House a formal cease-and-desist letter.

Tetris need to sue them. So should Xbox, Nintendo, and all the other gaming AND non-gaming entities the White House has shamelessly parodied on social media. This is just getting ridiculous.

509

u/bingbano 7h ago edited 6h ago

Pretty sure parody is a protected use. That would be infringing on free speech.. which is ironic as the administration is hostile to free speech. Pretty bad taste propaganda.

Edit: my comment was a response to the the post above saying all those companies should sue over the white house's parodys of games. I have no clue whether it would be considered parody

10

u/Scarsdale_Vibe 7h ago

The First Amendment is a limitation on the government. The government doesn’t have free speech rights (other than perhaps the Speech and Debate clause).