Many games similar to Wordle, the well-known web-based word puzzle, face potential deletion because of copyright claims from The New York Times.
According to 404 Media, The New York Times, which acquired Wordle in 2022, has issued multiple DMCA notices against Wordle imitations made by GitHub developers. The notices claim ownership of the Wordle name and copyrighted features such as the 5×6 tile layout and the gray, yellow, and green color scheme.
In January, two requests were made to take down unofficial Korean and Bosnian-language versions of the game. This week, new complaints were made against Wordle, a version developed by the I Hear Dee community in 2022 to support the Shaetlan language, and Reactle, a Wordle imitation made with React, TypeScript, and Tailwind. The game was created before the Times acquired it, as stated by the developer, Chase Wackerfuss.
Got a DMCA request for a Yorùbá Wordle clone that I made on Github in 2022… @nytimes you’re truly such an unserious organization. You don’t even offer Wordle in other languages, and I’m almost certain that if I remove the “Wordle” name, I’d be fine anyways. Insanity. pic.twitter.com/xVw7nrW5bZ
— Báyọ̀ (@bayo_gbakinro) March 6, 2024
According to GitHub, the Reactle code has been copied around 1,900 times. This has enabled developers to create a wide range of Wordle-inspired games with various languages, themes, and visual styles. Some of these games are described as “substantially different” from Wordle by 404 Media. The DMCA notice filed against Reactle also includes all of these games forked from the original Reactle code on GitHub. It claims that spinoffs using the Wordle name were created in a manner deemed inappropriate, with the gameplay being replicated exactly from the Reactle repository. Many developers participating in a Hacker News discussion have also reported being subjected to DMCA takedowns.
Reactle coder Wackerfuss decided to take down the game, stating to 404 Media that he wants to avoid a legal dispute with the Times.
The Times provided a statement to 404 Media:
“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. ”
It’s quite interesting that Wordle has faced criticism for its strong resemblance to Lingo, a game show from the 1980s where players had to guess five-letter words and the grid changed color based on accuracy.
