Many Facebook users are devastated by the news that their favorite application, Scrabulous, is in danger of being taken down. Toymakers Hasbro and Mattel are telling Facebook to lose the game, claiming the online game infringes their copyright on the classic board game. The word-nerd add-on, created by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two software developers based in Calcutta, is one of Facebook’s 10 most popular applications, attracting 594,924 players daily.
In response to the threat, Scrabulous fans are creating Save Scrabulous Facebook groups and encouraging users to take action. Under the discussion topic “Fellow Scrabolutti, we’re in trouble”, some have posted Hasbro and Mattel’s contact info, in hopes that users will complain/plead with the companies. One user writes:
“i think this is a huge mistake by the companies. sure, technically its illegal. we get it, but I have personally introduced 2 people to the game of scrabble.
“this is a huge! market for them. who plays board games anymore unless the power goes out? especially in the facebook generation. im sure the numbers are dwindling, thats why they are forced to constantly come out with electronic talking versions and other half baked twists on board games.
however, if they shut down scrabulous and replace it with their own version, then i'd say its a good move.”
Not everyone is telling the Scrabble owners to back off, though. One sympathizer writes:
“I'm actually happy that this occurred. Why should we encourage people to actively violate intellectual property rights? What if you were the creator of Scrabble? What if you spent years and years developing, researching, marketing the product, only to have some one rip off your idea and make money from advertising associated with the product that you created?
I'd be more understanding if the developers were not-for-profit, but I don't believe that is the case here.”
*Link BBC *
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