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Ask HN: Safe to release source code after DMCA?
8 points by Guzba on Sept 24, 2010 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment
This past spring, I created a popular Tetris clone that I released for free on the Android Market. After I had finished and released it, I started to hear about how protective Tetris Holding is of their trademark. After a few months, as expected, along came a DCMA take down from Tetris Holding and Google removed my game from the market. End of that story.

My question is, would it be "safe" for me to put the source code on GitHub for others to learn from and perhaps even learn something myself from others who make suggestions to improve it?

The reason I ask is if someone takes my code and builds and releases it on the Android Market, I would rather not find myself in a situation where I am in any way liable. (Risk averse...)

Basically, I am wondering if anyone knows of any red flags I should be aware of regarding this, or how I could do it safer (or if I don't even need to worry). Thanks!

Also, the clone is called Titres. (I hope some of you got your hands on it before it got taken down!)



It might be better to call it "falling blocks", or another generic name, or else you might get another DMCA request.




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