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Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#21

Post by ajkirwin »

run4yourlives wrote: post #13

In my opinion, this is exactly how copyright should work, instead of the sue grandma bullshit we have now. Hasbro has exclusive rights to Scrabble that is pretty distinctive in brand and shape. Trademark, not copyright protects both the brand and the design of the board. Hasbro would have a case here, rest assured. What we have here is a situation where one party is making money based on the IP of another, including…

It may be how copyright does work, but it's not how it should work.

Money has been made off of Scrabble for 50 years. Maybe enough is enough?

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#22

Post by alaskamiller »

ajkirwin wrote: post #21
run4yourlives wrote: post #13

In my opinion, this is exactly how copyright should work, instead of the sue grandma bullshit we have now. Hasbro has exclusive rights to Scrabble that is pretty distinctive in brand and shape. Trademark, not copyright protects both the brand and the design of the board. Hasbro would have a case here, rest assured. What we have here is a situation where one party is making money based on the IP of another, including…

It may be how copyright does work, but it's not how it should work. Money has been made off of Scrabble for 50 years. Maybe enough is enough?

What?

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#23

Post by jrockway »

evgen wrote: post #9
LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't copyright the rules to the game. Any distinctive design elements can be copyrighted. But if those elements are dictated by the rules then they still cannot be copyrighted. Honestly I doubt that Hasbro could successfully pursue a copyright infringement case over Scrabulous. Scrabble has a very generic design which is mostly directly implemented from the rules. Hasbro's best bet would likely be a trademark cl…

Scrabulous would have a case, if they did not make such a direct rip-off of Scrabble (e.g. see all of the not-quite-direct-rip-offs floating around casual gaming sites or for mobile devices.) The coloring of the board, the design of the tiles, etc; all of this is covered by copyright and Scrabulous made the bad decision to ignore this fact and simply copy everything. Scrabulous can fight this, but they will lose.

Yeah. If I were cloning this, I would put the numbers in the upper-left-hand corner, and change the colors on the board. Perhaps I would change the point value for some letters also, and maybe move the "triple word score" squares around.

Actually... now that the competition is shut down, I wonder if I should implement this. Can I have some funding, kthx? ;)

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#24

Post by jrockway »

jfarmer wrote: post #18
steveplace wrote: post #16

Or they could skip the hassle, negotiate a royalty with Hasbro, cut a little into their margins, and get on with it.

Hasbro reportedly offered them a large sum and they turned it down. Serves 'em right.

Turning down a company's offer to buy you out is a valid reason for them to apply a law designed to prevent movie piracy against you? That "serves 'em right"?

It "serves 'em right" for trying to profit from a clone of someone else's idea, but I doubt they did anything illegal. I hope they fight this and win, but it's a shame that they didn't use the opportunity to create a slightly different variant of Scrabble. Maybe it would have been better.

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#25

Post by aston »

jsdalton wrote: post #19
thorax wrote: post #11

Sneaky. They released a new variation called Wordscraper: http://apps.facebook.com/wordscraper You can make your own custom boards, it seems, but otherwise it's the same game so far. Screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/Cb1m0kGeVh

No, that's not the same game. "Similar" I will grant you, but if you are a Scrabble player than this substitute would never suffice.

Custom board = make your own Scrabble, but not in a way that Scrabulous could get into trouble for.

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#26

Post by rms »

thorax wrote: post #11

Sneaky. They released a new variation called Wordscraper: http://apps.facebook.com/wordscraper You can make your own custom boards, it seems, but otherwise it's the same game so far. Screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/Cb1m0kGeVh

Can someone be my friend and share a Scrabble board with me?

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#27

Post by selmer »

I disagree with the writer who believes that the game board isn't highly protectable under copyright law. The number of squares, the arrangement of double and triple letter squares, the point values of the letters and the number of letters of each point value, are all copyrightable expression protected under the law. Copyright law doesn't prevent any else from developing their word-tile game but it does protect the particular combination and arrangement of these components that make Scrabble recognizable as Scrabble.

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#28

Post by selmer »

I disagree with the writer who believes that the game board isn't highly protectable under copyright law. The number of squares, the arrangement of double and triple letter squares, the point values of the letters and the number of letters of each point value, are all copyrightable expression protected under the law. Copyright law doesn't prevent any else from developing their word-tile game but it does protect the particular combination and arrangement of these components that make Scrabble recognizable as Scrabble.

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#29

Post by jfarmer »

jrockway wrote: post #24
jfarmer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasbro reportedly offered them a large sum and they turned it down. Serves 'em right.

Turning down a company's offer to buy you out is a valid reason for them to apply a law designed to prevent movie piracy against you? That "serves 'em right"? It "serves 'em right" for trying to profit from a clone of someone else's idea, but I doubt they did anything illegal. I hope they fight this and win, but it's a shame that they didn't use the opportunity to create a slightly different variant of Scrabble. Mayb…

Yes, it does. What did they think Hasbro was going to do if they turned down the offer? Shrug and walk away?

I'm surprised Hasbro even made an offer, honestly. I thought they would have pressured Facebook to do something like this right away.

Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook

#30

Post by jrockway »

jfarmer wrote: post #29
jrockway wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning down a company's offer to buy you out is a valid reason for them to apply a law designed to prevent movie piracy against you? That "serves 'em right"? It "serves 'em right" for trying to profit from a clone of someone else's idea, but I doubt they did anything illegal. I hope they fight this and win, but it's a shame that they didn't use the opportunity to create a slightly different variant of Scrabble. Mayb…

Yes, it does. What did they think Hasbro was going to do if they turned down the offer? Shrug and walk away? I'm surprised Hasbro even made an offer, honestly. I thought they would have pressured Facebook to do something like this right away.

I'm surprised Hasbro even made an offer

I'm not. Buying them would have saved Hasbro the effort of hiring developers that knew the Facebook API, getting popular on Facebook, etc. They would have instantly had a popular product and qualified developers to work on the project.

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