Facebook asked to take down Scrabulous
Facebook is being asked to take down the one thing on its site that I still love: Scrabulous.
It turns out that the online game that closely emulates the Scrabble Board Game, owned by the world's two largest toy makers has no rights to the name or the intellectual property it is using. As is often the case, no one for Facebook was available for comment.
For the past few months, I've been engaged in a Scrabulous tournament with Arik Hesseldahl of Businessweek who has been generally whupping my butt at the game. Now, when I have a 21 point lead in a game, now it may be called off on kind of infringement suit threats. Arik, it's your turn. Play fast. Please.
Scrabulous is one of the only things keeping me going back to Facebook as well. How many people have a renewed interest in Scrabble because of Scrabulous? People play Scrabulous online, then have people over, and hop over to Target to buy the real thing to play that evening. It's not a stretch...it's an opportunity. Looking like an opportunity lost.
Posted by: Andrew Wright (@batterista) | January 16, 2008 at 08:45 AM
But didn't they realize what they were doing? And of course no-one available to take responsability. This is not good at all.
Posted by: Nadine | January 16, 2008 at 08:50 AM
Same here: Scrabulous turned me back on to Scrabble. As a result of Scrabulous, I bought (a) pocket Scrabble; (b) Scrabble Dictionary; (c) Scrabble Deluxe Edition; (d) electronic Scrabble dictionary. In all four cases Hasbro either earned money directly or thorugh licensing deals.
What a stupid idea of Hasbro to force FB to take down Scrabulous, when it clearly was helping them - not hurting them!
Posted by: Alexander Falk | January 16, 2008 at 09:26 AM
The only thing Facebook added was a built-in network of potential opponents, already vetted and familiar to you.
Parker Brothers is within their rights, and there's no telling what an unsanctioned app might do to monetize down the road.
Now, if Parker Brothers were smart, they'd wait until they had their own Facebook app ready to roll, with better features to quiet the complainers.
In the interim, while developing said app, they could have negotiated a nominal deal allowing Scrabulous to continue, but not open-ended. Let them have a revocable right, something to put on the books so the contract and trademark infringement guardians would be satisfied.
Parker Brothers is doing what must be done, to prevent Scrabble from becoming as open-source as Parchesi. There was, however, a better way to handle it.
Posted by: Ike | January 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Internet Scrabble Club for you, Shel:
http://www.isc.ro/
Play to your hearts content!
The rest of us at Facebook can get back to *easily* posting on walls, sharing music, video, pictures, and outside web links along with identifying with groups. We enjoy just connecting with old friends and family members there.
Posted by: BarbaraKB | January 16, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Here's what I don't get: why is the freestanding Scrabulous site still up and running?
Posted by: Tim Walker | January 16, 2008 at 11:46 AM
And I was on an 18-game winning streak ...
Posted by: Alex | January 16, 2008 at 12:21 PM
This is the saddest news I've heard all day.
Posted by: Jenni Clayville | January 17, 2008 at 09:40 PM