The team behind Tetris, the classic 1984 puzzle video game, has responded to the White House over a knockoff game that the Trump administration released this week.
The statement from Tetris hits back against Trump’s White House over its recently released Tetris clone, “Build the Wall.” In its response, Tetris strongly hints that the company will “take copyright infringement very seriously.”
“At Tetris, we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them,” Tetris said in a statement posted to its official accounts on Instagram and X. “To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.”
The Tetris spoof was one of five games released by the White House on Thursday on a new government website address Arcade.gov. The playable web games are all clones of classic titles overlaid with different themes that promote Trump’s policies. For example, “Build the Wall” pushes an anti-immigration agenda, urging players to “protect the border from the coming horde.”
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The Tetris team amended their statement graphic with a few postscripts as well.
“P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall’,” they said. “P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously.”
Tetris isn’t the first to push back against an association with Trump and float potential legal action. Countless musical artists have issued DMCA takedowns or cease-and-desists to Trump over the years for the use of their songs at his rallies or in campaign media.
Just last year, Pokémon Company International issued a statement distancing itself from a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that used its intellectual property to promote the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
“Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property,” the Pokémon Company said at the time.
Source: https://mashable.com/tech/tetris-statement-trump-arcade-games-copyright-infringement
