10.03.2023. A group around the German blogger and YouTuber Stefan Gust (Digger) has announced a game with the title "Unfinished Business" as a crowdfunding project, which not only according to our opinion, but also according to that of many online commentators, is to be considered a plagiarism of the game BIG DEAL by Brent & Jeffrey Beck. BIG DEAL was in the program of Schmidt Spiele a few years ago. The group has apparently made it easy for themselves: The existing game is taken, adapted to the new setting by naming it and enriched with a few action cards. It is not denied that BIG DEAL was taken as a basis. In the game rules version V9.9.5-2023 large parts of the BIG DEAL instructions were still taken over verbatim. During the further editing, V9.10.8-2023, the creative activity of the "authors" is limited with the taken over passages to the slight reformulation of individual sentences, without changing the content message. This handling of already existing works discredits the activity of serious game authors. Ultimately, this group also disqualifies itself with its pretentious word contributions on the YouTube channel BoardgameDigger/Meeple Porn.

As a representation of the interests of game authors, the SAZ condemns this behavior in the strongest possible terms. Such a treatment of the author rights of third parties contradicts the unwritten code of honor of creative and serious game authors. We urge the publishers of "Unfinished Business" to enter into an appropriate licensing agreement with Brent & Jeffrey Beck or to stop the project immediately. Gamers should consider whether they want to support a project that tramples on the copyrights of game designers. We will also advocate for the idea on BoardGameGeek to create a database for such "unlicensed copies" to become reality and increase public pressure on plagiarists.

The author of "Big Deal" (Cover your Assets), Brent Beck and his team of Grandpa Becks's Games have now sent us a statement about the planned release of "Unfinished Business!":

As founders of Grandpa Beck's Games, we, Brent and Tauni Beck, are grateful for the many individuals who have looked out for us, and the integrity of the game creation industry by pointing out the obvious plagiarism of our award winning game 'Cover Your Assets/Big Deal/Cache Ton Cash:, being proposed as 'Unfinished Business', by Mr. Gust.

Our games are trademarked and copyrighted. No permission was sought by or given to Mr. Gust to have any authority to copy our game mechanics or rules content. We take offense at this flagrant violation of our intellectual property.