Uwe Rosenberg's "Bohnanza" - in Amigo's program - was recently plagiarized several times and was offered in a modified design on Kickstarter. Amigo proved this in detail and criticized it in a press release. There was nothing to be heard of legal steps such as a warning. After consultation, Amigo explained that they at least wanted to talk to Kickstarter in order to sound out potential levers for such cases in the future. The latest plagiarism case in games therefore raises some questions.

Unfortunately, in the past there have repeatedly been cases in which game publishers have not taken any legal action because this is "so difficult and unlikely to be successful" - not only abroad.

The experience reported at the recent conference on authors' rights in Berlin by the director of the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW, Dr. Tobias Schmid, speaks against this: Consistent persecution - or at least the initiation of first steps - is a deterrent and is also a word of mouth for other potential copyright infringers. This leads to a significant reduction in such cases.

In many contracts, publishers commit themselves to take appropriate action against infringements by third parties. Then the authors should also insist on doing so. In addition, we recommend all authors to ensure that such a clause is included in their contract.