Beijing Olympics Pirating Games?

The 2008 Beijing Olympics seem to have been shrouded in controversy, and it doesn’t seem to be vanishing anytime soon.   The latest incident to tarnish its image has seen the BeijingOlympics Organizing Committee pull a game from its website after allegations that the game, Fuwa Fight The Winter Clouds, seemed to borrow very heavily fromSnow Day, a game copyrighted in 2006 by New York developer Cadin Batrack.   According to Vnunet, Batrack claimedin a bog that “the Olympics stole my game.” Both are Flash games, and some say identical in places, even having similarities in programming code.   Interesting, there are other gamesstill on the official Olympic Committee site that bear a strange resemblance to other games. This is in spite of the Committee threatening anyone violating its intellectual property rights withprosecution under Chinese law, where penalties could be the confiscation of any income derived from the illegal use, as well as fine of up to $7,000 or five times the income from illegal use.  The Committee removed the Fuva game after Batrack brought the similarity to their attention. However, Batrack states,   "Two of the other games on the Olympic site are obvious rip-offs ofFerry Halim‘s games.”