Facebook Scrabble Rip-off Capitalizes on Mattel's Lethargy

mlimber writes "The Facebook app Scrabulous was written by two Scrabble-loving brothers in India, has over 700,000 users, brings in about $25,000 per month in advertising revenue, and is in flagrant violation of copyright law. The corporate owners of Scrabble, Hasbro and Mattel, have threatened legal action against the creators and have made deals with Electronic Arts and RealNetworks to release official online versions of the game. But according to an NYTimes article, 'Scrabulous has already brought Scrabble a newfound virtual popularity that none of the game companies could have anticipated,' and according to one consultant to the entertainment industry, 'If you're Hasbro or Mattel, it isn't in your interest to shut this down.' Hasbro's partner RealNetworks is 'working closely' with the piratical brothers, but Mattel says that 'settling with the [brothers] would set a bad precedent' for other board games going online."

Comments

Uh, Flagrant Violation of What?

[spun]

You can't copyright the rules to a game, sorry. Trademark violation, maybe.

Re:Uh, Flagrant Violation of What?

[langelgjm]

Trademark violation, maybe.

Right. Microsoft sued about the name "Lindows" as a trademark violation, not copyright. They didn't win, but they did settle, and it's not called Lindows anymore. "Scrabulous" is clearly making a reference to the Scrabble trademark, and is profiting from that reference. There are probably other issues, as people have mentioned, about gameplay (the layout of the board), but I think the thing with the name has got to be about trademark.

They have a claim

[the computer guy nex]

Naming a game "Scrabulous" obviously (court to decide) builds from the name Scrabble.

Would Scrabulous be as popular if it wasn't instantly recognizable? Probably not.

Turning it around...

[shark72]

I know that sympathies are clearly with the Scrabblicious developers here, so I won't try to argue that point. The feeling in the community appears to be that since the guys aren't selling it and because Scrabble's been on the market for a while, it's fair game for a copy, and no authorization or payment to the rightsholder should be necessary. But, as a thought experiment, what would happen if the situation were reversed?

1. Some independent developer comes up with a totally new game concept and codes it as a Facebook app. It's not something simple, like Sudoku, but a game with distinctive play mechanics, board artwork, and the like.
2. Hasbro (or some similarly large commercial entity) then copies the game and starts making money off of it. Not an "inspired by," and not a new game that is evocative of the Facebook app -- a direct copy, down to the rules and gameboard artwork. They don't seek permission. And, they don't pay the rightsholder -- the independent developer who came up with the game.

I think it's obvious that the consensus Slashdot sympathies would not be with Hasbro.