Will Facebook Cave on Scrabulous?
Posted by Nick O'Neill on January 16th, 2008 9:17 AMThis morning the BBC reported that Facebook has received a letter from the Hasbro and Mattel lawyers requesting that Facebook remove the application from the platform. Requests made to the Scrabulous team directly failed in immediate action so now Hasbro and Mattel have taken the issue to Facebook. My guess is that the Facebook legal team will be in contact with the Scrabulous lawyers prior to taking any action.
As of now the application is still up and running but as I reported last week, the game may be soon shut down. So far no actions have been made and as it currently appears, this legal battle may be brought to the courts. With close to 600,000 active daily users, we may soon begin to witness riots in the streets worldwide if the application is shut down. Recreational players will be at a loss, wondering what to do with the new found free time.
Many have suggested that Hasbro and Mattel take alternative actions such as embracing the application as a marketing tool for the Scrabble game. As the BBC is reporting, one member of the “Save Scrabulous” group on Facebook has stated that they purchased two Scrabble boards after learning about the game through Scrabulous. I doubt that one individual is enough reason for Scrabble to relent on their legal pursuits.
Do you think Hasbro and Mattel are being childish? Will Facebook shut down Scrabulous in the coming days?
January 16th, 2008 at 9:43 am
You’d have to think why they would shut it down. Obviously they see Scrabulous being a very popular game on Facebook, and a great marketing tool, breaking the idea that Scrabble is just something we play with our grandparents :-).
Could it be they’ve built their own Scrabble Facebook application, and want to get rid of Scrabulous to clear the way for it? Or is this their tactic to buy Scrabulous at a lower price than they would otherwise?
I hope its one of those two, and not just shutting it down without providing any alternative, going the way of the RIAA.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I think it is more likely that they were initially delighted by the popularity of scrabulous, but didn’t see the expected increase in sales, rather the reverse.
Also keep in mind that some laws require that you act to protect your interests or forfeit your claims. The Lawyers may have got back to them and told them they had to act or potentially lose scrabble itself.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
A trademark has to be protected or lost.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Its about time that all the copyright infringement that goes on in Facebook is finally starting to be addressed!
January 16th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
there is no other way of looking at it… this is moronic. A whole new generation was about to embrace scrabble… and instead they will shun it. I doubt anybody who played on facebook and hears the story will ever buy a scrabble game again. Screw you too, hasbro.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Mattel and Hasbro should focus on the toxic, lead-painted and ill-designed toys first and then when that’s all squared away, work on these ‘infringement’ issues.
Not like these guys need any more negative publicity.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
What a bunch of idiots, don’t they realize that Scrabulous is actually making their board game more popular, largely with a whole generation of younger people who may have never played it otherwise? I went out and bought a real Scrabble board after playing a few games of this on Facebook, as I’m sure others have done. Maybe it’s still not too late to return it.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The argument that they should buy Scrabulous is shortsighted. Every single one of their games would then be replicated on Facebook, looking for a hefty exit. It’s not sustainable. They are preventing a potentially larger infringement issue.