Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 117 posts

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#31

Post by dougb5 »

mryall wrote: post #2

> In a statement to 404 Media, the Times said: > > The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’s “Wordle” trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. Can you really copyright “gameplay”? This seems like pointless bullying by the Times, who is probably just upset they haven’t got a positive ROI on their acquisition of a free game.

I can't prove it, but I am quite sure NYT got a positive ROI on the acquisition of Wordle. They paid in the low single millions of USD, which isn't much for a brand as big as Wordle had become by then (2 million+ daily players) and it's been used to drive new digital subscriptions [1]. It's diminished somewhat since then but it has remarkable staying power. I can tell that from the Google Trends data [2] as well as the anecdata that I and so many of my friends and family still play Wordle every day.

[1] https://www.afr.com/technology/why-on-earth-did-the-new-york... [2] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...

[Edit: And, nearly two years on, they say they get "millions" of players per day, and they've assigned a dedicated Wordle editor and write articles about the game frequently. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/17/upshot/wordle-bot-year-in...). They're definitely not having buyer's regret.]

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#33

Post by Verdex »

Kluggy wrote: post #21
pgrote wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lingo seems like Wordle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0kie6dPjo Maybe the copyright is on the colors on the game field?

> The New York Times — which purchased Wordle back in 2022 — has filed several DMCA notices over Wordle clones created by GitHub coders, citing its ownership over the Wordle name and copyrighted gameplay including 5x6 tile layout and gray, yellow, and green color scheme.

This smells very similar to the issue with the tetris clone a number of years ago. The overall issue is that while games aren't copyrightable, the look and feel of a game can be copyrighted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_Holding,_LLC_v._Xio_Int...

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#34

Post by lbourdages »

standardly wrote: post #5
mryall wrote: post #2

> In a statement to 404 Media, the Times said: > > The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’s “Wordle” trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. Can you really copyright “gameplay”? This seems like pointless bullying by the Times, who is probably just upset they haven’t got a positive ROI on their acquisition of a free game.

Not sure why you're grayed out - no, you cannot copywrite gameplay. The name "Wordle" could be protected, though, which is probably the case here. In any case, Wordle is too damn easy. Don't think I've ever lost. I recommend sedecordle for word enjoyers

Semantle is nice but very difficult. You have unlimited tries, though.

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#35

Post by autoexec »

mryall wrote: post #2

> In a statement to 404 Media, the Times said: > > The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’s “Wordle” trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. Can you really copyright “gameplay”? This seems like pointless bullying by the Times, who is probably just upset they haven’t got a positive ROI on their acquisition of a free game.

Maybe you can't copyright gameplay, but you can still sue someone for infringement anyway, or even just threaten people with lawsuits that you know they can't afford to defend themselves against so they'll do whatever you want no matter what their rights are. The Times might even win in the courts if it ever gets that far. You can't copyright a musical genre either but that hasn't stopped successful lawsuits against musicians for exactly that (https://abovethelaw.com/2018/03/blurred-lines-can-you-copy-a...).

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#36

Post by lastofthemojito »

CannisterFlux wrote: post #27
standardly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're grayed out - no, you cannot copywrite gameplay. The name "Wordle" could be protected, though, which is probably the case here. In any case, Wordle is too damn easy. Don't think I've ever lost. I recommend sedecordle for word enjoyers

Yeah I stopped playing it pretty quickly. There was that not-wordle game where you had to not get the word. It made me realise just how tricky failing wordle was. I still do "where taken", which is photos of countries, tradle for oec trade commodities and guess the game for video games. They're all far more interesting than guessing some random word.

Perhaps that was Don't Wordle? That was eye-opening to me too. Play it before NYT sues it out of existence I guess: https://dontwordle.com

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#37

Post by leereeves »

c3534l wrote: post #11
mryall wrote: post #2

> In a statement to 404 Media, the Times said: > > The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’s “Wordle” trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. Can you really copyright “gameplay”? This seems like pointless bullying by the Times, who is probably just upset they haven’t got a positive ROI on their acquisition of a free game.

Especially considering wordle has no unique gameplay. Its a very, very old game with a million variations. There was even a TV show called lingo or something that did competetive wordle. The only thing NYT owns is a brand since the game is hundreds of years old.

Yeah, Wordle is clearly a copy of Lingo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(American_game_show)#/me...

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#38

Post by reactordev »

archontes wrote: post #20
mryall wrote: post #2

> In a statement to 404 Media, the Times said: > > The Times has no issue with individuals creating similar word games that do not infringe The Times’s “Wordle” trademarks or copyrighted gameplay. Can you really copyright “gameplay”? This seems like pointless bullying by the Times, who is probably just upset they haven’t got a positive ROI on their acquisition of a free game.

You cannot copyright gameplay. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law... .

but you can patent it.

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#39

Post by autoexec »

crtified wrote: post #23

The asset NYT bought when they bought Wordle, was to have their name indelibly associated with a trend that is more popular than they themselves are. It is simply "our name in your face, on a regular basis, for years" advertising, at a global scale. Case in point : here we all are, thinking and talking about the NYT. That is the ROI.

Yeah, but we're all just thinking about what a dick they are. Does that really count?

Re: New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

#40

Post by autoexec »

CannisterFlux wrote: post #27
standardly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're grayed out - no, you cannot copywrite gameplay. The name "Wordle" could be protected, though, which is probably the case here. In any case, Wordle is too damn easy. Don't think I've ever lost. I recommend sedecordle for word enjoyers

Yeah I stopped playing it pretty quickly. There was that not-wordle game where you had to not get the word. It made me realise just how tricky failing wordle was. I still do "where taken", which is photos of countries, tradle for oec trade commodities and guess the game for video games. They're all far more interesting than guessing some random word.

Does it use the same wordlist as wordle or have they specifically chosen words that would be impossible to not get?
Post reply on HN