Did CBS Steal the Tardigrade Idea?

[Jinn]

Interesting how he didn't note those case winning similarities of a gay couple with one beard and a black lady until he spotted the tardigrade.

I thought both had a beard, but it may have been part of the tattoo.

 

[dahj]

Do Mirror Tardigrades have beards?

 

[Jinn]

Do Mirror Tardigrades have beards?

Duh.

 

[BillJ]

But let’s just use this as a pathetic attempt to trash Discovery and ignore how dumb all of this is.

So instead, we trash the person with the complaint, because there's no way our precious Star Trek could lift ideas from others.

I simply don't know if it is true or not. Life is sometimes funny that way.

 

[cultcross]

I simply don't know if it is true or not

But we can apply our critical analysis skills to the claim. And it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

 

[carlosp]

So this has moved on to being an actual lawsuit, which we'll be covering on AxaMonitor. As we discovered during the Axanar debacle people don't really understand how copyright works, but we'll continue coverage as long as the case lasts. Read more »

Indie Gamemaker Sues 'Discovery' for Stealing His Ideas
Lawsuit Alleges CBS Copied Significant Features From Unpublished ‘Tardigrades’ Game

 

[BillJ]

But we can apply our critical analysis skills to the claim. And it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

I think we can apply our critical analysis skills and still end up being wrong. If guy wants to pursue it, it is up to him at the end of the day. It is his time and money.

 

[Awesome Possum]

So instead, we trash the person with the complaint, because there's no way our precious Star Trek could lift ideas from others.

I simply don't know if it is true or not. Life is sometimes funny that way.

Well tardigrades are real, that’s most likely where they got it. But I’m crazy because I go with whatever is the most likely scenario.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

This is somewhat like calling "plagiarism" on FTL flight. It is a sci-fi trope like FTL spaceships, robots, androids, human-compatible planets, etc. If anyone was "plagiarized" it would be the real-world Paul Stammets, who gave DSC his blessing on using these creatures in their stories. You can't copyright actual, living biological creatures, even if you adapt them to your purpose. It's like using giant ants in your story.

I agree, I never said there was an actual case for plagiarism, only that if there was something should be done about it. In the time since I made the quoted post, it's come out that the tardigrade was supposed to be an actual member of the crew, but was incredibly expensive to do every episode, so it was canned. Bryan Fuller wanted to keep it and incorporated the tardigrade character into the spore drive arc. So there was likely no plagiarism involved, only convergent ideas.

 

[gblews]

Could this be the reason we never got to see the tardigrade after the mid season break?

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The narrator of this video seems to think that just because a lawsuit is filed (and sounds like it hasn't), that that is some kind of proof of wrongdoing by CBS.

Also, I'm not sure why the narrator scoffs at CBS filing a lawsuit of their own, that is standard practice. It will provide at least a semblance of leverage regardless of the merits of the lawsuit.

CBS and other content providers face these types of claims all the time. As I wrote further up thread, if the game developer goes through with actually filing the lawsuit, CBS will kick out some money for nuisance value. It's not cost effective to allow the lawsuit (if it' it gets filed), to hang around.Additionally, settling a lawsuit is never an admission of wrongdoing, however, if CBS does throw some money at this to make it go away, I have no doubt the narrator will post another video claiming the game developer "won the case".

I'd be willing to bet that what the narrator thinks was "stonewalling" by CBS, really was just a lack of concern.

 

[Red Panda]

Popular enough that Spocks casting was covered in the Kuwait Times.

I don't think it's unbelievable that he had never heard of DSC before he was told by a friend, as I don't think Netflix is major in Kuwait, and they didn't do any major campaigns for the show even in top markets like the UK. Also the article you link to is just an automated AFP syndicated article, not an original article written by that newspaper.

 

[XCV330]

Kuwait.

And both countries very close to Jordan which is building a mega Star Trek theme park (and whose King was a starfleet officer back in the 90s). I'd say there's star trek interest in that part of the world.

