Nooooooooooooooooo!

[iainjclark]

Scrabulous suspended on Facebook.

Only suspended in America and Canada so far, so I'm okay. For now.

*wipes nervous sweat from brow*

I sympathise with Hasbro because Scrabulous does nick their game. Legally it seems pretty open-and-shut. On the other hand there's no profit being made and it would clearly never have occurred to Hasbro to do their own Facebook app without the success of Scrabulous.

Comments

[fba.livejournal.com]

Its a bugger for people that play with US/Canadian friends as the rights being split will mean another app that has the universality of Scrabulous is unlikely.

Still can't actually see the point of Facebook though...

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Scrabulous. Scrabulous is the point of Facebook.

Also being able to read people's Facebooks. It's sort of like the snake eating itself.

[fba.livejournal.com]

Scrabulous. Scrabulous is the point of Facebook.

And when you are rubbish at Scrabble?

Also being able to read people's Facebooks.

I don't think I've ever seen anything on anyone's Facebook that was worth reading...

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

No but when your siblings have them then you're sort of obliged...

I now use it to share personal photos with people, which seems like as good a purpose as any, and occasionally to indulge in memes. (Or the meme-like apps that seem to be the real point of Facebook.)

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Still can't actually see the point of Facebook though...

It's for finding people you used to know and boggling over how old/fat/married/parental they are now. And then not even friending/poking them because *that* would be too stalkery.

I think I'm having a cynical night.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

On the other hand there's no profit being made

Unfortunately, that part matters not a whit in American law, where people have to protect their intellectual property or lose it. Hence why, say, Disney get bad-ass over all sorts of things involving their characters.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I suspected that might be the case. It's a real shame, though.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

You lose trademarks, not copyright though. Surely Disney get bad-ass about things cos they're a dickish multimedia empire who know the power of getting rich by re-telling other people's stories.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

From my armchair-laywer seat, it seems roughly the same thing. If Hasbro let a free knock-off of Scrabble exist without challenge, that means when someone charges for a knock-off the judge will say "Why didn't you go after these guys before that, huh? I deem you to have surrendered your rights! It's all in the public domain now, losers!"

That Disney are dickish is a given; they just happened to be the first example that came to mind (and then I fucked up by forgetting to actually state the example).

Anyway. In short, American companies have to protect their shit. Roughly speaking. If you want 100% authority you'd have to ask someone else on account of IANAL.

[danmilburn.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, Hoggy's right. Trademarks have to be protected or you risk losing them, other forms of 'intellectual property' do not.

Also of note is that the actual rules of the game are not protected in any way. The only copyright claim Hasbro might have is over the design of the board and tiles, which can be changed easily enough. It's mostly the trademarks that are the issue here I think.

Anyway, I only play Scrabulous through their website now, which I find more convenient than Facebook..

[snowking.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure the two Scrabulous bros were making tall dollars from ads. But yes, it's clear neither Hasbro nor Mattel would ever had made an app without it. Is there a version of Risk yet?

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

I did think before that Risk could be a great Facebook app. I've not seen one, but I haven't gone looking for it.