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[raees]

Originally Posted by smasher

In terms of copyright the "ideas" are usually the general plot or setting (war in space, knights and orcs) and the genre (FPS, RTS, match-3 puzzle, etc). These things are not copyrightable; no one can keep you from making a game with knights and orcs, just like no one can stop you from making a movie with "boy meets girl."

The specific expression is the characters, sounds, and artwork for that game. You can not copy the pac-man sprite file, and you can't draw another yellow circle that looks too similar to the pac-man sprite. Trademark may also apply here, but you can avoid both problems by not copying someone else's characters. You can not copy textures, backgrounds, sounds, etc. So you can't make a game in someone else's setting like "Halo for Iphone" or "Pocket World of Warcraft" without permission.

Gameplay in general is not copyrightable, although the specific code that performs the gameplay is. If you never see the code you don't have to worry of course. So running, jumping, breaking, matching, fighting, even recent innovations like portals or reversing time are not copyrightable. The only exception to watch out for here is Tetris, who seems to bully or sue anyone who makes a falling tetrominoes game, unfairly (in my opinion) extending copyright to an area where it doesn't apply.

So would a shark jumping in space be the idea or expression?