NYTimes Files Copyright Takedown Against Hundreds of Wordle Clones (404media.co) 39
As reported by 404 Media, the New York Times has issued hundreds of copyright takedown requests against Wordle clones "in which it asserts not just ownership over the Wordle name but over the broad concepts and mechanics of the word game, which includes its '5x6 grid' and 'green tiles to indicate correct guesses.'" From the report: The Times filed at least three DMCA takedown requests with coders who have made clones of Wordle on GitHub. These include two in January and, crucially, a new DMCA filed this week against Chase Wackerfuss, the coder of a repository called âoeReactle,â which cloned Wordle in React JS (JavaScript). The most recent takedown request is critical because it not only goes after Reactle but anyone who has forked Reactle to create a different spinoff game; an archive of the Reactle code repository shows that it was forked 1,900 times to create a diverse set of games and spinoffs. These include Wordle clones in dozens of languages, crossword versions of Wordle, emoji and bird versions of world, poker and AI spinoffs, etc.
"I write to submit a revised DMCA Notice regarding an infringing repository (and hundreds of forked repositories) hosted by Github that instruct users how to infringe The New York Times Co.'s ('The Times') copyright in its immensely popular Wordle game and create knock-off copies of the same. Unfortunately, hundreds of individuals have followed these instructions and published infringing Wordle knock-off games that The Times has spent the past month removing, including off of Github's websites," the DMCA takedown request against Reactle reads. "The Times's Wordle copyright includes the unique elements of its immensely popular game, such as the 5x6 grid, green tiles to indicate correct guesses, yellow tiles to indicate the correct letter but the wrong place within the word, and the keyboard directly beneath the grid. This gameplay is copied exactly in the repository, and the owner instructs others how to knock off the game and create an identical word game," it adds.
The DMCA request then says that GitHub must delete forks of the repository, which it writes were "infringing to the same extent as the parent repository" and which it says were made in what was "clearly bad faith." [...] The DMCA takedown requests are particularly notable because they come at a time when the New York Times is financially thriving, while many of its competitors are losing money, laying people off, and shutting down. The Times is thriving in part because Wordle, the crossword puzzle, and its recipe apps are juggernauts. The company has been aggressively expanding its "Games" business with Wordle, Connections, and a brand new word search game called Strands. The New York Times issued a statement in response: "The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times's 'Wordle' trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. The Times took action against a GitHub user and others who shared his code to defend its intellectual property rights in Wordle. The user created a 'Wordle clone' project that instructed others how to create a knock-off version of The Times's Wordle game featuring many of the same copyrighted elements. As a result, hundreds of websites began popping up with knock-off 'Wordle' games that used The Times's 'Wordle' trademark and copyrighted gameplay without authorization or permission."
"I write to submit a revised DMCA Notice regarding an infringing repository (and hundreds of forked repositories) hosted by Github that instruct users how to infringe The New York Times Co.'s ('The Times') copyright in its immensely popular Wordle game and create knock-off copies of the same. Unfortunately, hundreds of individuals have followed these instructions and published infringing Wordle knock-off games that The Times has spent the past month removing, including off of Github's websites," the DMCA takedown request against Reactle reads. "The Times's Wordle copyright includes the unique elements of its immensely popular game, such as the 5x6 grid, green tiles to indicate correct guesses, yellow tiles to indicate the correct letter but the wrong place within the word, and the keyboard directly beneath the grid. This gameplay is copied exactly in the repository, and the owner instructs others how to knock off the game and create an identical word game," it adds.
The DMCA request then says that GitHub must delete forks of the repository, which it writes were "infringing to the same extent as the parent repository" and which it says were made in what was "clearly bad faith." [...] The DMCA takedown requests are particularly notable because they come at a time when the New York Times is financially thriving, while many of its competitors are losing money, laying people off, and shutting down. The Times is thriving in part because Wordle, the crossword puzzle, and its recipe apps are juggernauts. The company has been aggressively expanding its "Games" business with Wordle, Connections, and a brand new word search game called Strands. The New York Times issued a statement in response: "The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times's 'Wordle' trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. The Times took action against a GitHub user and others who shared his code to defend its intellectual property rights in Wordle. The user created a 'Wordle clone' project that instructed others how to create a knock-off version of The Times's Wordle game featuring many of the same copyrighted elements. As a result, hundreds of websites began popping up with knock-off 'Wordle' games that used The Times's 'Wordle' trademark and copyrighted gameplay without authorization or permission."
Disgusting (Score:5, Interesting)
More abuse of the DMCA. They should be ashamed of themselves. These are at best trademark infringements. You can't copyright a grid, but nobody's going to bother paying to defend that in court against such a shamelessly litigious entity.
Seriously, why isn't there a peer-to-peer git repository service? At this point we need a Pirate Bay of git repos.
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Interesting)
Nobody trusts their reporting anymore and circulation is way down.
They're panicked about losing their only popular product from the looks of it.
