This statement surprised me. Is it really true? It appears that there is conflicting precedent:
"The first approach is from the 2nd circuit "The Subtractive Approach" (Altai, Nichols) and the other approach is "The Concept and Feel Approach" (Ruth Greeting Cards, Krofft)"
> I am curious to know what would happen if someone decided to clone the exact level design of a game but changed all the audio/visual assets.
This actually happened quite often in early generations of computer games and consoles. Super Mario Bros had quite a few clones where all that changed were the visual assets.
More recently, there are many examples of this happening on the iOS App Store and other venues with a low barrier to entry.
I seemed to recall such Mario clones as well. Nintendo is quite protective of their IP, so I have to think that they must have threatened legal action. Does anyone know? Is there precedent for legally protecting the layout of a level?
I think the clone I'm semi-remembering was a PC game. Regarding your second question: There were very many unlicensed Nintendo games. I don't know how many of these Nintendo fought. They very famously battled Tengen over this issue in the courts.
"The first approach is from the 2nd circuit "The Subtractive Approach" (Altai, Nichols) and the other approach is "The Concept and Feel Approach" (Ruth Greeting Cards, Krofft)"
http://www.newmediarights.org/guide/legal/Video_Games_law_Co...?
I am curious to know what would happen if someone decided to clone the exact level design of a game but changed all the audio/visual assets.