Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of tech news website Gizmodo, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Apple claiming that the Apple TV+ movie “Tetris” unlawfully lifted content from his book about the classic video game.
Published in 2016, Ackerman’s book titled “The Tetris Effect: The Game That Mesmerized the Globe” delved into the hit game’s beginnings within the former Soviet Union and the battle for its worldwide licensing rights.
According to the lawsuit, “Ackerman’s book took a unique approach to writing about the real history of Tetris, as it not only applied the historical record, but also layered his own original research and ingenuity to create a compelling narrative non-fiction book in the style of a Cold War spy thriller.”
The lawsuit added, “Mr. Ackerman’s literary masterpiece, unlike other articles and writings, dispelled of the emphasis on the actual gameplay and fans, and instead concentrated on the surrounding narrative, action sequences, and adversarial relationship between the players.”
Ackerman alleges that Apple, along with the Tetris Company, the rights holder for Tetris, as well as the producers and screenwriter Noah Pink, replicated “the exact same feel, tone, approach, and scenes as the book introduced several years prior.”
The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $4.8 million in damages from Apple and other parties involved, or 6% of the film’s estimated $80,000,000 production budget. The lawsuit alleges copyright infringement, unfair competition and tortious interference with business relations.
Ackerman alleges “that the Tetris film is substantially similar in almost all material respects including specific chapters and pages of said book that were simply adopted from the book to the film, without Plaintiff’s knowledge, authorization, or consent.”
Additionally, Ackerman claims that the defendants “refused to license any of the Tetris intellectual property, such as its name and image, for any motion picture or television project based on Mr. Ackerman’s book, and threatened legal action if Mr. Ackerman continued to pursue any such projects for his own book and creative work.”
“Tetris” premiered on Apple TV in March. The film starred Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers and Nikita Efremov as the game’s inventor, Alexey Pajitnov. The film, which is billed as “a Cold War–era thriller on steroids, with double-crossing villains, unlikely heroes, and a nail-biting race to the finish,” also stars Toby Jones, Roger Allam, Anthony Boyle, Ben Miles, Matthew Marsh and Rick Yune.
Reps for Apple did not respond to request for comment.
Reuters first reported the news about the lawsuit.