Scrabulous Returns To Facebook, As Wordscraper

porcupine8 writes "Good news for those that have had a hole in their heart (and Facebook profile) since Hasbro forced Facebook to remove Scrabulous over copyright and trademark issues. The creators of Scrabulous have wasted no time in tweaking the game and have launched a new tile-based game called Wordscraper. In addition to changing the name, they have changed the board look so as not to directly copy the colors, etc of a Scrabble board, and have even made provisions for players to create their own board layout! Interested Scrabulous fans can add the application now. Only time will tell if the changes were extensive enough to keep Hasbro's lawyers at bay."

Comments

Re:Copyright broken

[Anonymous Coward]

Not copyright. Trademark infringement. Entirely different legal structure...

Re:Copyright broken

[lgw]

No, copyright too. You can't copyright the idea of how you play the game, but you can copyright the board artwork. Of course, you can significantly aletr the board artwork so that it's different enough to avoid copyright infringement without changing how the game is played. Most game ripoffs do just this.

Sadly, the Scrabulous guys didn't take this step, and they could still be facing a lot of trouble over that. The new game solves this problem - guess they finally bothered to care what minimal steps they needed to take to be legal.

Use this original Scrabble layout then...

[drcagn]

I've just recreated the Scrabble layout. You can play a original Scrabble game on facebook by clicking this link:

http://apps.facebook.com/wordscraper/?action=newgame&similarto=54248

I know I'd rather play a real Scrabble layout on Wordscraper than to use anything else. Enjoy.

Re:Use this original Scrabble layout then...

[Radish03]

One thing you forgot is that the middle tile needs to be a double word score. Went ahead and fixed that: http://apps.new.facebook.com/wordscraper/?action=newgame&similarto=56609

Re:Copyright broken

[stonecypher]

so, who owns chess, and who owns shogi?

Nobody, just like Shakespeare and The Odessey. A basic familiarity with the law might help you here. Nobody ever filed for or was granted protection on those items, and if they had been, they'd be several thousands of years expired by now.

and if all you have to do is change the design, why isn't there a boardgame out there at wal-mart for $5 made in china that has alphabetical discs, instead of tiles, with the same basic rules as scrabble?

Brand recognition. People periodically try to replace Scrabble. It happens every several years.

the only game i can recall having 'dupes' are kismet 'the modern game of yacht' and yahtzee.

This is primarily an indication that you don't know much about the games market. Games that perenially get copied include Uno, Sorry, Yahtzee, Connect 4, Mille Bornes, Scrabble, Rubik's Cube, Battleship, and on and on the list goes.

Perhaps you don't understand market forces. Clones aren't absent because they're illegal. They're absent because nobody buys them.

Re:Copyright broken

[stonecypher]

No brokenness? You can't copy a game that you played before you turned ten when you're an old man, and you say that's not broken?

Uh, sure you can. You just can't steal their title or artwork.

Copyrights were not meant to be extended across generations.

I'd be a lot more inclined to take you seriously if you were at least getting the right branch of the law. This is not and never was a copyright issue.

They were meant to protect innovators for part of their lives to generate income

No, that's patents. Copyright has nothing to do with innovation, and this is neither a copyright nor a patent issue. Please settle down until you have at least a basic familiarity with the laws or case in question. This is a waste of time.

Re:single player

[Kugrian]

The Scrabulous site has a practice version available which allows you to play by yourself or against a computer. I'm guessing Wordscaper will have the same thing once they fix themselves up.

Re:Copyright broken

[stonecypher]

I think the point is the length of the copyright.

You think wrong. It's not a copyright issue at all, and there is no time frame attached at all. The issue is that Scrabulous was a brand ripoff. Game clones are okay. Brand clones aren't.

Copyright and trademark are about as related as boats and cars. Please put more effort into debate. It's really annoying for a debate about cars to have people keep saying "but the problem is the water level in the lake." Trademarks do not, and should not, expire. It doesn't matter if Microsoft has been around for 80 years; nobody else should ever be able to claim to be Microsoft. This is a trademark issue because the company needs to be able to protect the brand. Scrabble clones can be released. Scrabble, the brand, is still S+R / Hasbro's property.

If you don't understand the difference between copyright/trademark, or between a product and a brand, you really need to stay out of discussions like this.

Re:Copyright broken

[lgw]

... and that's how the law works: don't protect your trandemark and you lose it, as happened with "escalator" for example.

Or, you can make chemical weapons for the losing side in a war and lose your trademark to the victor, as happened to Bayer with "aspirin" and "heroin". ;)