NY Times issues DMCA takedowns of Wordle clones

Post by akudha » Thu, Mar 07, 2024, 11:32 PM UTC

jsheard wrote: post #40

josephcsible wrote: post #39

Game mechanics aren't copyrightable, right? So unless these clones copied the code, aren't these takedowns invalid?

In general you can't copyright game mechanics, but trade dress laws provide a loophole around that. You can legally protect how a game is presented, and in some cases that's intrinsically tied to the game mechanics enough that you can't really get around it, which is how The Tetris Company has been able to effectively lock down the exclusive rights to the Tetris mechanics and successfully sued those who tried to make…

Post by josephcsible » Thu, Mar 07, 2024, 11:58 PM UTC

jsheard wrote: post #40

josephcsible wrote: post #39

Game mechanics aren't copyrightable, right? So unless these clones copied the code, aren't these takedowns invalid?

In general you can't copyright game mechanics, but trade dress laws provide a loophole around that. You can legally protect how a game is presented, and in some cases that's intrinsically tied to the game mechanics enough that you can't really get around it, which is how The Tetris Company has been able to effectively lock down the exclusive rights to the Tetris mechanics and successfully sued those who tried to make…

Post by jsheard » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 12:04 AM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #43

jsheard wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general you can't copyright game mechanics, but trade dress laws provide a loophole around that. You can legally protect how a game is presented, and in some cases that's intrinsically tied to the game mechanics enough that you can't really get around it, which is how The Tetris Company has been able to effectively lock down the exclusive rights to the Tetris mechanics and successfully sued those who tried to make…

But does the DMCA apply to trade dress?

Post by ssdspoimdsjvv » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 2:56 AM UTC

slimebot80 wrote: post #44

Wordle isn't an original game. The game mechanics pre-existed before the inter webs.

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:27 PM UTC