 

[OpenMaw]

Well tardigrades are real, that’s most likely where they got it. But I’m crazy because I go with whatever is the most likely scenario.

You sound rather defensive.

There's simply no way to know for sure until this moves forward. If there's more evidence, we'll find out soon enough. If not, then it's just a fluke and parallel development. Which has happened before. IE Look at disaster films in the 90s. We had a bunch of deep sea terror films all around the same time, then we had volcanoes, and then we had big rocks hitting Earth.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

You sound rather defensive.

There's simply no way to know for sure until this moves forward. If there's more evidence, we'll find out soon enough. If not, then it's just a fluke and parallel development. Which has happened before. IE Look at disaster films in the 90s. We had a bunch of deep sea terror films all around the same time, then we had volcanoes, and then we had big rocks hitting Earth.

If there was more evidence, this guy would've already posted it. He's the one who went to his blog before going to a lawyer.

The simple fact is that his 'evidence' is laughably stupid. The tardigrade itself is the ONLY thing that's even remotely worth taking seriously, and even that is clearly different and was known to be even more different before budget considerations forced changes, and it is not a huge leap to make in the first place.

You guys can keep harping on due process all you want, but nobody here is part of the court and we're not obliged to withold judgment. We've already had this guy's entire case laid out for us, and it is not impressive.

 

[Awesome Possum]

You sound rather defensive.

There's simply no way to know for sure until this moves forward. If there's more evidence, we'll find out soon enough. If not, then it's just a fluke and parallel development. Which has happened before. IE Look at disaster films in the 90s. We had a bunch of deep sea terror films all around the same time, then we had volcanoes, and then we had big rocks hitting Earth.

I was going for sarcastic, this is dumb.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

^^^
Also, given what's in the game, that the game was 3 years prior; and that Harlan Ellison won his lawsuit against the creators of "The Terminator" films; the Plaintiff actually has a decent claim. CBS will way the costs, and if they see it costs less to settle (in time/money/possible negative publicity), they'll settle.

The difference between this and Harlan's lawsuit against James Cameron is that Cameron came right out and said, in an interview for Starlog, that he'd ripped off a couple of "Outer Limits" episodes for the Terminator movies - the ones he was referring to being Harlan's "Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand." His claim was a lot more solid, just based on Cameron's running his mouth. (And even though the statement was apparently removed from the interview before publication, the fact that he said at all meant there were witnesses to his admission.)

 

[cultcross]

I don't think it's unbelievable that he had never heard of DSC before he was told by a friend, as I don't think Netflix is major in Kuwait, and they didn't do any major campaigns for the show even in top markets like the UK. Also the article you link to is just an automated AFP syndicated article, not an original article written by that newspaper.

To be honest I'm happy to believe he had never heard of Discovery - the part I find unlikely is that the producers of Discovery had heard of his game.

 

[Tosk]

the ones he was referring to being Harlan's "Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand."

Just Soldier. Even Ellison himself has stated that Demon had nothing to do with it.

 

[Rahul]

To be honest I'm happy to believe he had never heard of Discovery - the part I find unlikely is that the producers of Discovery had heard of his game.

That's the real money question right here.
Does anybody know how popular this game was before this story? Like, is it possible that a producer or someone came across, I don't know, a promo for this game on some gaming site?

Because the aesthetic of both (blue uniforms, dark grey hallways) is both super similar, but in the most generic way possible. But a giant fucking FTL-capable Tardigrade?

IMO if that's really a coincidence, then it's a REALLY big one. Especially since it's not a minor thing in a plot of the week or anything. It's literally the only completely new and creative (and wildest) idea DIS added to the franchise.

 

[Mudd]

But we can apply our critical analysis skills to the claim. And it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

None of the rationalizations advanced here so far for the plausibility of the "coincidental" invention have been anything other than funny - certainly not persuasive on the merits.

Just regarding the tardigrade - the other characters are trivial.