Hardly Scrabulous! Scrabble Makers Scramble to Scrap "Scrabulous"
It looks like bad news might be in store for Facebook users who enjoy the "Scrabulous" application. And, just in case that sentence sounded to you like a space alien describing political unrest on his home planet Zarblok, here's a little background.
The social networking website Facebook.com allows users to create profiles and connect with each other. As the site has grown - and has become more competitive with MySpace.com - it has added more and more features to attract users.
Recently, users have been able to create "applications" that entertain or provide amusement to users. Popular applications allow users to compare movie tastes with friends, give gifts to other users and determine which famous character best fits their personalities.
And here's where the problems begin.
Last summer, reports the Guardian Unlimited, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two brothers from India, created a Facebook application a little too similar to a popular board game. The "Scrabulous" application, which allows users to play virtual Scrabble games with their friends, is an almost perfect replica of the board game Scrabble.
In fact the brothers reportedly created the game so that they would be able to play Scrabble online - the idea to launch Scrabulous as a Facebook application came from a friend.
Since the Agarwalla brothers introduced their creation to Facebook's network of users in June of 2007, its popularity has soared. An estimated 600,000 users participate in online Scrabulous games daily, and as many as two million enjoy the game from time to time, sources indicate.
And, several months after the program debuted on Facebook, Mattel and Hasbro (the companies that own the rights to Scrabble) want it removed and are threatening a lawsuit, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The companies have apparently asked Mark Zuckerberg, the creator/owner of Facebook to remove the application, and have sent letters from attorneys to both Mr. Zuckerberg and the Agarwalla brothers. As of now, the application remains available to Facebook users.
Scrabulous has evidently become one of the 10 most popular applications on Facebook, and users the world over are troubled by its potential removal.
Despite the disclaimer included in the Scrabulous application asserting that the online game is in no way to related to or affiliated with its board game counterpart, legal experts have conceded that Scrabulous might infringe on Scrabble's copyright.
Still, the users could end up being the major losers in this battle. If Scrabulous is completely removed from Facebook, they won't have access to the program at all. And, as some sources have pointed out, Scrabulous has bred a whole new generation of Scrabble fans.
The Agarwalla brothers reportedly earn an estimated $25 thousand each month solely from advertisers looking to promote themselves on Scrabulous pages. Bloggers have suggested that Mattel and Hasbro allow the application to stay online and just take a cut of the profits.
But the final decision could well be handed down in a court.
