Tetris Challenges The White House Over ‘Arcade.gov” As Rest of the Industry Stays Quiet

Key Facts

WHAT FIRMS” GAMES DID ARCADE.GOV RIP OFF?

“Build the Wall” is a Tetris copycat, “Rio Run” copies Nokia’s snake game and “Flappy Bill” is a Flappy Bird knock off, the trademark for which is held by The Flappy Bird Foundations. “Supply Line” looks like a condensed version of the arcade game “Tapper,” whose rights are owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, and “Trump Savings Tycoon“ loosely rips off the classic arcade/gallery shooter style of Duck Hunt, a Nintendo property. The White House promoted the games by mimicking Sega’s iconic logo—turning it into MAGA—and used music from Green Hill Zone, the first level of the 1991 platform game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis. The promotional teasers also directly ripped off Xbox (owned by Microsoft) and PlayStation (owned by Sony) boot-up sequences and startup audio.

WHY WOULDN’T COMPANIES SUE FOR COPYRIGHT?

Several reasons. U.S. copyright law doesn’t protect game mechanics (like tapping to fly or stacking blocks) and arcade.gov largely recreated the mechanics of the iconic games using original, low-res pixel art, rather than stealing the source code, so copyright cases from Flappy Bird, Snake and Tetris may be legally weak. And while companies like Sega, Sony and Microsoft would have a much stronger claim (copyright does cover artwork and audio), suing the federal government involves complex sovereign immunity hurdles and likely wouldn’t result in a swift injunction that gets the site taken down. Non-commercial use of copyrighted materials aimed at political satire or public commentary are also often allowed under a “fair use“ defense and while it may not apply here, it would take an expensive trial to find out. The big tech companies are also playing a longer political game. By staying out of a fight that would be hard and expensive to win, they’re avoiding political blowback both among their consumer bases and from the White House itself. Major multinational corporations like Microsoft, Sony and SEGA rely heavily on the federal government for antitrust approvals, trade policy, federal contracts, tax regulation and other operational practicalities. Filing an intellectual property lawsuit against an active administration creates immediate regulatory friction for a low-stakes web game that likely yields little commercial revenue anyway.

HAS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RETALIATED AGAINST COMPANIES BEFORE?

Yes. Trump last year signed executive orders targeting several major law firms and specifically cited their past legal representation of political opponents or corporate DEI policies as the reason why. The executive orders directed federal agencies to review and terminate federal contracts with the firms, suspended security clearances for their attorneys and restricted access to federal buildings (those orders were later struck down by a judge). During his first term, Trump repeatedly attacked Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, and Amazon Web Services ultimately sued the government claiming Trump blocked it from getting a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the Pentagon. Trump backed consumer boycotts against Harley-Davidson after it announced plans to shift some production overseas to avoid retaliatory European tariffs, and the White House threatened to strip federal electric vehicle subsidies specifically targeting General Motors after the company announced plant closures and layoffs. The Trump administration has also frozen or threatened billions of dollars in federal funding to dozens of universities over campus protests, diversity policies, and foreign partnerships.

KEY BACKGROUND

Both the White House and the Trump campaign have a long history of utilizing copyrighted media, primarily iconic pop and rock music, without permission from the creators. Dozens of high-profile musicians, including Beyoncé, ABBA, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen have issued formal cease-and-desist demands over the unauthorized public framing of their work. Pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have also publicly denounced the administration’s use of their music. In some cases, the administration has occasionally taken down or muted select videos but it has also frequently ignored demands or offered dismissive public replies. Kenny Loggins last year asked the White House to remove his song “Danger Zone” from a controversial video in which the president appears to dump feces on top of of people protesting his administration—and the White House press office responded to Forbes’ request for comment with a meme from the film “Top Gun.” Courts have in some cases rejected political fair-use claims and held the campaign liable for damages, but direct litigation against official government accounts remains rare.

Further reading

ForbesWhite House Responds With ‘Top Gun’ Meme After Kenny Loggins Asks For Song To Be Removed From Controversial AI VideoBy Mary Whitfill Roeloffs