Apple's 'Tetris' movie ripped off tech writer's book, lawsuit says
The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar//File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Aug 8 (Reuters) - Dan Ackerman, editor in chief of the tech-news website Gizmodo, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Monday accusing Apple (AAPL.O), the Tetris Company and others of adapting his book about the landmark video game "Tetris" into a feature film without his permission.
Ackerman said he sent his book "The Tetris Effect" in 2016 to the Tetris Company, which allegedly copied it for the movie and threatened to sue him if he pursued his own film or television spinoffs.
The "Tetris" film premiered on the Apple TV platform in March. Ackerman asked the court for money damages equaling at least 6% of the film's $80 million production budget.
Representatives for Apple and the Tetris Company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit on Tuesday.
Ackerman's attorney Kevin Landau said on Tuesday that the lawsuit "aims to right a wrong and provide the respect and justice to the work, diligence and ownership of someone who is entitled to such respect and acknowledgment under the law."
Ackerman's "The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World" was published in 2016. The book describes the Soviet history of the popular puzzle game and the fight for its global licensing rights as a "Cold War thriller with a political intrigue angle," according to Ackerman's lawsuit.
The lawsuit said that Ackerman sent a pre-publication copy of the book to the Tetris Company earlier that year. He said the company refused to license its intellectual property for projects related to his book, dissuading producers who were interested in adapting it, and sent him a "strongly worded cease and desist letter."
According to the complaint, the company's CEO Maya Rogers and screenwriter Noah Pink began copying Ackerman's book for the "Tetris" screenplay starting in 2017. Ackerman said the film "liberally borrowed numerous specific sections and events of the book" and was "similar in almost all material respects" to it.
Ackerman accused Apple and the Tetris Company of copyright infringement, unfair competition, and illegally interfering with his business relations.
The case is Ackerman v. Pink, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:23-cv-06952.
For Ackerman: Kevin Landau of the Landau Group
For the defendants: attorney information not yet available
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Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington
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