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" Electronic Arts has filed a lawsuit against Zynga, claiming that the game The Ville infringes the copyright of EA&amp;#039;s The Sims Social. The 36-page filing details numerous infringing game elements, from similar art assets and character animations to identical gameplay elements and even color palettes using the exact same RGB values.  EA&amp;#039;s complaint also notes that several key EA employees who had worked on The Sims Social were recruited by Zynga as the game entered its final stages of development, which could have provided the company with confidential development information that was put to use in The Ville.  Among the three developers hired by Zynga was former EA chief executive officer John Shappert, who became Zynga&amp;#039;s chief executive officer. Schapper has since been stripped of product oversight responsibilities for games at Zynga in recent restructuring due to the company&amp;#039;s falling stock prices. EA also alleges in its complaint that Zynga has a history of copyright infringement in games, including the titles Dream Heights and Zynga Bingo which bear similarities to the titles Tiny Tower by Nimblebit and Bingo Blitz by Buffalo Studio. &amp;quot;This is a case of principle,&amp;quot; EA&amp;#039;s Lucy Bradshaw said in a press release that accompanied the filing. &amp;quot;Maxis isn&amp;#039;t the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product. But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it. Infringing a developer&amp;#039;s copyright is not an acceptable practice in game development.  &amp;quot;By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don&amp;#039;t have the resources to protect themselves.&amp;quot;   The complaint demands a trial by jury, with EA seeking damages for the infringing products and an injunction restraining Zynga from further copyright infringement. Zynga issued a statement in response to the lawsuit, declaring: &amp;quot;We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. &amp;quot;The Ville is the newest game in our &amp;#039;ville&amp;#039; franchise - it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga&amp;#039;s CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players.&amp;quot; It should be noted that both SimCity Social and Zynga&amp;#039;s CityVille also bear a resemblance to EA&amp;#039;s SimCity franchise, which dates back to 1989. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a397330/ea-files-copyright-complaint-against-zynga-over-the-ville/>