Zynga Fires Back At EA With Claims Of Innocence And Accusations Of Wrongdoing On EA's Part
from the it-wasn't-me,-it-was-the-one-armed-man dept
We last left Zynga back in August with EA filing a lawsuit against the casual game company in which EA makes claims of copyright infringement. EA had accused Zynga of cloning its Sims Social game when Zynga made its game, The Ville. Well, Zynga has finally fired back with filings claiming innocence of copyright infringement as well as accusations that EA had attempted to establish a “no hire” agreement between the two companies.
In the first filing, Zynga moves to have a bunch of language from EA’s filings stricken as it feels that much of it is “redundant, immaterial, impertinent and/or scandalous.” It feels that a lot of the information presented, such as third party disputes, games and comments that do not pertain to EA’s specific claims of copyright infringement, are simply included to paint Zynga in as negative a light as possible.
Zynga also specifically rejects the idea that The Ville infringes The Sims Social by attempting to show that much of what EA claims to be infringing is either a natural part of a life sim or part of an evolution in design of other Zynga created games. This can be found in the second filing in which Zynga shows successive screen shots of its games YoVille, Cafe World and The Ville. Each with very similar UI elements.
Next, Zynga brings in a comparison of Zynga’s CityVille and EA’s SimCity Social games. It does so to highlight that even EA gives in to tropes and design choices common to the genre it works in. Coming off this, Zynga makes the claim that this lawsuit is nothing more than EA’s response to being unable to compete in the social gaming marketplace.
Finally, we have the third filing in which Zynga makes its most bold claim yet.
Zynga claims that EA CEO John Riccitiello wanted to establish an illegal “no-hire” agreement with Zynga that would prevent the company from hiring employees away from EA. The filing says Riccitiello had grown upset that many EA employees had moved over to Zynga, and had gone “on the war path” to put an end to the talent bleed.
The company also says EA filed its lawsuit in August not because it believes Zynga copied The Sims Social, but because the company wanted to discourage its employees from jumping ship.
If Zynga’s accusation is true, then EA’s attempt at establishing such an agreement is serious business. These types of agreements, in which the companies agree not to hire anyone that applies, if they work for the competing company, and will often report the employee to his/her boss, are generally very bad for workers and quite possibly illegal.
These agreements are so serious that the Department of Justice had been investigating a number of tech companies, including Apple and Google, for this practice back in 2010 with evidence finally surfacing earlier this year.
Of course, EA believes this claim by Zynga is just a smokescreen.
This is a predictable subterfuge aimed at diverting attention from Zynga’s persistent plagiarism of other artists and studios. Zynga would be better served trying to hold onto the shrinking number of employees they’ve got, rather than suing to acquire more.
Regardless of whether these claims are true or not, this shows just how far this legal dispute could go over the coming months. Here we have two powerhouse game companies fighting over something that really in the end will have no bearing on the future of the games industry.
In the end, what do we actually get out of dragging two companies’ reputations through the mud? What will either company get out of winning this lawsuit? If EA wins, it will get to claim that it slayed the big bad cloning monster and Zynga will slink away and only clone the games of much smaller companies. If Zynga wins, the games industry as it is now will continue forward exactly as it had been. Either way, nothing substantial will change. So again, what’s the point?
Filed Under: copying, copyright, games, no hire, sims
Companies: ea, zynga
Comments on “Zynga Fires Back At EA With Claims Of Innocence And Accusations Of Wrongdoing On EA's Part”
I don’t know who I want to win, they’re both bad! D:
Re: Re:
That’s one of the reasons it doesn’t matter which wins.
Re: Perhaps Electronic Arts and Zynga Will Kill Each Other.
In other news, yet another game engine goes open source. When we have enough of them, and their useful features are combined, we will move to the point where game design is like writing a book– something best done by a single person in his spare time, without a corporate affiliation.
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/09/21/2117206/torque3d-engine-goes-open-source
*Grabs popcorn*
Nothing like watching two horrible companies fighting like children.
“Mommy he stole my ice cream!”
“He looked at me!”
Is Zynga serious? Innocence of Copyright? What is that? Is that when a software company violates the copyright of another software company and they “oops, sorry”?
That’s like The Pirate Bay Admins claiming that they didn’t know they were violating copyrights by distributing music illegally.
The court is going to laugh Zynga right out of court on this one.
Re: Re:
“That’s like The Pirate Bay Admins claiming that they didn’t know they were violating copyrights by distributing music illegally.”
That’s more like someone claiming US law applies in other countries.
Re: Re:
Actually, The Pirate Bay doesn’t host or distribute music.
Re: Re: Re:
Shhh… You’ll scare away those who are afraid of technicalities.
*pulls out the popcorn*
So is anyone else ready to sit back on the couch, enjoy the popcorn and praying the 2 mental giants running these companies fully commit to wiping each other out?
Then the real winner will be consumers.
I wonder how the anti-techdirt trolls will twist themselves in knots on this one.
ZK said the no hire policy is bad for the little guy, anyone not of big tech can see it’s objectively bad for the little guy and he makes mention of the evidence that google was involved in a no hire deal.
If google is paying techdirt to be pro google then they should demand their money back.
LOL Zynga!
There are many more things far more enjoyable than their pay to win games.
Sticking your dick in a wood chipper happens to be one of them.
Cleaning wounds with Turpentine and a Brillo pad.
Getting a blowjob from a shark.
Making fun of Mike Tyson in punching range.
The TSA “okay maybe not that”
“In the end, what do we actually get out of dragging two companies’ reputations through the mud?”
considering that the reputation of both companies dwell on the bottom of an ocean of mud, I hardly think this is of any concern for anyone…
Two evil companies who should just disappear duking it out.
Whoever wins, their employees and customers lose.
hmm
I’m really not convinced either of them could get any dirtier, so drag away through the mud, ill get popcorn out 🙂
The point is....
“Either way, nothing substantial will change. So again, what’s the point?”
A whole bunch of corporate lawyers will get to show off their new suits? (take that as you will-pun or not.)
Plus said lawyers get lots of work. No use standing around looking frivolous: get filing those motions!
Winning the battle, loosing the war...
You for got that by winning the battle EA my loose the war. Many games borrow elements from each other. It seems to me that EA by making more games than others would be putting it’s self at risk of setting a precedent that could be used against them in the future.
Re: Winning the battle, loosing the war...
So they’d crush Zynga, and in so doing sow the seeds of their own destruction… I’m kinda not seeing a downside here.