Full Screen Mario: Making the Case For Shorter Copyrights

[wraggster]

A college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute spent nine months meticulously remaking Super Mario Bros (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/17/this-college-kid-painstakingly-recreated-super-mario-brothers-for-the-web/). based on the latest web standards. His project (http://www.fullscreenmario.com/) is open source and the code freely available through Github (https://github.com/Diogenesthecynic/FullScreenMario). The site recently gained widespread media attention (https://www.google.com/search?q=full+screen+mario#q=full+screen+mario&tbm=nws), which unfortunately brought it to the attention of Nintendo, which has requested that the site be taken down. In a column on the Washington Post website, tech blogger Timothy Lee makes the case for how this isa prime example of copyrights hindering innovation (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/17/nintendo-says-this-amazing-super-mario-site-is-illegal-heres-why-it-shouldnt-be/) and why copyright lengths should be shortened. Among his arguments: copyrights hinder innovation by game designers seeking to build upon such games, and shortening copyright would breathe new life into games who have long since passed into obsolescence."

http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/10/18/1339253/full-screen-mario-making-the-case-for-shorter-copyrights