Hitting Reset: Devising A New Video Game Copyright Regime

INTRODUCTION 1240 I. OVERVIEW OF THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY 1242 A. Mobile Games Industry 1243 B. Cloning in the Mobile Gaming Space 1249 II. COPYRIGHT DOCTRINE AND VIDEO GAMES 1251 A. Copyrightable Subject Matter 1252 B. Idea–Expression Dichotomy in Video Games 1253 C. Limiting Doctrines 1255 D. Copyright Infringement Tests 1257 E. Significant Case Law 1258 III. SHIFTS IN CASE LAW 1264 A. Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc. 1264 B. Spry Fox LLC v. LOLApps Inc. 1267 C. DaVinci Editrice S.R.L. v. ZiKo Games, LLC 1269 D. Summary and Conclusions 1273 IV. THREES: A CASE STUDY IN CLONING 1275 A. Video Game Copyright, 1981–2012 1277 B. Video Game Copyright After Tetris Holding, Spry Fox, and DaVinci 1277 V. THE ROLE OF VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS 1278 CONCLUSION 1280