I understand this is demoralizing and infuriating for indie devs. And indie devs are the kind of devs I want to support, so I really side with them.
That said, for me this is the real insight (said by a dev from Vlambeer):
> "Ultimately, the big question is: what can you do to combat clones? And in reality there's not a whole lot you can do. Or what you can do could legally jeopardise how game development works for future generations."
> "If flying in a game was protected, then Luftrausers wouldn't exist"
Ultimately almost every act of creativity has some core of... let's not call it stealing, let's call it "creative borrowing without asking for permission". That's how it works, authors take from what has come before.
If, trying to protect indie devs from annoying copycats, we end up enforcing a draconian system, only lawyers will be happy.
That said, for me this is the real insight (said by a dev from Vlambeer):
> "Ultimately, the big question is: what can you do to combat clones? And in reality there's not a whole lot you can do. Or what you can do could legally jeopardise how game development works for future generations."
> "If flying in a game was protected, then Luftrausers wouldn't exist"
Ultimately almost every act of creativity has some core of... let's not call it stealing, let's call it "creative borrowing without asking for permission". That's how it works, authors take from what has come before.
If, trying to protect indie devs from annoying copycats, we end up enforcing a draconian system, only lawyers will be happy.