• scrabulous

    Scrabulous Triumphantly Returns As Wordscraper

    Facebook word game fans rejoice! Scrabulous, pulled from Facebook only two days ago due to a lawsuit from Scrabble creators Hasbro, is now back up in the form of Wordscraper. The makers of Scrabulous have given the game some graphics and mechanics tweaking to help differentiate it from the Hasbro original. This is when we get to see if Hasbro's lawsuit had any real merits. Will people stick with the reincarnated Scrabulous, or will they hop on over to Hasbro's official Scrabble Facebook application, currently being enjoyed by over 50,000 players?

    The real question here is “Why the hell are so many people wasting their entire day playing games on a social networking site?” How is anything getting done, anywhere?

    Scrabulous is Back! Its New Name is Wordscraper     [Mashable via CNET]

    11:40 AM on Thu Jul 31 2008
    By Mike Fahey
    3,391 views, 39 comments

    Latest by Protector one: "How is anything getting done, anywhere?" Haven't you seen Wall-E yet? Nothing is getting done. Planet Earth is doomed, and there's more »

  • Legal

    Scrabulous Pulled From Facebook

    Amid Hasbro's lawsuit over the Scrabulous Facebook game, the social network has pulled the application, as it was asked to. Scrabulous users who log in are now greeted with the following message:

    Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.

    "Here" leads users to an email form where they can subscribe to receive updates on the app's status.

    The legal battle comes as Hasbro claims patent infringement on the game, right after the toy company, through its partnership with EA, launched its own, competing version of Scrabble for Facebook.

    2:20 PM on Tue Jul 29 2008
    By Leigh Alexander
    2,201 views, 53 comments

  • News

    Hasbro Sues Over Scrabulous Facebook Game

    Hasbro is suing the creators of the popular Scrabulous Facebook game, after a request the toy company made to the social network earlier this year to pull the game went unanswered.

    In January when Hasbro first began to fuss about Scrabulous, many were perplexed — wasn't the prolific Facebook board game an homage to the original, arguably even a sort of viral marketing? But today's infringement suit announcement comes just after Electronic Arts, through its partnership with Hasbro, launched its own official Scrabble game on Facebook, a launch no doubt complicated by the existence of an unlicensed, competing game.

    Hasbro says Scrabulous infringes on its intellectual property rights, and is suing creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, while requesting that Facebook pull the application immediately.

    Full announcement follows the jump. More »

    11:00 AM on Thu Jul 24 2008
    By Leigh Alexander
    5,049 views, 79 comments

  • law

    Digital Kriegspiel Creator Under Fire From Dead Marxist

    Alex Galloway has put together a lovely digital adaptation of a chess-like game created by French Marxist Guy Debord dubbed Kriegspiel; now the estate of Debord is sending cease and desist letters to Galloway, claiming the digital version is infringing on the intellectual property rights of Debord. Reminiscent of the problem faced by the Scrabulous creators, Galloway is insisting that the idea of a game and rules are not subject to copyright. Ian Bogost weighs in:

    Galloway has been served a cease and desist by the attorney representing Guy Debord's widow. It's too early to tell what will happen next ... Galloway's situation bears some similarity to that of popular Facebook app Scrabulous. The irony, of course, is the estate of a dead Marxist pursuing litigation over the exchange value of the name and image of its intellectual property.

    Raising ire from Mattel I can see, but raising ire from the estate of a Marxist thinker over his little-known game from the '70s? Hm. We'll see what happens in this case — is it curtains for digital Kriegspiel?

    The Revolution will be Litigated [Water Cooler Games]

    2:30 PM on Sun Apr 6 2008
    By Maggie Greene
    2,446 views, 38 comments

    Latest by Evil Tortie's Mom: @zoesch: So he was a bad Marxist and his widow's a worse one. I vaguely remember the game... my older brother more »

  • facebook

    Facebook Asked to Pull Scrabble Game

    Hasbro, the makers of the word game Scrabble, have asked Facebook to remove its popular online take on the game, Scrabulous because of copyright infringement.

    "Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application," said a Mattel spokeswoman in Britain.

    "Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks.

    "As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

    Hmm, while it may seem silly, I believe Scrabble is an entirely original game, as in it's not one of these throw-offs of games created in the middle ages or ancient china. I wonder if they makers of Scrabulous can get away with a name change only?

    Facebook Asked to Remove 'Scrabulous' [NYT]

    10:00 AM on Thu Jan 17 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    3,991 views, 75 comments

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