Goodbye [S][C][R][A][B][U][L][O][U][S]
Hasbro appears to have won a battle with Facebook application “Scrabulous” which has been wiped off of Facebook. One of the most popular applications on the massive Social Network, many thought Hasbro would buy Scrabulous from the two founders. That may still happen but Scrabulous’ negotiating position has been severely weakened over the past month as Hasbro first launched an “official” Scrabble on Facebook and now has won the copyright battle and had the competitor removed.
As I’ve noted many times before the prevailing notions of copyright among onliners differ quite a bit from those held by most judges and the legal world at large and this will continue for some time. Napster, YouTube, and Scrabulous may seem like reasonably clean applications for the online crowd, but in a legal sense they are on very shaky ground. Will these copyright issue clear up anytime soon? In one two letter word … [N][O]
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It was fun while it lasted, but Scrabulous was blatantly exploitive of another company’s property. If I printed and sold copies of Stephen King’s Carrie with my name on the cover, I’d be doing the same thing. (And if he tries that trick with any of my books, he just better watch out!)
I’m just surprised Hasbro didn’t have their own Facebook app working properly before they pulled the trigger. That compounds the PR mess and makes them look not just like money-grubbing meanies but incompetent uncaring capitalists as well.
Looks like they are back…
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080730/1936041842.shtml
New name and new rules!
I do not think that scrabulous will vanish from facebook so easily. Infact they will be back, but with lots of changes definetly as commented by glenn above. Well whatever may be the reason we have to agree that scrabulous was fun to play.