Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Amy Too — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:51:27 -0000

Oh I see. Hasbro wants Scrabulous. The Indian brothers want too much money for it. But maybe they'll go cheaper if Hasbro sues.

I suspect the lawsuit is a chess move, part of the negotiating process.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Jeff — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:47:22 -0000

Acquire a group of guys that steal your IP...so make people rich for stealing from you...yeah that makes a lot of sense.

Sure, I agree that Hasbro prob could make a little more by owning scrabulous....but at what cost on the rest of their game portfolio....they basically just say "take all of our game assets and knock them off as you see fit....if you screw our brand in the process...oh well...but if you are a success, we'll make you rich for the theft".

Normally MASH has great stuff....but you guys are just flat wrong on this one.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

drsmartiepants — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:07:49 -0000

With all due respect, 'Hasbeen' has not in any way proven their Goliath/David case against the developers of Scrabulous. As they pull the plug on our games with family and friends around the world, I am hopeful that Hasbro/Mattel will feel the full wrath of both the toy, card and board game buying public and the courts. Hasbro did not invent Scrabble, Alfred Butts did.

The following is a direct quote from US Copyright Office FL-108.
"The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it.

Copyright protects only the particular manner of an authorâ€™s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in the development, merchandising, or playing of a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles."

'Hasbeen's' arrogance in interrupting we Scrabulous game players in the middle of our games is beyond comprehension to me. Instead of seeing an opportunity to reinvigorate their failing games and toy markets through renewed consummer interest, they have totally squandered our good will by "pulling the plug" on Scrabulous.

The absolute stupidity of imposing an under development, low quality EA alternative on us just magnifies their arrogance. Until Scrabulous is restored in its current conception, I plan to totally boycott all Hasbro and Mattel products. Although the lack of toy, card and board game purchases by a single previously solid customer will only be a minor irritant to them, this action multiplied many times over could have a major impact. I certainly hope it does.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Dennis — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:19:12 -0000

@nbr,

Thank you for bringing these positions up. Let me address them one by one.

1) Kicking me off my land is different then using my idea for the following reason: You can "take" my idea and I still have my original idea. If you take my land, that's theft, because then I won't have my land. Ideas != Product.

2) If you want my formula and can figure out how to make it yourself -- go ahead. If it really took me 20 years to figure it out, but only takes you 6 months, then I'm pretty stupid. (Note: if you perform industrial espionage to steal the formula, that is a criminal matter - in the scrabble case, there was no stealing of secrets, it's there for the world to see). If I publish the formula and the process to make it, but state you can't use it, then that's just my stupidity again. This is why companies have company secrets (ie 11 secret herbs and spices) (Caveat: some formulas/processes must be disclosed to satisfy regulatory bodies, in which case a non-disclosure agreement will be in place with those agencies - that's not the same as making it public)

3) Again, this is a private vs. public issue. Since I have not disclosed my novel, you have violated my privacy to obtain it -- if you came up with the novel BY YOURSELF, possibly after reading a summary of my novel that I made public, then that's fine. If I'm stupid or lazy or disinterested in pursuing it, why should it stop you from pursuing it. Even if I did publish it and you published a novel basically the same after I let you read my novel, let the public decide who wrote it better by voting with their dollars.

Disclaimer: I am in the software and web development business. I fully support open-source application development -- in fact, I owe my career to people who develop and give away their software for free. I have done great things with their ideas that they never would have pursued and made many people happy with it -- none of that could have been done if we held to the old concepts of owning ideas. When I develop something, I fully acknowledge that although I came up with the idea first, others will emulate it -- for the betterment of others. If they're smart, they might even make it better. I could waste my time trying to protect my ideas, or I can spend that time coming up with, and putting into practice, more ideas.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

TastesLikeTV.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:34:50 -0000

Check out Scrabulous: The Music Video!

http://www.tastesliketv.com...

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

John B. — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:47:31 -0000

What an uninformed article.

