Case dismissed! Discovery and Tardigrade game "not similar"

[Dukhat]

Yeah, this isn’t “going to court.” At best, CBS will settle out of court and pay this asshole $100,000 just to shut him up, which will cover his lawyer fees, and he will make nothing. At worst, his lawyers will realize that the suit will just get thrown out and stop representing him. But that’s not going to happen for the former situation, because lawyers represent morons because they know they will get all the money in the end.

 

[Vger23]

I think the makers of The Amityville Horror should sue the makers of The Conjuring...because both films had haunted houses terrorizing families.

I think Star Trek should sue Star Wars because both are outer space adventures set on spaceships and planets.

Mad Max should sue Book of Eli, as both films feature a loner post-apocalyptic hero.

Terminator should sue The Matrix because both feature a future where humans have been almost exterminated by a machine AI uprising...

etc............

 

[Longinus]

I think a tardigrade enabling space travel is a bit more original than those. Granted, it probaly still is a coincidence but it is hella weird one.

 

[Saul]

Clearly it's not ripped off but whoever did their research into space tardigrades for Discovery may not have done it well enough here and they've been caught out.

 

[Xerxus]

I wonder if we'll learn about the first versions of Bryan Fuller's story and vision through disclosures in court documents.

There's gonna be a great book about the turmoil about the production one day.

 

[XCV330]

I think a tardigrade enabling space travel is a bit more original than those. Granted, it probaly still is a coincidence but it is hella weird one.

just because tardigrades are basically famous for one thing, being extremophiles who can survive harsh conditions for awhile, including space, kind of makes them an easy go-to for sci fi writers.

Tolkein mentioned "Wild were worms of the deep desert" in the Hobbit, but he didn't sue Herbert when Dune was published.

 

[mos6507]

just because tardigrades are basically famous for one thing, being extremophiles who can survive harsh conditions for awhile, including space, kind of makes them an easy go-to for sci fi writers.

If that's the case, where is there more prior art besides this game? I'm not aware of any. This may very well be a coincidence but I think the guy has reason to be suspicious and I'm looking forward to it going to court. In the era of the internet it's all too easy to randomly browse around and find something to plagiarize. Just because this guy's game was obscure doesn't mean it wasn't used as an inspiration (although I'm sure there would be denials regardless of the truth). In fact, because it was grass-roots and obscure it would be easy for professionals to feel they could steal it without consequences.

 

[XCV330]

If that's the case, where is there more prior art besides this game? I'm not aware of any. This may very well be a coincidence but I think the guy has reason to be suspicious and I'm looking forward to it going to court. In the era of the internet it's all too easy to randomly browse around and find something to plagiarize. Just because this guy's game was obscure doesn't mean it wasn't used as an inspiration (although I'm sure there would be denials regardless of the truth). In fact, because it was grass-roots and obscure it would be easy for professionals to feel they could steal it without consequences.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/how-tardigrades-saved-the-enterprise/
(2013)
In any case, tardigrades started getting attention for being able to survive in vacuum around 2008. If they'd been put in fiction before hand, I don't know, but in terms of a living thing using a special chemical to work as a ship's navigation system: well if the Herbert estate isn't interested in suing anyone, think that's the beginning and end of it.

but we'll see.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Anyone who watched the Neil deGrasse Tyson Cosmos in 2014 was exposed to tardigrades. That was the same year that Abdin began developing his game. Coincidence? Maybe we'll find out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deeper,_Deeper,_Deeper_Still

In any case, Abdin learned about tardigrades from somewhere. Why couldn't the DISCO creators have learned about them from the same place? Maybe we'll find that out too.

 

[cultcross]

If that's the case, where is there more prior art besides this game? I'm not aware of any

Locutus posted a load earlier in the original topic thread. Tardigrades in space has become a bit of a thing since the media reports of their ability to survive vacuum.

