Xio Interactive Company Blog

In the last couple of weeks we have been exchanging letters with Apple due to the Tetris Company issuing a DMCA notice in an effort to remove Mino and Mino Lite from the App store. Last Friday they succeeded in removing both, but only temporarily. We have already filed a DMCA counter notification and we expect that Mino and Mino Lite will be back online within 14 days. We have always assumed that The Tetris Company might resort to attempts at illegitimately stifling competition, instead of simply innovating and releasing their own multiplayer product. In case there is any doubt in your minds about the absurdity of their copyright claims, please read the U.S. government’s stance on games and copyright (First result if you google “games copyright”), http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html which states:

Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, *nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles*. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.

Once thing is clear: When you start receiving legal threats from your competition, you know that you’ve got a great product.

So for those of you who have already purchased Mino and helped us reach #11 on the App Store “Whats Hot” list, thank you so much!. As strange as it sounds, we wouldn’t have received a cease and desist and DMCA notice without you, so thanks for making our day! When we get Mino back on the App store we will celebrate with a 1 week sale, offering our game at 99 cents, and we will raise the Mino Lite multiplayer limit to 200 games (up from 30.)

We’ll keep you posted as events transpire. We are as anxious as you to see Mino back up.