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New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with DMCA takedowns

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

#51

Post by lacoolj »

Fnoord wrote: post #44
c3534l wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Amusingly, Wordle has itself been criticized over striking similarities it shares with Lingo, a 1980s game show that centered on players guessing five-letter words, with a grid that changes color based on accuracy. Indeed. I know this from TV, grew up with it. Was a fun educative program back in the days.

Pretty sure there's a new reboot of this show right now too

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

#52

Post by tomkarho »

dabernathy89 wrote: post #26
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 can patent game mechanics - famous example would be Legend of Zelda's targeting system. Apparently Nintendo is extremely aggressive about patenting game mechanics. https://kotaku.com/nintendo-is-trying-to-patent-some-really-...

Another example that comes to mind is the Nemesis system from Mordor games

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

#53

Post by lacoolj »

reactordev wrote: post #38
archontes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

but you can patent it.

If this is true, why wouldn't Microsoft patent the taskbar or directory structure tree layout pattern in Explorer?

I don't think you would be granted a design (let alone utility) patent that is as broad as "green and yellow blocks have significance, is a grid of 5x6, and has a keyboard below".

Not a lawyer though so what do I know

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

#55

Post by trothamel »

a1o wrote: post #8

Mechanics can't be copyrighted (unless it's MTG tap mechanic, it seems), but what is weird is apparently the projects it went against were in different languages that Wordle doesn't cover (which I think matters considering Wordle is about guessing words) and using a different name.

The MTG tap mechanic was patented, not copyrighted.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5662332A/en , claims 4, 5, and 6 - expired in 2014. The actual symbol is also a copyright and trademark, I believe, but right now other games can us the 90 degree rotation.

(Disney's Lorcana, for example, uses 90 degree rotation and calls it 'exerting' a card.)

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

#56

Post by AlbertCory »

autoexec wrote: post #35
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…

Suing when your case has no merit is a losing strategy. Eventually you not only lose to someone who stands up to your bullying, you face massive damage to your reputation; something media companies really don't like.

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

#57

Post by extraduder_ire »

Fnoord wrote: post #45
CannisterFlux wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Here's a curated awesome-wordle list [1]. Back in the days (as if it is long ago) I used a different one and had quite some fun with some of the clones (I didn't check this specific one). [1] https://github.com/prakhar897/awesome-wordle

This repo still being up shows they probably didn't just auto-takedown every repo that has the word "wordle" in its name at least. Often not the case with DMCA abuse.

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

#58

Post by torstenvl »

dabernathy89 wrote: post #26
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 can patent game mechanics - famous example would be Legend of Zelda's targeting system. Apparently Nintendo is extremely aggressive about patenting game mechanics. https://kotaku.com/nintendo-is-trying-to-patent-some-really-...

Irrelevant, since NYT does not and can never (due to prior art) hold a patent on Wordle's gameplay. This is about copyright.

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

#60

Post by helloworld »

lacoolj wrote: post #53
reactordev wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but you can patent it.

If this is true, why wouldn't Microsoft patent the taskbar or directory structure tree layout pattern in Explorer? I don't think you would be granted a design (let alone utility) patent that is as broad as "green and yellow blocks have significance, is a grid of 5x6, and has a keyboard below". Not a lawyer though so what do I know

Microsoft did patent the taskbar. [1]

[1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US5920316A/en

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