Just because this guy's game was obscure doesn't mean it wasn't used as an inspiration

Doesn't mean it was, either, and they will need to demonstrate that the CBS designers did, or likely did, know about this game.
In response, no doubt CBS will submit their design work and memos etc from the process of creating their Tardigrade character. That's why studios are so hot on keeping this stuff, not just for the Art Of tie in book.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Anyone who watched the Neil deGrasse Tyson Cosmos in 2014 was exposed to tardigrades.

Not sure why, but this conjured an image of tardigrade's in little trenchcoats flashing people. Might have been the use of the word exposed

 

[Midquest]

Here's part of the tarigrade material from Cosmos, which aired (as noted above) around the time Abdin began developing his game, and positioned the Tardigrade as a creature that can "travel naked in the cold vacuum and intense radiation of space, and will return unscathed."

 

[gblews]

Here's part of the tarigrade material from Cosmos, which aired (as noted above) around the time Abdin began developing his game, and positioned the Tardigrade as a creature that can "travel naked in the cold vacuum and intense radiation of space, and will return unscathed."

Pretty strong piece of evidence in CBS' favor. You can copywrite "Mickey Mouse", but you can't copywrite "a mouse". I would think that plaintiffs will try to prove that CBS consciously used the game's copywrited Tartigrade without permission, but CBS will probably try to make plaintiffs prove there was something distinctive about the game's Tartigrade that would warrant the character having coverage under the game's copywrite.

But the game is also trying to prove that the human characters in DSC are a copywrite infringement as well. You can't copywrite "gay" man, nor can you claim exclusivity with respect to "black" woman.

I wonder if we'll get any word on the amount of the settlement, assuming the lawsuit gets that far.

 

[Greg Cox]

No big deal, but a pet peeve: the term is copyright, as in the right to copy, not "copywrite."

Nothing personal. It's a common misspelling, since people can easily assume it refers to "writing," not rights. Just trying to nip it in the bud before it spreads throughout this thread.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

If that's the case, where is there more prior art besides this game? I'm not aware of any.

Locutus posted a load earlier in the original topic thread. Tardigrades in space has become a bit of a thing since the media reports of their ability to survive vacuum.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/did-cbs-steal-the-tardigrade-idea.290957/page-9#post-12596194

 

[Blamo]

Also note the abbreviation the scientists used for the TARDIgrades in Space project is TARDIS.

Getting inside a TARDIS and traveling the universe is hardly an unknown concept.

Also, like Loctutus said, once Tardigrades in space was reported in the news, it rather stirred the imagination of writers. Off the top of my head I remember them appearing as a race of aliens in Voltron and Doctor Who had atleast two stories depicting them (one was a space traveling lifeform and the other had Tardigrades being capable of editing reality).

 

[Mudd]

Also note the abbreviation the scientists used for the TARDIgrades in Space project is TARDIS.

Getting inside a TARDIS and traveling the universe is hardly an unknown concept.

Well now, there's a reach.

 

[fireproof78]

Also note the abbreviation the scientists used for the TARDIgrades in Space project is TARDIS.

Getting inside a TARDIS and traveling the universe is hardly an unknown concept.

Also, like Loctutus said, once Tardigrades in space was reported in the news, it rather stirred the imagination of writers. Off the top of my head I remember them appearing as a race of aliens in Voltron and Doctor Who had atleast two stories depicting them (one was a space traveling lifeform and the other had Tardigrades being capable of editing reality).

Somebody should sue someone else.

 

[Therin of Andor]

A cartoon from November 2014.

https://imgur.com/gallery/twQyW

 

[Succubint]

From the Orville premiere episode:

What sort of research are you doing here?
Oh, well, uh this is a redwood seed.
- Looks pretty ordinary, yes? -
KELLY: Sure.
Well, this seed has been genetically engineered with tardigrade DNA, which means it can survive and grow in anything.
Rock, metal, sand.
It can exist a hundred years without water.
You can toss this seed in the middle of the Sahara, and in a century you'll have a towering redwood.
That's really impressive.
And as a bonus, a healthy snack.
Here, try some.

It's pretty obvious that TV writers and other people that create entertainment got inspired by all the tardigrade articles and features that came out around 2014.