Re: (Score:2)
Those with the money to pay lawyers and politicians are the ones who get to make the rules. It's why successful democracies are in a constant state of conflict and change, because democracy disappears when people relax and get complacent.
Mastermind (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't wordle just Mastermind?
5x6 grid. Check.
Yellow: correct color incorrect position. Check.
Green: correct color correct position. Check.
Black: incorrect color. Check.
Re:Mastermind (Score:5, Insightful)
It's hardly revolutionary. I think the only clever thing about it is that there's only one word per day, and it's the same for everybody. That way you can play it every day and boast to your friends how many tries it took. Can't believe the NYT bought it, to be honest. I wonder if they knew what they bought.
Re: (Score:2)
They bought it because it was incredibly popular and it allowed them to drive a huge amount of new business to their games section.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Funny)
>[The New York Times] should be ashamed of themselves
The time for that has long since past
Re: (Score:1)
Sigh.
You literally can't copyright game mechanics. The abuse of the patent and trademark office to back door legal liability for copying game mechanics is ridiculous.
Someone needs to return copyright to the original 14 years. At this point, we're creating a system of incentives for litigation, not innovation.
Re:Seems fair to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Seems fair to me (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
They can keep trying to stamp them out but they grow like weeks. There's even one called "Wordle NYT" that claims: "Please note: Wordle NYT is not affiliated with "Wordle" by NYTimes in anyways."
Pretty funny actually. The idea is so trivial that the only valuable thing is the name, yet they are completely unable to protect their trademark online so they have to resort to these illegal DMCA takedown notices.
Re:Seems fair to me (Score:5, Interesting)
Because I think it's perfectly fair to copyright the elements described
Well, what you think is wrong.
You can't copyright a game's mechanics. The game is played on a 5x6 grid. A grid is not copyrightable.
"Green" for correct and "Yellow" for almost correct is universal.
Lists of available letters in word games are very common. Arranged in Qwerty you say? I'm sure we can find more than one game who did it first.
If the original authors did it, it would have been equally stupid. But they weren't that stupid.
Re:Seems fair to me (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Isn't the whole point of the copyright system to maximize the prosperity of others by bringing more and more into the public domain over time?
Our copyright system isn't intended to maximize the prosperity of original designers - it's intended to incentivize original designers just enough to bring ideas into the universe for everyone to benefit from.
The failure of our legal system to stop Disney and other corporations from extending copyright for generations is the real ethical problem.
Re: Seems fair to me (Score:5, Informative)
Wordle is itself a clone of older games, including a game show.
Since the concept is not new, there is no basis for complaint.
The NYT is just being shit as usual.
Re: (Score:2)
Can you even copyright a concept?
I mean, this sounds more like they think they have a patent, but a patent needs to be filed and doesn't involve the DMCA at all.
And their lawyers must have told them this already, but they went ahead with it anyway?
Good way to... (Score:5, Insightful)
...make word gamers hate the NYT, and if they are subscribers, cancel
Re:Good way to... (Score:4, Interesting)
NY Times' golden future (Score:2)
Petty (Score:4, Interesting)
NY Times must be desperate. This is rather petty and insignificant.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not the first time they have done this kind of thing. In fact when they bought Wordle there was quite a lot of commentary at the time that speculated how long they would take before they starting doing just this and there were assertions from both the original owners and the NYT that they wouldn't shut down similar games.
Anyone for a game of Bulls and Cows? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a Victorian parlour game played with either numbers or words and predates Mastermind, Jotto and Wordle by ages. It was implemented on Unix and Multix computers in the 1970s. Got to be prior art.
The NYT Connections is a rip-off of the puzzle wall from the BBC quiz show Only Connect -- people in glass houses.
Where is the money? (Score:3)
A party seeking remedy must show they have been harmed. (locus standi)
Wordle was totally free to use (no subscription required) before the NYTimes bought the website (why did they buy it??), so defense would simply argue they showed people how to copy the look and feel of the free game; and publishing such instruction is protected under the first amendment.
Microsoft figured that out about Linux 25 years ago - there is no point in suing free.
You can't copyright gameplay. (Score:2)
"Copyright does not protect the idea for game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it."
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. The only valid copyright claim would require there to be actual direct copying of graphical assets and code and those assets or code would have be of sufficient originality to actually be copyrightable in of themselves. A grid of boxes that can contain letters and that change color based on gameplay wouldn't qualify for copyright protection even if the font used, size, colors and placement are identical. I'm also going to guess that the targeted games had no direct access to the NYT codebase so d
Introducing Wurdle (Score:2)
Next up: The NYT files lawsuits against publishers of crossword puzzles.
Wordle itself violates copyright (Score:3)
For example the TV show Lingo [ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org] ] had this exact same concept.
They should sue NYT...
Re: (Score:2)
Right the comment right above yours. The creator of Wordle violated copyright himself, so NYT has no rights to this at all.