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Hasbro Using DMCA on Facebook Game Apps

Posted by Zonk on from the bit-of-overkill-dont-you-think dept.

Boggle Addict writes "Rather than participating in the online gaming market, Hasbro is suppressing it with litigation. Scrabulous, a Scrabble imitation, is already fighting to prevent being shut down. Today, Hasbro sent out DMCA notices to other apps on Facebook, including Bogglific, a Boggle imitation. Copyright law has has always held very limited protections for games. This may be opening a can of worms for Hasbro.

7 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Oblig. by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't tase us, Hasbro.

    --
    "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
  2. Re:Sounds like... by CSMatt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope. That's Parker Brothers.

  3. Copyright vs Trademark by saterdaies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't want to get into whether they have a copyright on those types of games, but I do want to talk about the trademark issue.

    Calling a Scrabble knockoff Scrabulous or a Boggle knockoff Bogglific is pretty clear gounds for trademark infringement. I mean, this site is Slashdot. If I created a Slashdot.us - and always referred to it as Slashdot.us - it's still too close to being Slashdot. Same with Slashdotic or something like that. People who are casual observers would get confused as to the owner. And in order to keep that trademark, they have to litigate. So, if someone were to create a Slashdot.us site, Slashdot would have to file against them. If they didn't, slashdot would become a generic term like aspirin that anyone could use.

    Now, I'm sure Hasbro doesn't just want them to change the name, but they have a really great case there. While Hasbro is being craptacular here, the Scrabulous people aren't completely innocent - they wanted to play off the Scrabble name to make money.

  4. Re:Sounds like... by Kuukai · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like Hasbro wants to have a Monopoly on word games. Yeah. If they aren't careful they might find their feet caught in a Mousetrap, with a proverbial Twister of counterlitigation headed in their direction. Boy, then they'll be Sorry. Their Battleship is pretty much sunk, man. They just don't have a Clue...
    --
    Sendou Wave Kick!!
  5. Re:Which game would be most challenging naked? by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    most people on here only play strip solitaire.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  6. Re:Sounds like... by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ooh, ooh! L-Lemme try.

    Yeah, the CEO might lose his Yahtzee!

    D-Did I do it right?

    --
    My blog
  7. This is semi-legitimate by b96miata · · Score: 5, Informative

    Scrabulous isn't an imitation so much as the exact same game save the name, and having the writing on the colored squares explaining which is which. (I always end up GIS'ing up a real scrabble board for reference) Same scoring, same play, same word lists used in scrabble tournaments.

    That said, how fucking old is scrabble? In a rational world any IP protection it had save for the trademark would have gone by the wayside long ago.