Former Gizmodo EIC Dan Ackerman’s lawsuit alleging that Apple, the Tetris company, screenwriter Noah Pink and others ripped off his 2016 book, The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World, for their 2023 Apple TV Plus movie has been dismissed. Reuters reports Ackerman’s lawyer said he will appeal the decision.
In her ruling, Judge Katherine Failla writes:
Ultimately, the Court finds that Defendants’ Film is not substantially similar to Plaintiff’s Book and that Plaintiff has failed to allege that Defendants misappropriated the way he selected, coordinated, and arranged the facts in his Book.
Where the Book’s tone is informative, the Film’s is suspenseful and dramatic, at times deviating from the true facts underlying the story and going so far as to invent an entire KGB subplot, which takes up significant screen time, to create that theatrical effect.