1. Facebook did not kill Scrabulous. Facebook received the notice, and the owners of the game voluntarily pulled it before FB even had a chance to respond or take any action of any kind.

2. Hasbro has a very serious obligation to make claims on its intellectual property. As any IP lawyer knows, if Hasbro fails to take action on infringement cases, they may lose their right later to take action if an even more serious infringement case comes to light. By allowing other groups to infringe, however minor the infringement might be, on their IP, eventually anyone could infringe and Hasbro may lose the infringement claim.

None of this is to say you're wrong on your points, per se; perhaps Hasbro should have purchased Scrabulous. But what would that do? They would change the name anyway. If people love the game, they're not really going to care who provides it.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Comedy Blog — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:26:20 -0000

Scrabulous will be back, though i'll probably be playing Wabble, the online scrabble game that has evidently gone under the radar.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

iernst — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:30:57 -0000

good post.

I share the opinion of some posters here, now negotiation has just begun.

The shutdown might be only a first shot to get a better position. Lets wait and see what comes. :)

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

The two dudes should be in jai — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:05:52 -0000

Gee... Let's rally around acknowledged counterfitters! WooHoo! Yeah! They totally should have kept running their program! Who cares that they violated a company's right to sell what's theirs! Who cares that they're profitting off of something they didn't really make by selling ads! More people used it than the legitimate version, so therefore, they're right and the real owner is wrong!
...
...

...

I hate my generation.

Seriously people. It's the law. I hope the two thieves wind up in jail, and/or bankrupt when Hasbro wins their suit against them.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Hwan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:30:51 -0000

I was so pissed when I woke up this morning to make my next move... Oh well.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Alyssa — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:46:07 -0000

Tragic, I really might cry. But here are some things that people can now do in its stead: http://www.236.com/news/200...

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

magnusdopus — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:11:20 -0000

I'm just wondering what your opinion of Microsoft is. Sometimes it's not the best product, but the one easiest to market.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Mark Z — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:09:38 -0000

well, looks like it wasn't so stupid for hasbro -- i don't think they'll lose the loyalty of their fans. the fact is, the game is popular and will sell itself. hasbro has been working on their own scrabble application and waiting to file the injunctions until their launch date was set.

Below is the new app. Bet you'll click and add the app.

http://www.new.facebook.com...

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Dennis — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:56:47 -0000

This is the problem with trademarks, patents, etc... The people who have the idea are not necessarily the best to develop them. The guys from India made a better Scrabble than the people who "own" the IP.

Now I realize it's not quite the same, but if I "owned" the cure to cancer, and no one else was allowed to take my idea and make a actual product out of it, and I did a really bad or incomplete job of it, how would my "owning" the idea benefit society. Do I really have a right to control it because I was the first to have the idea? Too far a stretch? How about air-bags or seat-belts -- what if GM was the only one who could use them? Drugs? The US pays 10+ times the cost of drugs because pharmaceutical companies have the rights to them -- but in Canada and elsewhere generics are allowed to make them too, at much reduced cost. All because someone "owns" an idea.

Patents, IP, etc are an archaic idea that was suppose to give incentives to the respective owners to pursue taking an idea and creating a product from it without risk of others infringing on their "hard work" of developing the idea. Unfortunately, this often backfires and the idea gets into a half-baked product. They don't have to be good because no-one else can offer alternatives. Most of the world acknowledges that monopolies stifle markets and screw the consumer, while free markets and competition promote better products and prices.

