DHTML Lemmings

Copyright problems

This game was created for the Got DHTML Contest of 2003 and was never intended to be widely circulated. However, things on the Internet have a way of exploding in popularity and soon a mirror host needed to be lined up to relieve the unexpected bandwidth drain the game was generating.

In August of 2003 the programmer and his mirror host received notification from the BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy group, representing SCEE, requesting that he take down the site as it infringed on code owned by them, based on some remarks made by the author in the FAQ for his game where he speculates as to the Lemmings franchise owners. (Take 2 via Rockstar North, formerly original Lemmings developers DMA? or Sony via Psygnosis?)

Whether or not Crisp is infringing on copyrights (he justifies his work thus:

"my work is not a copy, it's a derivate that is made to look like the original but on a complete different platform technically. This requires a complete different approach, therefor it can be considered a standalone work, that may look like the original but simply isn't.

I used material available in the public domain to make it, but used my knowledge from the original game to make it look and act the same. This means that without the original I could not have made this game, and that is actually where the copyright infringement would be in effect.")

... he has since pulled the game from his host, speculating about altering the assets just enough to comply with the order (for instance, giving the Lemming-alikes empty, hollow heads and calling the game Brainless.)

Other hosts of the game have, in the meantime, continued happily making the game available without any harassment or threat of legal action.