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Case dismissed! Discovery and Tardigrade game "not similar"

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carlosp said:
The very description you use, "a similar sized, similar looking Tardigrade doing the very same, very fucking strange and unique thing," is an idea (not to mention DSC's Tardigrade isn't blue, it's brown, sometimes illuminated in blue light, as is nearly everything in science fiction); you can't copyright an idea, only the very specific expression of an idea. The two tardigrades are different expressions of the same idea.

Just like Trek couldn't copyright the concept of warp drive; warping space in order to move faster than light is a very specific idea, but that idea is not protected by copyright. Lots of other science fiction use the idea of warp drive; Star Trek can't sue them, either.
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I'm prety sure if I invent a sci-fi show with a starship driving by warp drive, that is inspired by a UFO-saucer design with three rockets, has a humanoid alien whose distinctive mark is pointed ears and that he's always logical, CBS would sue my ass off. Even if the ship is called "Endeavour", the guy "Mr. Spork", and the show "Space Trek". At some point, it stops being "a basic idea", and becomes copyright, even if there are marginal differences in the expression of said idea. And in this case: The CBS Tardigrade is abso-fucking-lutely the very exact SAME expression of the original idea.

Everyhing else - the characters, starship designs and so on - is generic enough to not warrant any attention. That's why I think it's really dumb of his lawyer to focus on that stuff, because it allows CBS - as they did - to focus on that as well, and ignore the real shameful part - the exact duplication of his FTL-Tardigrade idea.

Had this guy worked for an actual company, they sure as hell would have handled this with giving proper compensation behind the scenes and both parties being hush about it to the public. But American copyright law just doesn't care for you if you don't have the machinery behind you to enforce it - and his joke of a lawyer is really not helping his case.
 
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Rahul said:
And in this case: The CBS Tardigrade is abso-fucking-lutely the very exact SAME expression of the original idea.
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No, it isn't.

Anas Abdin's tardigrade apparently, by his videos, is to hold a person, hug, and envelope them for transport through outer space. The DISCO tardigrade was used "as an organic computer to navigate the network and dramatically improve the performance of the experimental spore drive" [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tardigrade_(alien)].

It's literally not the same expression of the idea of using tardigrades at all. And this has already been covered upthread.
 
Corpus Christi said:
No, it isn't.

Anas Abdin's tardigrade apparently, by his videos, is to hold a person, hug, and envelope them for transport through outer space. The DISCO tardigrade was used "as an organic computer to navigate the network and dramatically improve the performance of the experimental spore drive" [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tardigrade_(alien)].

It's literally not the same expression of the idea of using tardigrades at all. And this has already been covered upthread.
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So all "Mr. Spork" has to do is hug a person, and BOOM copyright exception. Yeah.;)

(Just to reiterate: The "expression of the idea" is the blue, mansized Tardigrade jumping to FTL in open space. Which Anas Abdin's tardigrade obviously can do as well even without a person, the same way the DISCO-tardigrade would have been able to take a person with him when he was jumping away at the end of it's arc. It's the same idea. Just used in another franchise)
 
Just to point out: I'm not saying any of this to hate on DIS. I didn't like the first season - but that's because I didn't like either the Klingon arc, nor the Mirror Universe arc. Now that these are behind us, I'm getting back on board with the show. The Tardigrade was actually one of the more interesting ideas.

And to give a bit of context:
Star Trek's Tribbles were ALSO essentially a copyright infringement on one of Robert Heinlein's ideas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cat#flat_cats_v_tribbles

Now, Heinlein didn't went to court (he would have won - but he was too nice). He later regretted it - he thought he didn't want to crush a poor, aspiring young writer. But then saw the entire Star Trek IP profit immensely off of his ideas, without ever re-imbursing him.

Now, I do LOVE Tribbles! And Star Trek should continue to use them! But I also think, in a fair world - they would have compensated Heinlein. At least a little.

In the same way, I actually would have liked to see more of the Tardigrade - it was an interesting idea - but at the same time, they should have re-imbursed the guy originally coming up with the idea. At least a little.

Now next season already looks a lot different: Even if the red-angel storyline turns out to be exaclty the Vorlons vs. Shadows by-any-other-name: These guys already look and act different enough to never warrant any copyright scrutiny. But the FTL-Tardigrade...simply does. Only that in this case, it's not Robert Heinlein who could have objected - but a no-name from the other end of the world. So his chances are essentially nill.
 
