In March, he had Apple TV+ premiere of the new film "Tetris" based on real events with Taronem Egertonem in the lead role, which tells a story centered around the introduction of a popular puzzle game to the United States. However, in connection with this work, a new lawsuit accuses Apple, the Tetris company, and others from the fact that the film was based on a book written by the editor-in-chief of the Gizmodo website.
As reported by the agency Reuters, a lawsuit against the company Apple, screenwriter Noah Pink, Marv Studios, Tetris Company et al., filed by Dan Ackerman, alleging that the film Tetris is “similar in almost all material respects” to his 2016 book “The Tetris Effect.” The lawsuit states: “The film Tetris demonstrated the confiscation of Dan Ackerman’s original work and the creation of his book The Tetris Effect.”
"In his book, Plaintiff Ackerman took a unique approach to writing about the true history of Tetris, as he not only used historical records, but also layered his own original research and ingenuity on top of them to create an engagingly told non-fiction book in the style of a Cold War spy thriller." "
"Unlike other articles and writings, Mr. Ackerman de-emphasized the game itself and the fans in his literary work, focusing instead on the surrounding story, action sequences, and adversarial relationships between players."
"This was an identical approach taken by the defendants for the Tetris film, with no notable substantive differences, but often resonating with exactly the same feel, tone, approach and scenes as the book presented several years earlier."
"… it is abundantly clear that the Tetris movie is substantially similar to the book in almost all material respects, including specific chapters and pages of said book that were simply taken from there into the movie without Plaintiff's knowledge, permission, or consent."
Ackerman states that in July 2016, Tetris Company submitted a book draft of "The Tetris Effect". However, CEO Maya Rogers reportedly instructed the company not to "license any Tetris intellectual property, such as its name and likeness, for any film or television project."
The lawsuit further mentions that Tetris Company sent Ackerman's agent a letter threatening legal action if Ackerman "continues to pursue" any licensing options, such as TV shows and movies, for his book.
Ackerman, for whom, like many other writers, pre-emption rights or licensing of their works for film and television is a major source of income, sees Teptris's approach as a copyright infringement and an economic attack on his business, with the goal of realizing the opportunities his book represents, to the exclusion of business opportunities for him, and thus without the recognition of merit or just reward that should belong to him.
According to the lawsuit, the Tetris Company subsequently began working on its own film project regarding the company's history, allegedly using Ackerman's work as the basis of the script.
"After Ms. Rogers reviewed the entire book that Mr. Ackerman had written, she used Ackerman's work, for which Defendant Noah Pink developed a script, the content of which was taken from the book and fraudulently incorporated into a film project without Plaintiff's knowledge and consent, which included the absence of any pre-emption or licensing rights."
"The Tetris Effect book manuscript was used by Ms. Rogers and Mr. Pink to create the screenplay and presented Mr. Pink's screenplay as his original creation, even though it was apparently based on Mr. Ackerman's book."
When the trailer for Tetris debuted in March 2023, Ackerman immediately recognized the crucial similarity to his book and based on this, he requested in writing that the broadcast be halted, stating that "the film should not be broadcast until certain legal issues are resolved". The lawsuit states that the company Apple she knew about this fact, but a week later the film still aired Apple TV+ she stated.
Through the lawsuit, Ackerman is seeking actual and compensatory damages in the amount of 3% of the total production budget of Tetris, as well as punitive damages in the amount of 3% of the total production budget and other measures.
The film Tetris was well received by audiences and critics, receiving an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80% rating in the Czech Republic on CSFD .
