New York Times aims to spell c-e-a-s-e for Wordle clones

The New York Times has issued a cease and desist notice to programmers who have copied the code of Wordle, one of the paper’s most popular games.

The paper began issuing the orders last month, saying that “hundreds” of coders violated copyright law by sharing code similar to Wordle online. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The Times issued three takedown requests to developers on GitHub, where programmers publicly share code.

The Times claims wide ownership of Wordle, which goes beyond the name. According to reports, the paper owns the iconic 5x6 grid and the green and yellow tiles of the word guessing game.

After The Times bought Wordle in 2022, coders developed numerous spinoff versions. While many spinoffs take the game in a different direction, some developers on GitHub created their open-source versions of the app that look similar to the original.

Reactle is one of those Wordle clones that caught The Times’ attention, leading to the order on March 7 for Minneapolis software engineer Chase Wackerfuss to stop copying the code. He quickly removed Reactle from GitHub after receiving the notice, 404 Media reported.

The orders come as The Times focuses on its non-news sections. The paper’s acquisition of Wordle brought in millions of new users, and the addition of other games like Connections and Mini Crossword have kept users hooked.