Game Developer Vlambeer can't seem to catch a break when it comes to other developers cloning their games. Their latest game to be cloned on the Apple App Store is Vlambeer's upcoming title Luftrausers. SkyFar is very similar to Vlambeer's game - in fact, except for a few minor aesthetics it looks identical to Vlambeer's game.

The effort to crowd source the purchase of the Homeworld series from THQ has failed after the sponsor of the campaign - developer TeamPixel - learned that the license has been bought by someone else. The campaign began in January on Kickstarter, with TeamPixel promising to secure the license and make Homeworld 3 for PC, Mac and Linux, and Homeworld Touch for iOS and Android. But someone else now owns the license, according to an update on the Kickstarter page:

Telltale Games announced in 2011 that it was working on a reboot of the classic Sierra point-and-click adventure game series, King's Quest, but it looks like that's not going to happen after all. Instead Activision, who merged with Vivendi Games (who owned Sierra's IP) in 2008, has retained the license and will now work on a reboot of the series in-house.

The new CEO of Crytek USA David Adams says that he wants to buy the Darksiders franchise from THQ. Writing on Twitter, Adams said the IP should stay with its makers. Adams co-founded Darksiders makers Vigil Games.

Update: Sunstone Games owner Simon Strange told GamePolitics this afternoon that legal counsel for Wizards of the Coast contacted him way back in December of last year to complain that "Kaiju Combat" was an infringement of its trademark "KAIJUDO."

Ridiculous Fishing and Serious Sam: Random Encounter developer Vlambeer says that "non-evil" free-to-play game design is almost impossible and that game developers should not be afraid to price their games at $3. Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing, which almost saw the studio go under during development, went live last week on Apple's App Store and garnered strong sales and critical acclaim from fans and critics.

We have the results from last week's poll "Should IP owners allow fan projects like the My Little Pony fighting game?" - if you didn't happen to catch them on this week's episode of the Super Podcast Action Committee.

This week 584 votes were cast on this subject - thanks to everyone who took the time to participate.

Zynga General Manager and Vice President Dan Porter has issued an email which was subsequently posted on Zynga Blog that pushes back against reports that he recently said at an event that the company copied games and that it is an industry wide practice. In his email he attempts to clarify what he claims he actually said and what is widely being reported this morning.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight are joined by James Fudge to discuss the new Six Strikes anti-piracy scheme, Time Warner Cable's insistence that customers don't want faster broadband and the latest poll on the PS4's lack of backwards compatibility. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 43 (1 hour, 14 minutes) 67.8 MB. You can also check out the show on YouTube if you prefer an unedited and more visual experience.

Speaking to Polygon Double Fine expressed its desire to reacquire the console publishing rights to two of its games buried in a lot of intellectual property to be sold off as part of an auction related to THQ's bankruptcy. Double Fine owns the IP for Stacking and Costume Quest and the rights to publish the games on the PC platform, but THQ holds limited rights to publish both games on consoles.

THQ announced that it will auction off the remaining assets it didn't manage to sell as part of its bankruptcy. The company hopes to sell the remainder of its intellectual properties by mid-May. Initial bids must be submitted by April 1, with final bids required by April 15. Last month, the bankruptcy court approved the sales of three of THQ's studios and games in development, as well as Evolve, a working title under development at Turtle Rock Studios, Homefront 2, Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Ars Technica points out a new scam trolling internet users with legal threats demanding cash settlements for alleged incidents of infringement. An organization calling itself the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency (ICLEA) recently sent out copyright infringement notices to victims warning them that "if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you.

ESPN is reporting that Take-Two Interactive has signed an exclusive five-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to create and publish WWE-based wrestling games. The new WWE-based games will fall under the name "WWE 2K," with the first game to be released this fall as WWE 2K14, reports ESPN. Take-Two and the WWE have not made an official announcement about this deal yet.

Happy President's Day! You know, the made-up holiday where we honor two presidents with one half-assed holiday. Don't President Lincoln and President George Washington deserve separate days to be honored properly? Apparently not. Anyway.. on this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the file-sharing case headed to the Supreme Court, the President's executive order on cybersecurity, the latest poll results, and more. Let freedom ring.

In an open letter to the media, three indie studio heads decided to break their silence and detail the struggle they have had working with publisher Mamba Games Ltd. The letter signed by Jakub Dvorsky, Managing Director of Amanita Design; Andrey Arutyunyan, Managing Director of Colibri Games; and Sergei Klimov, Director of International Publishing of Daedalic Entertainment, details at great length the alleged trouble these studios had in getting Mamba Games Ltd and Lace Mamba Global Ltd to honor its contracts and make payments in a timely manner.

