How stringent are the copyright rules?

All, I have been busily coding with Smilebasic since I pilfered the 3DS from my 10 year old son. I am thoroughly impressed with the horsepower of the CPU/GPU and the flexibility of the platform. In order to learn the instruction set and techniques, however, I decided to start with a replica of an old arcade game (not Nintendo). I have hand-painted the sprites and done some creative work with the MML music code to capture the essence of the original game. Its finally getting close to be able to post it and get some feedback from other users. BUT - I am leery of having my first submitted program get ripped off the server in 45 minutes because the game is so obviously a clone. Does anyone have experience with this conundrum? Is there a gray area to maneuver in? Thanks in advance!

It depends. If the server's automated checks don't get it (which they usually don't, it seems) either someone has to report it or SmileBoom has to care enough to take notice and manually revoke it. The rules seem very vague and it's pretty much a grab bag. Sorry I couldn't be of any more help :P

It depends. If the server's automated checks don't get it (which they usually don't, it seems) either someone has to report it or SmileBoom has to care enough to take notice and manually revoke it. The rules seem very vague and it's pretty much a grab bag. Sorry I couldn't be of any more help :P

Thanks for the insights slackerSnail. I will wait and see if anyone else has experience / ideas before submitting!

I think clone games are enough of a gray area, especially when you've recreated the assets and not ripped them. I wouldn't worry about it honestly. Plus we all want to see what you are working on, don't hold back now!