News Room Contributor Posts: 7945 Joined: 12 Nov 2002 | Hasbro Steps Up Fight Against Scrabulous
The gloves have come off in the battle between Scrabble and Scrabulous, as Hasbro has sued the creators of the popular Facebook application for copyright infringement.
Hasbro began its efforts to bring Scrabulous to heel in January, when it sent a notice to Facebook requesting the game's removal from the service. At the time, Scrabulous co-creator Jayant Agarwalla expressed hope that a compromise could be reached, and despite Hasbro's request, the game has remained available to Facebook users.
Hasbro appears somewhat disinclined to look for a happy middle ground, however, announcing that it has sued Jayant and his brother, Rajat Agarwalla, and their company, RJ Softwares, and served a copyright infringement notice to Facebook. "Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties," said Barry Nagler, Hasbro general counsel. "We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand."
One possible explanation for the company's new aggressiveness is its 2007 deal with Electronic Arts, which will see the development of digital versions of some of Hasbro's most popular properties, including Monopoly, Yahtzee and Scrabble. As part of that deal, Hasbro announced on July 7 that an official version of Scrabble was coming to Facebook later in the month, and while the "real" version of the game has been given the support of the National Scrabble Association, Scrabulous is a well-established and popular Facebook application, reporting 2.3 million active users in January 2008.
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Press Junketeer Posts: 356 Joined: 24 Apr 2007 | And what will be funny is the "official" version of the game probably won't be as good as the free version. |
Paperboy Posts: 31 Joined: 12 Jul 2006 | It's a pretty clear cut case, really. I like playing it, but Scrabulous is a simple rip-off of Scrabble. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1214 Joined: 9 Dec 2007 | Better watch out: Next they'll be suing The Escapist for having their own version of 'Yahtzee'. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1566 Joined: 5 Dec 2007 | Does Scrabble allow "pwnd" as a word? |
Copy Clerk Posts: 107 Joined: 16 Apr 2008 | brkl:
It's a pretty clear cut case, really. I like playing it, but Scrabulous is a simple rip-off of Scrabble.
Agreed. People will probably cry about "The Man" stomping on the little guy, but Scrabulous has nothing to bring to the table. Every function of the game is stolen straight from Scrabble. |
Infamous Scribbler Posts: 589 Joined: 26 May 2008 | Had the creators of this 'Scrabulous' ever considered that making an unlisenced copy of a game is called Copyright Infringement?
Triple Letter Score! |
Copy Clerk Posts: 76 Joined: 10 Apr 2008 | Unfortunately, popular as it may be, Scrabulous is a blatant case of copyright infringement - they seemingly made no attempt to disguise this fact - and I think we can be fairly certain who will lose here. They should have seen this coming eventually. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2768 Joined: 18 Sep 2007 | Karisse:
brkl:
It's a pretty clear cut case, really. I like playing it, but Scrabulous is a simple rip-off of Scrabble.
Agreed. People will probably cry about "The Man" stomping on the little guy, but Scrabulous has nothing to bring to the table. Every function of the game is stolen straight from Scrabble.
I have no sympathy for the two "developers" of Scrabulous; Hasbro made an offer to buy them out when this first bubbled up, and their counteroffer was insane (high-8-digit insane, if I remember correctly) to the point that they either *had* to expect Hasbro to go nuclear or that the term "insane" may apply in its clinical sense.
-- Steve |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1566 Joined: 5 Dec 2007 | Anton P. Nym:
Karisse:
brkl:
It's a pretty clear cut case, really. I like playing it, but Scrabulous is a simple rip-off of Scrabble.
Agreed. People will probably cry about "The Man" stomping on the little guy, but Scrabulous has nothing to bring to the table. Every function of the game is stolen straight from Scrabble.
I have no sympathy for the two "developers" of Scrabulous; Hasbro made an offer to buy them out when this first bubbled up, and their counteroffer was insane (high-8-digit insane, if I remember correctly) to the point that they either *had* to expect Hasbro to go nuclear or that the term "insane" may apply in its clinical sense.
-- Steve
What is the moral of this story? If you are gonna be pretensious indie's then don't steal from evil toy companies. |
Hasbro Steps Up Fight Against Scrabulous
The gloves have come off in the battle between Scrabble and Scrabulous, as Hasbro has sued the creators of the popular Facebook application for copyright infringement.
Hasbro began its efforts to bring Scrabulous to heel in January, when it sent a notice to Facebook requesting the game's removal from the service. At the time, Scrabulous co-creator Jayant Agarwalla expressed hope that a compromise could be reached, and despite Hasbro's request, the game has remained available to Facebook users.
Hasbro appears somewhat disinclined to look for a happy middle ground, however, announcing that it has sued Jayant and his brother, Rajat Agarwalla, and their company, RJ Softwares, and served a copyright infringement notice to Facebook. "Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties," said Barry Nagler, Hasbro general counsel. "We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand."
One possible explanation for the company's new aggressiveness is its 2007 deal with Electronic Arts, which will see the development of digital versions of some of Hasbro's most popular properties, including Monopoly, Yahtzee and Scrabble. As part of that deal, Hasbro announced on July 7 that an official version of Scrabble was coming to Facebook later in the month, and while the "real" version of the game has been given the support of the National Scrabble Association, Scrabulous is a well-established and popular Facebook application, reporting 2.3 million active users in January 2008.
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