What would have happened if they just implemented the same principle themselves? I’m assuming there’s no patent?
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Some other newspaper would quickly run a "The Atlantic stole a game developers game and you wouldn't guess what happened next" article, people would be upset for a day or two, original author might/might not sue and then business as usual unless judge rules in authors favor.
I sold an app once to a company in the same situation. Neither one of us had sold / bought an app before so they asked me how many hours it took to write and what my hourly rate was. Then they offered half the number I quoted, which I thought was fair.
They paid a lot less than it would have cost to rewrite and I made a lot more than if I had just kept it as a free hobby app.