Gizmodo Editor Sues Tetris, Apple, Says Movie Infringed His Tetris Book

A copyright infringement case by Gizmodo Editor-in-Chief Tom Ackerman alleges the Tetris movie “demonstrated the confiscation” of his original work and creation of his book, The Tetris Effect. Chapters and pages of Ackerman's book were “simply adopted from the book to the film,” said the complaint (docket 1:23-cv-06952), filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan,

The movie is “substantially similar in almost all material respects including specific chapters and pages" to Ackerman’s book that were "simply adopted from the book to the film, without Plaintiff’s knowledge, authorization, or consent," the complaint alleged. The characters, story, presentation and underlining themes as observed in the Tetris film, “were substantially similar, if not identical," to those "at the heart of Ackerman’s book several years before,” said the complaint, which names as defendants Tetris screenwriter Noah Pink, Apple, Access Industries and its subsidiary AI Productions, Marv Studios, FB Commissioning, Tetris CEO Maya Rogers and Tetris Holding. Apple is the platform distributor for the movie.

Ackerman began the “creative process” for The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized The World around March 2014, said the complaint. In an email to his literary agent, Ackerman drafted nonfiction book ideas, including what would become his book on Tetris and “its association to the Soviet Union and media baron Robert Maxwell.” The idea turned into The Tetris Effect and formed “the basis of the Tetris movie,” he said.

After creating a seven-page overview, then a rough chapter outline, Ackerman had by May 23, 2014, his “original book proposal that specifically told the Tetris story based on a Cold War thriller with a political intrigue angle,” said the complaint. The proposal went through a few revisions; the May 23 version is the “earliest version” for the book, he said.

Over the next year, Ackerman had key interviews, including with Henk Rogers, Alexey Pajitnov, Maya Rogers, Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, “all of whom were featured in the book and film as major characters,” said the complaint. On April 14, 2015, Ackerman held a conference call with Maya Rogers, among others, to discuss the book. Rogers and others at Tetris "certainly knew months earlier before their interviews of his intent to reshape the history as a spy thriller with Henk Rogers as a heroic protagonist,” it said.

In July 2016, Ackerman’s reps sent Zebra PR, the public relations company for Tetris, a prepublication copy of The Tetris Effect, “which they provided to Tetris Company and Maya Rogers," the complaint said. After reviewing the “entire book that Mr. Ackerman wrote," Rogers used Ackerman’s work, from which defendant Pink developed a screenplay, "the contents of which was taken from the book and deceptively made into a film project without Plaintiff’s knowledge or consent" or optioning or licensing rights, the complaint said.

Rogers had the Tetris company refuse to license any of the Tetris intellectual property, such as its name and image, for any motion picture or television project based on Ackerman’s book, “and threatened legal action" if Ackerman continued to pursue any such projects for his own book and creative work, the complaint said. His agent received a cease and desist letter in September. As a result of the letter, the agent stopped pursuing film and TV opportunities for the book, it said.

Tetris “was not attempting to halt any dissemination of any alleged copyright infringement, but rather, to have constituted an economic attack on the whole of Mr. Ackerman’s business so they could pursue the opportunities presented by Mr. Ackerman’s book to the exclusion of Mr. Ackerman’s business opportunities without having to credit or fairly compensate him,” said the complaint.

Ackerman asserts claims of copyright infringement against all defendants; unfair competition against Maya Rogers, Tetris company and Pink; and tortious interference with business relations against Maya Rogers and Tetris. He requests actual, compensatory and punitive damages of 3% of the total production budget of Tetris, plus pre- and post-judgment interest.