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One can come to the conclusion that the expression of the DISCO tardigrade is not the same as the expression of Anas Abdin's tardigrade and at the same time not be pleased with the overwhelming majority of episodes in DISCO S1. I'm such a person. It's not about being a hater of this or that. It's not about partisanship.
 
Corpus Christi said:
One can come to the conclusion that the expression of the DISCO tardigrade is not the same as the expression of Anas Abdin's tardigrade and at the same time not be pleased with the overwhelming majority of episodes in DISCO S1. I'm such a person. It's not about being a hater of this or that. It's not about partisanship.
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No way! You're either with us...or YOU'RE WITH THE TERRORISTS!!!1!1
 
Rahul said:
I'm prety sure if I invent a sci-fi show with a starship driving by warp drive, that is inspired by a UFO-saucer design with three rockets, has a humanoid alien whose distinctive mark is pointed ears and that he's always logical, CBS would sue my ass off.
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I used to feel that way too until CBS chose not to go after The Orville (which is not really a spoof the way Galaxy Quest was).
 
Although I tend to think that both Fuzzy Door and 20th Century Fox have lawyers who specialize in this sort of thing, if anybody believes that The Orville infringes on another property, it might be interesting for them to concretely point to a specific element that they believe to be actionable, assuming that's not too off-topic.
 
mos6507 said:
I used to feel that way too until CBS chose not to go after The Orville (which is not really a spoof the way Galaxy Quest was).
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Because Orville isn't copying anything from Star Trek directly.
Rahul's theoretical idea literally has the Enterprise and Spock.

Rahul said:
And in this case: The CBS Tardigrade is abso-fucking-lutely the very exact SAME expression of the original idea.
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Well unless Abdin's Tardigrade also snacks on mushrooms to jump through space, then no.

Rahul said:
is the blue, mansized Tardigrade jumping to FTL
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DSC's Tardigrade isn't blue.

Rahul said:
would have been able to take a person with him when he was jumping away at the end of it's arc.
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Objection! That is a conjecture. There is no evidence in DSC that the Tardigrade would be able to hold something while jumping.
 
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Tuskin38 said:
Rahul's theoretical idea literally has the Enterprise and Spock.
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And that's the number one problem with the concocted example. It's obvious both 1) that it was constructed by literally writing out a description of Star Trek with only certain words changed here and there and 2) that the method of construction itself be obviously evident, so that it may serve as an example of obvious infringement.

The concocted example is not analogous to DISCO in the tardigrade case precisely because it is so obviously contrived.

Tuskin38 said:
There is no evidence in DSC that the Tardigrade would be able to hold something while jumping.
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Not to mention, it didn't even happen in DISCO.
 
CBS Tardigrade ...

kRuGtRi.jpg


... definitely not Blue.
:cool:

(that's a pic of the freebie I'm getting from Eaglemoss with my DISCOVERY subscription)
 
Tuskin38 said:
Because Orville isn't copying anything from Star Trek directly.
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Oh, please. They copy everything from TNG down to the beige decor and even employ many ex-Trek actors and crew. It causes confusion in the marketplace by being (successfully) positioned as more retro/optimistic counter-programming to the grimdark Discovery. Nobody in the press writes about The Orville without also mentioning Trek. The show exists in order for Seth to live out his Trek fantasies in a way that he's been quite open about. There's really nothing original about The Orville other than its attempt to fold in humor. I'm speaking as a fan but from a legal perspective CBS would have had a stronger case against Seth than the Tardigrade guy has with CBS. And if you want to find 1:1 parallels, besides Seth playing Kirk, Isaac is a complete rip of Data down to the vocal inflections and the Bortus is Worf.
 
mos6507 said:
Oh, please. They copy everything from TNG down to the beige decor and even employ many ex-Trek actors and crew. It causes confusion in the marketplace by being (successfully) positioned as more retro/optimistic counter-programming to the grimdark Discovery. Nobody in the press writes about The Orville without also mentioning Trek. The show exists in order for Seth to live out his Trek fantasies in a way that he's been quite open about. There's really nothing original about The Orville other than its attempt to fold in humor. I'm speaking as a fan but from a legal perspective CBS would have had a stronger case against Seth than the Tardigrade guy has with CBS.
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With everything going on at CBS HQ right now, I'm guessing that They don't want to get into a cock-fight with FOX at the moment.
That may be why there's been no complaints filed.
 
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