The Tetris Company announced that the New Jersey District Court has delivered the company final judgment in its case against game maker Xio. The company filed the lawsuit in 2009 alleging that Xio's game Mino for iOS infringed on the copyrights and trade dress rights of Tetris. The court ultimately sided with The Tetris Company, which owns the licensing rights to the popular franchise.

Despite the continued push to vilify video games (despite a lack of research, evidence, or common sense in commentary on the subject), the creators of the upcoming video game The Last of Us will not tone down the high levels of violence in this "world gone to hell-in-a-hand-basket" video game.

Well it is official - the country of Antigua is one step closer to launching a legal piracy portal - according to TorrentFreak. At a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today the World Trade Organization (WTO) officially granted Antigua’s request to suspend U.S. copyrights - confirming a 2007 preliminary authorization given by the WTO to the Caribbean island.

Eurogamer reports that indie developer teamPixel has launched a crowdfunding appeal on Indiegogo to purchase the rights to THQ's cult classic space strategy series Homeworld. While Sega now owns the studio that originally made the game, team Pixel hopes that it can raise some funds to secure the original game and re-release it on Steam and Good Old Games.

While THQ is going through an auction today to decide what happens with its various assets, one of those asset partners says that it is not part of the deal. Filing a formal complaint with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware, South Park Digital Studios said that South Park: The Stick of Truth cannot be sold off to a new owner without the studio's approval, because of stipulations in the contract it signed with THQ.

Gas Powered Games is on its way to staying alive, as its Kickstarter campaign for its latest game Wildman heads towards the $280,000 mark. Late Friday Chris Taylor posted a video on the Kickstarter page explaining that he had to lay off most of the company's staff and that the only way to save the company and hire those people back could be the Kickstarter campaign for its single and multiplayer action RPG. Since that appeal GPG has raised right around $69,000.

Norway is expected to reveal its new proposals to tackle file-sharing sites that offer copyright material which could include changes to copyright law to allow sites to be blocked, reports TorrentFreak.

A Republican House staffer who penned a memo on a different kind of approach to copyright law in November of last year found himself out of work as the new Congress was seated last Thursday and the new head of the Republican Study Committee - Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) - decided not to keep him on. He finally broke his silence on the whole ordeal to Ars Technica.

Yesterday we highlight the Twitter-based RPG called Tweeria in the ECA Newsletter. Described as a "lazy Twitter role-playing game" by its creators, Tweeria uses replies, retweets and activity to create Tweeria weapons, movements and attacks. Basically all you have to do to play the game is to be social on Twitter.

The madness surrounding the rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game franchise continues as GSC Game World weighs in on BitComposer's claim yesterday that it had locked down the rights to create games based on the franchise. Yesterday the company said that it had secured the rights to create games based on the book series Roadside Picnic - which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is based on.

Confusion abounds on just who owns the right to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game franchise after BitComposer (who published the third title in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series Call of Pripyet), announced that it had acquired the license to the game franchise. The deal gives BitComposer exclusive worldwide rights to all video games carrying the STALKER name... or does it? There's some question as to whether the company actually owns the rights to the game, which was based loosely on the book series Roadside Picnic, or just the books.

When you develop a game without the permission of the copyright holder, chances are you will be in for some sort of legal action. Such is the fate of the My Little Pony MMO, which has been shut down after the developers of the game received a copyright and trademark infringement claim from Hasbro. The game was not approved by Hasbro. Fearing serious legal action the developers decided it would be prudent to just shut the game down.

Npeaches offers an excellent interview with Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) discussing some pretty important topics including the importance of net neutrality and intellectual property as it relates to the Internet.

The interview is 10 minutes 32 seconds long. You can watch it to your left in its entirety.

Source: Culture Cache Blog

Double Fine's Ron Gilbert wants the Monkey Island franchise back from Disney. The creator of the popular point-and-click adventure game franchise lost the rights to Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion after he left LucasArts. Then the company decided to sell the franchise off to Disney. Gilbert thinks that Disney doesn't know what to do with the franchise and is just letting it languish. He describes the situation as very sad.

"Yeah, I wish I owned Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, you know?," said Gilbert.

Alloy Digital has completed the acquisition of the popular gaming website, The Escapist from Themis Media. Themis Media was advised on the sale by Redwood Capital and A. Buchholtz & Company, LLC. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.