Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/facebook-shuts-down-scrabulous/index.html?ref=technology

by narendra • 18 years ago

36 28 18 years ago

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

mark007• 18 years ago

no way!

wallflower• 18 years ago

What do the letters D,M,C,A spell?

I assume the Indian creators were too tough for Hasbro to negotiate a settlement with (good for them, not good for their addicted users).

thomasswift• 18 years ago

mad,mac,dam,cam,cad,ma,am,ad, bullshit(wait what?)

http://www.wineverygame.com/wbg.php

Hexstream• 18 years ago

Digital Millenium Copyright Act

nickb2• 18 years ago

It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did.

So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made enough money to hire an excellent lawyer in the US. Had Hasbro had a really good case, they would have filed charges in court. They opted for a generic DMCA...

Locke• 18 years ago

While it's true that you can't copyright a game, you can copyright parts of a game. For example, the game's artwork or the official Scrabble dictionary. I haven't actually played Scrabulous, but if they used the exact same board layout, that might be copyright infringement. Or, if they used the official word list, that might be copyright infringement.

You can also copyright the text describing the rules of the game. But, I doubt they'd be so lazy as to copy that...

And, of course, you can trademark the name of a game. As you said, Scrabulous is probably too similar to Scrabble.

I think it's possible to legally make a Scrabble knock off (not a lawyer, though!)... but, if Scrabulous had used a non-derivative board, word list, and a completely different name would they have gotten so popular?

nickb2• 18 years ago

You can't copyright a database of publicly available information (e.g. a dictionary, a phone book etc.): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Tel...

Some dictionaries have been inserting a fake word into their lists so that they can copyright that specific word and go after the infringer for using that word in their dictionaries. They can also copyright the definition of words. But you can't copyright Scrabble's list of acceptable words.

LogicHoleFlaw• 18 years ago

You can't copyright the rules to the game. Any distinctive design elements can be copyrighted. But if those elements are dictated by the rules then they still cannot be copyrighted.

Honestly I doubt that Hasbro could successfully pursue a copyright infringement case over Scrabulous. Scrabble has a very generic design which is mostly directly implemented from the rules. Hasbro's best bet would likely be a trademark claim. Though, if a court determined that "Scrabble" has become a generic term for an acrostic game then they could actually lose the trademark. That's a serious danger, just from my own personal perception.

The DMCA is a lousy way for Hasbro to try to eliminate Scrabulous. If I were Scrabulous I would send a counter-notice, at which point under the DMCA Facebook would be required to reinstate the game. Then take it to court. Hasbro will have a hell of a time making this one stick.

Edit:

The safe harbor and counter-notice provisions of the DMCA are the only thing I like about it.

Hasbro is the current Evil Empire of the toy industry. I would not mind seeing them taken down a peg. Long live the underdog!

evgen• 18 years ago

Scrabulous would have a case, if they did not make such a direct rip-off of Scrabble (e.g. see all of the not-quite-direct-rip-offs floating around casual gaming sites or for mobile devices.) The coloring of the board, the design of the tiles, etc; all of this is covered by copyright and Scrabulous made the bad decision to ignore this fact and simply copy everything. Scrabulous can fight this, but they will lose.

jcl• 18 years ago

Suing over the "copyright" for games is nothing new for Hasbro:

http://boardgames.about.com/library/news/bl000208a.htm http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=867

anthonyrubin• 18 years ago

The headline is now "Scrabulous Shut Down on Facebook".

"UPDATED 11:00 a.m.| Facebook says the decision to block Scrabulous for U.S. and Canadian users was made by the Scrabulous developers, not Facebook."

thorax• 18 years ago

Sneaky. They released a new variation called Wordscraper: http://apps.facebook.com/wordscraper

You can make your own custom boards, it seems, but otherwise it's the same game so far.

Screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/Cb1m0kGeVh

jsdalton• 18 years ago

No, that's not the same game. "Similar" I will grant you, but if you are a Scrabble player than this substitute would never suffice.

aston• 18 years ago

Custom board = make your own Scrabble, but not in a way that Scrabulous could get into trouble for.

rms• 18 years ago

Can someone be my friend and share a Scrabble board with me?

run4yourlives• 18 years ago

In my opinion, this is exactly how copyright should work, instead of the sue grandma bullshit we have now.

Hasbro has exclusive rights to Scrabble that is pretty distinctive in brand and shape. Trademark, not copyright protects both the brand and the design of the board. Hasbro would have a case here, rest assured.

What we have here is a situation where one party is making money based on the IP of another, including using the brand's strength to attract attention. If that isn't outright IP infringement, we may as well get rid of the whole concept.

We're all better off that this didn't get to the courts. If Hasbro had lost, you can all but guarantee that there would be new and even more restrictive measures put in place to protect IP.

Scrabulous violated the spirit of the law, if not the letter. Those of us who already feel the letter of the law goes too far shouldn't be supporting these guys, honestly.

ajkirwin• 18 years ago

It may be how copyright does work, but it's not how it should work.

Money has been made off of Scrabble for 50 years. Maybe enough is enough?

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

What?

steveplace• 18 years ago

Or they could skip the hassle, negotiate a royalty with Hasbro, cut a little into their margins, and get on with it.

jfarmer2• 18 years ago

Hasbro reportedly offered them a large sum and they turned it down. Serves 'em right.

jrockway3• 18 years ago

Turning down a company's offer to buy you out is a valid reason for them to apply a law designed to prevent movie piracy against you? That "serves 'em right"?

It "serves 'em right" for trying to profit from a clone of someone else's idea, but I doubt they did anything illegal. I hope they fight this and win, but it's a shame that they didn't use the opportunity to create a slightly different variant of Scrabble. Maybe it would have been better.

JMiao• 18 years ago

i think what i find most appalling is how the electronic arts/hasbro scrabble app croaked this morning, presumably due to the incoming flood of scrabulous refugees.

selmer2• 18 years ago

I disagree with the writer who believes that the game board isn't highly protectable under copyright law. The number of squares, the arrangement of double and triple letter squares, the point values of the letters and the number of letters of each point value, are all copyrightable expression protected under the law. Copyright law doesn't prevent any else from developing their word-tile game but it does protect the particular combination and arrangement of these components that make Scrabble recognizable as Scrabble.

selmer2• 18 years ago

Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

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