Cease Fire! All of the Tetris Clones Desist to Exist
The Tetris Company LLC has taken action against all of the unauthorized Tetris clones on the market: they’ve sent a cease and desist letter to Google to pull 35 games based off of the popular classic puzzle game off of the market. FallingBlocks was one of the first developers to suffer the ban hammer, stating to SlashDot:
“… I have received an email warning that my game was suspended from Android Market due to a violation of the Developer Content Policy… I emailed Google asking what is the reason for the application removal. Google promptly answered that The Tetris Company, LLC notified them under DMCA to remove various Tetris clones from Android Market. My app was removed together with other 35 Tetris clones…”
They’ve also included the full cease and desist notice below for our viewing pleasure. I can’t imagine why flattery in the form of imitation (at least when some of those games were being offered for free) is looked at as a bad thing. Unless they’re hoping to introduce their own game for Android (or continue to bank on publishers like EA that has licensed the use of Tetris), then we’ll soon see a Tetris-less marketplace (I say “soon” because – at the time of this writing – I still see a good selection of Tetris clones by searching the market).