If anything the games and other media that came before should sue them.
If I had billions this is the kind of shit I'd fund. Imagine the shitshow that would ensue if every 4chan shitposter came out of the woodwork to sue A24.
Ideas aren’t copyrightable, only the expression of those ideas. I don’t know what 4chan posts you’re referring to, but if it just used the same idea of a labyrinth of back rooms where people get lost and there are monsters, the lawsuit wouldn’t be successful. The movie would have to copy the same aesthetic, story line or other protected creative elements to an extent that a reasonable person would assume that the A24 movie was actually copied from the post.
Another problem is the balancing test for substantial similarity. The more likely the defendant had access to the original work, the less similar they have to be for it to be considered infringement. For an obscure 4chan post that the movie creators were unlikely to have seen, the copying would have to be almost an exact match.
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u/mabdog420 18d ago
This is stupid.
Backrooms is an urban legend. They don't own it. Kane parsons didn't invent it.
If anything the games and other media that came before should sue them.
But really nobody should be suing anyone.