Apple Subpoenaed by Five Nights at Freddy's Creator in Copyright Infringement Investigation

Late yesterday, an attorney representing Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon issued a DMCA Section 512(H) Subpoena to Apple in an effort to help identify an alleged infringer or infringers pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

[Ocsta]

fascinating... not.

[FullmetalRoyale]

Good one... not.

See what I did there?

👌🏻

[DiscoKid]

You know money is getting to your head when you sue Apple.

[LordMaim]

They're not suing Apple, they're trying to find out who is responsible for the unauthorized "sequel" on the app store that uses their IP. The subpoena is just to compel Apple to provide that information.

[DiscoKid]

Oh my bad! I deserve every disagree.

[MeteorPanda]

Why...Why try and interfere with FNAF? It has such an interesting lore hidden inside the game that if you just copied the jumpscares it wouldn't even be worth playing

[rainslacker]

I'm sure the people who created the game just wanted to capitalize on someone else's success and didn't care about all that.

Works like these actually harm the original work, because people who don't keep up may very well believe it was the original developer who put out a crappy sequel, and may hurt efforts for the original dev to put out a new game which does respect what you speak of.

Honestly, this is a huge problem on the mobile markets. While they will take down stuff under the DMCA, I think these storefronts should actually be a bit more proactive in keeping them off the store in the first place. To me, it seems if any store is selling something illegal, then they get fined or shut down. I don't see why webstores don't have to abide by the same rules. It's easy enough to delay a game to verify IP ownership, and I'm sure any respectable dev would be happy to provide proof when needed.

[SilentNegotiator]

It'll probably cost more to take legal action than you'll make back suing him. Probably not worth it, since it has been removed from the store.

Just go back to throwing together sequels and roll in a fresh pile of millions.

[rainslacker]

Probably, but it may make people think twice about ripping off IP's. Depending on the state, the guilty party may be responsible for all costs if they are found to be at fault, which they will be. Even under international laws this stuff can get you thrown in jail.

The only way to really cut it out completely is to start holding the storefronts responsible for selling infringing work. This is what happened with YouTube, or was going to happen, which is why they have all their DMCA rules now...although they do take it to a bit of an extreme and err on the side of the claimant, instead of doing any real investigation to see if it's valid.

Since an actual store would be raided, shut down, and fined heavily for selling things like this, I think web stores should be as well, and if the laws already hold them responsible, then they need to start being enforced.

[Fireseed]

"Just go back to throwing together sequels and roll in a fresh pile of millions."

Ah, the wonderful mindset of N4G. Never change. Never change.

[IanTH]

While the wording was a tad flip, can you tell me why this isn't the right mindset? The guy releases a new Freddy's like a few months after a previous entry. I know 4 is supposed to be the last one, but given the type of game it is and how little time are between releases...it kind of feels like they are thrown together. And every version is in the top like 50 on the appstores and does very well on Steam - he's making very very good money from it. So it does kind of feel like he's throwing together sequels and rolling in piles of money lol. But I don't have my finger to the pulse of the mobile industry really, so my perception could be skewed.