11:00 am
Triple Damages (Score): L A W S U I T
Hey — 10 points, plus a double letter on the W for another 4 points, 50 points for using all my tiles — and a triple word score! That’s 192 points! W00T!! Molly is gonna kill me — it’s celebrations like this that led her to put me in “Scrabble Time Out.”
Which apparently is where Hasbro, the creator of Scrabble, is wants to put Scrabulous:
Hasbro, which owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, is suing the Calcutta-based founders of Scrabulous - a game available on Facebook. Hasbro said that Scrabulous violates its copyright and trademarks and has separately asked Facebook to block it. Last week, an official version of Scrabble was released for Facebook users in Canada and the US.
I’m not an expert on copyright and trademark law, but given the history of the Indian government ignoring drug patents, I don’t think Hasbro is going to have much luck with this one.
If you live in a cave are over 45 aren’t on Facebook, Scrabulous is one of the most popular Facebook apps out there. Millions of people play it daily. And yes, it’s just like Scrabble.
Apparently, Hasbro is holding out the possibility of going after Facebook as well if it does not agree to take Scrabulous down. Facebook, recognizing that it will face the wrath of millions of user if it does so, so far is not backing down:
Over the past year, Facebook has tried to use its status as neutral platform provider to help the parties come to an amicable agreement… We’re disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute.
“Neutral platform provider.” Heh. Holy network neutrality, Batman!
I’m no Lawrence Lessig, but it seems to me that this — along with the YouTube-Viacom fight and the contsant efforts by the evil trolls over at RIAA to stop all unauthorized dowloading of music — represent the leading edge of corporate efforts to control the intertubes.
These companies still don’t understand the online business model: you make more money by giving it away. After all, Scrabulous is free. I don’t think these guys are making any money off of it. So what exactly is Hasbro trying to do here, other than force people to play a free version of their game?
Sheesh. That will work. Does Hasbro think that any Scrabulous players are going to use the Hasbro version now? Well maybe a few, but most will probably quit playing rather than put up with The Man hating on their Scrabby. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper — and better publicity — just to buy the Scrabulous guys out?
This also has to be one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of how internet time blindsides many businesses. Hasbro is just getting around to designing a Facebook Scrabble app now? After how many months? And they’re surprised someone beat them to it? For that matter, did the intertubes come as a surprise to Hasbro? Why in the world didn’t they create a social network for Scrabble players years ago?
This hasn’t been a good week in the Scrabble world. Earlier this week, it had its own Little League-style age scandal.
Photos: Adapted from Flickr user Leo Reynolds, used under a Creative Commons license (at least until Hasbro comes after us).