Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
bits.blogs.nytimes.com
Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
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Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#2no way!
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#3What do the letters D,M,C,A spell?
I assume the Indian creators were too tough for Hasbro to negotiate a settlement with (good for them, not good for their addicted users).
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#4It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did.
So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made enough money to hire an excellent lawyer in the US. Had Hasbro had a really good case, they would have filed charges in court. They opted for a generic DMCA...
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#5It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did. So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made e…
While it's true that you can't copyright a game, you can copyright parts of a game. For example, the game's artwork or the official Scrabble dictionary. I haven't actually played Scrabulous, but if they used the exact same board layout, that might be copyright infringement. Or, if they used the official word list, that might be copyright infringement.
You can also copyright the text describing the rules of the game. But, I doubt they'd be so lazy as to copy that...
And, of course, you can trademark the name of a game. As you said, Scrabulous is probably too similar to Scrabble.
I think it's possible to legally make a Scrabble knock off (not a lawyer, though!)... but, if Scrabulous had used a non-derivative board, word list, and a completely different name would they have gotten so popular?
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#6The headline is now "Scrabulous Shut Down on Facebook".
"UPDATED 11:00 a.m.| Facebook says the decision to block Scrabulous for U.S. and Canadian users was made by the Scrabulous developers, not Facebook."
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#7What do the letters D,M,C,A spell? I assume the Indian creators were too tough for Hasbro to negotiate a settlement with (good for them, not good for their addicted users).
mad,mac,dam,cam,cad,ma,am,ad, bullshit(wait what?)
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#8It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did. So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made e…
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 claim. Though, if a court determined that "Scrabble" has become a generic term for an acrostic game then they could actually lose the trademark. That's a serious danger, just from my own personal perception.
The DMCA is a lousy way for Hasbro to try to eliminate Scrabulous. If I were Scrabulous I would send a counter-notice, at which point under the DMCA Facebook would be required to reinstate the game. Then take it to court. Hasbro will have a hell of a time making this one stick.
Edit:
The safe harbor and counter-notice provisions of the DMCA are the only thing I like about it.
Hasbro is the current Evil Empire of the toy industry. I would not mind seeing them taken down a peg. Long live the underdog!
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#9It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did. So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made e…
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.
Re: Scrabulous shut down on Facebook
#10It is a bit of a surprise that Scrabulous, an obvious copy of the board game Scrabble, managed to avoid shutdown as long as it did. So what if it's a copy? You cannot copyright a game: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html What Scrabulous should have done is to modify their name so it's not even similar to Scrabble (and doesn't share a syllable and a half) and they should have fought this in a court. They've made e…
While it's true that you can't copyright a game, you can copyright parts of a game. For example, the game's artwork or the official Scrabble dictionary. I haven't actually played Scrabulous, but if they used the exact same board layout, that might be copyright infringement. Or, if they used the official word list, that might be copyright infringement. You can also copyright the text describing the rules of the game.…
You can't copyright a database of publicly available information (e.g. a dictionary, a phone book etc.): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Tel...
Some dictionaries have been inserting a fake word into their lists so that they can copyright that specific word and go after the infringer for using that word in their dictionaries. They can also copyright the definition of words. But you can't copyright Scrabble's list of acceptable words.