This is exactly what happened with Scrabble/Scrabulous. While Hasbro has the "rights" to the idea, Scrabulous produced a better product. Actions (finished) speak louder that words (IP). While under the current system, Hasbro MUST defend their IP, or they'll lose it -- it's time that concept is abandoned for the betterment of the world, beit applied to a game, a product, a process or whatever.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Robert — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:13:28 -0000

While this proposal makes some level of business sense, the author is failing to look at it from a strategic legal perspective. If Hasbro buys the two out (and this is forgetting that EA owns the digital rights in North America) what they are doing is sending a message that a good way to get rich is to commit copyright infringement and hope you're doing it well enough that instead of being sued into oblivion they'll want to buy your product.
There's a new business paradigm that we're slowly and painfully moving toward. I agree that Hasbro's decision might not have been the best, but offering a straight up buyout for a right price isn't in their best interest either.
Personally, what I would have done is agree not to pursue litigation in exchange for a cheap buy-out price and extend an invitation to these two young men to come work for the company and help lead an expansion of Hasbro's IP into the digital world. Scrabulous may have had 500K users, but it's hard to monetize facebook users. Let's face it, most of them are broke high school and college students. It's definitely worth something, but I don't think the suggestions of a 7 figure deal are spouting the correct valuation of Scrabulous.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

sazar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:08:06 -0000

I wonder if the author of this lovely diatribe about Hasbro and Scrabble bothered to read into the actual events whereby the brothers REJECTED the offer of Hasbro to PURCHASE what is a blatant rip-off of their IP. Read the CNN article on this.

Considering that they would technically by paying for their very own product for all intents and purposes, that makes no sense.

The only thing the brothers did was create an online format for Scrabble, that is it. The rules, points, layout and every single other thing is a blatant rip-off of the game.

Now, I do enjoy the app and have indulged in games online and personally I do think a FAIR agreement would be to license the online IP from the brothers since they obviously have a superior product to EA's bug-ridden mess and provide the brother's with compensation accordingly for their work. Everyone, except EA, would be happy.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

modemlooper — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:29:35 -0000

when ever I here scrabulous I think hasbro board game not two Indian guys. Hasbro messed up. Now when I here it all I think is corporate lawsuit.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

modemlooper — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:23:56 -0000

they are also paying for the users as well not just app dev

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Bree — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:51:33 -0000

Hasbro already did develop their own official version and it's not nearly as popular as Scrabulous. Probably for a number of reasons: 2nd on the block, technically buggy, etc. And maybe a bigger reason that Don is pointing out a new Brand.

I agree with your point that maybe it isn't right that they should pay something that is legally theirs, but they should have approached this as an opportunity, not a problem.

Imagine if they bought/merged with Scrabulous or gone about it any other way as an opportunity. They would have added one or two more features and then we would all be reading a blog post here about how awesome Hasbro is by making a cool online game cooler.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

faryl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:55:52 -0000

I'm not saying it doesn't suck - but aside from Hasbro needing to defend their trademark so they don't get kleenex/xerox/etc. Hasbro may have contractual obligations to EA, if EA's been granted exclusive distribution rights.

Just because they've been around for a while and staff is older than 30 may not mean they're evil - just not as spin savvy as some other companies may be.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Dumber — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:28:37 -0000

"Don Reisinger weighs in on side of pirates, Makes Mashable Look Stupider"

I assume Pete would be fine with me starting a site called Mashable that offers second rate coverage of online news vagualy related to social networking?

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

DRS — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:45:14 -0000

Hasbro has every right, and actually an obligation to defend their trademarks. If you don't defend them you can lose them.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Howard — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:58:43 -0000

What's stupid about protecting your property? Just because you don't agree with their actions doesn't make them stupid.

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

welovescrabulous — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:51:28 -0000

Scrabulous lovers and people complaining that Hasbro's Scrabble doesn't work fight back with Facebook groups: http://www.facebook.com/gro... and http://www.facebook.com/app...

Re: Facebook Kills Scrabulous, Makes Hasbro Look Stupid

Patrick Williams — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:41:59 -0000

- Hasbro owns the Scrabble brand, Scrabulous was infringing on that property, Hasbro had an obligation to file suit. I would hope the designers of Scrabulous would also file suit if someone was co-opting their intellectual property. If intellectual property isn't protected we lose the incentive to put in the huge amount of work necessary to bring new ideas and products to the market (Facebook is a for-profit market and nothing other than a for-profit market).