Scrabulous

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Scrabulous
Type
Founded Kolkata, India
(July 5, 2006)
Headquarters Kolkata, India
Key people Rajat Agarwalla, Co-founder
Jayant Agarwalla, Co-founder
Services Online word game
Employees 2 (January 2008)
Website www.scrabulous.com
Type of site Casual game
Registration Required
Available in English
Launched 2005
Current status Active

Scrabulous is an online gaming site for playing the word game Scrabulous, a concept based on the commercial board game, Scrabble, owned within the U.S. and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. Launched in 2005 and added to Facebook as an application in 2007, Scrabulous was founded by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, both commerce graduates of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. While Scrabulous initially offered only the regular version of the game, many variations and options have gradually been made available.

Contents

[edit] Creation

Scrabulous.com was created at the end of 2005,[1] after the Agarwalla brothers, Rajat (26) who holds a degree in business administration and Jayant (21) an undergraduate who has won numerous Scrabble tournaments, felt the need for a free gaming site where the popular game could be played. It was initially made available as BingoBinge.com. On July 5, 2006, the site was moved to Scrabulous.com. A new logo was introduced in January 2008 by J.Pink Design.[2]

[edit] Users

A game in progress on Facebook
A game in progress on Facebook

The website has 20,000 registered users,[1] but after the developers made an application for the popular social networking website Facebook it has been added to 840,000 user pages[3], with more than 500,000 users daily,[4][5] giving it "the most active users of any game that can be played over Facebook".[6]


[edit] Legal and copyright issues

There are certain legal issues involved in Scrabulous, since it very closely resembles Scrabble, exactly copying the board layout, number of tiles and rules, and having a very similar name. According to Anthony Falzone, head of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University, copyright laws do not allow someone to freely copy the particular expression of an idea.[7] In his article in the Wall Street Journal, Jamin Brophy-Warren has said that Hasbro Inc has refused to comment on legal matters, while the creators have mentioned informing the company about their site.[8] The former Scrabulous website made several references to Scrabble, and previously promoted itself as the best place to play Scrabble online.[9]

In January 2008 it was reported that Hasbro has begun the process to attempt to shut down Scrabulous.[10] Facebook has also been asked to remove Scrabulous as an available application due to the legal challenges.[11] Currently the game has not been removed by Facebook, which has refused to confirm Hasbro's request to remove the game.[12]

As of October 2007, the term Scrabulous was registered as a trademark and service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but as of February 2008 it was offically abandoned by the applicant.[13][14]

Mattel launched its official version of online Scrabble, Scrabble by Mattel, on Facebook in late March 2008.[15][16] The application was developed by Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks who has been licensed by Mattel.[16] However since Hasbro controls the copyright for North America with the copyright for the rest of the world belonging to Mattel,[15] the Facebook application is available only to players outside the United States and Canada.[16] Ownership of the rights to Scrabble by multiple companies is limiting the introduction of the game to Facebook[16] and, between its launch date and 6 April 2008, fewer than 2000 users had registered, compared with 600,000 registered Scrabulous users.[16]

RealNetworks has stated that the application is currently in its beta stage and there have been reports of a number of bugs and limitations.[16]

Scrabulous users have reacted to Hasbro's announcement asking Facebook to shut it down by creating a group called Save Scrabulous[17] on Facebook.[5] Reportedly more than 54,000 fans have joined this group. It has also been reported that fans have been writing to Hasbro and Mattel demanding that the companies make "the right decision",[5] and have threatened to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if they shut down Scrabulous [16].

In reaction to the news that the Facebook application was in legal jeopardy, two groups made a "SCRABULOUS" music video spoof of the Fergie song "Glamorous." The video from web entertainment group TastesLikeTV.com [18] professes "L, T, S, and R / Ain't gonna get you very far," while the YouTube video created by Team Awesome Productions says that Scrabulous is the "swappy, swappy." [19] Both viral web videos were mentioned in the February 22, 2008 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Kolkata brothers ‘scrabble’ Facebook’s hottest game", Hindustan Times, 2007-10-01. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 
  2. ^ Portfolio Logo Design. J.Pink Graphic Design. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
  3. ^ "In Facebook, Investing in a Theory (page 2)", The New York Times, 2007-10-04. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 
  4. ^ "Facebook / Scrabulous". Retrieved on 2007-12-21. 
  5. ^ a b c "Scrabulous fans fight back to save game", The Telegraph, 2008-01-19. Retrieved on 2008-02-12. 
  6. ^ Neelakantan, Shailaja. "Students Score a Hit with Scrabulous", The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10-11-2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-21. 
  7. ^ "Networking Your Way To a Triple-Word Score", Wall Street Journal Online, 2007-10-13. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 
  8. ^ Pang, Kevin. "My latest obsession: Scrabulous", Chicago Tribune, 2008-01-18. Retrieved on 2008-01-14. 
  9. ^ "Scrabble's C&D Spells the End for Scrabulous?", The Legality, 2008-01-23. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  10. ^ McCarthy, Caroline. "Big surprise: Scrabble manufacturer targets 'Scrabulous' online game", c/net News, 2008-01-11. Retrieved on 2008-01-14. 
  11. ^ "Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous", BBC News, 2008-01-16. Retrieved on 2008-01-16. 
  12. ^ McCarthy, Caroline. "'Scrabulous' debate may rewrite the rules of the game", c/net News, 2008-01-16. Retrieved on 2008-02-04. 
  13. ^ Latest status info on Serial Number: 77304811. US Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
  14. ^ Notice of Abandonment. US Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
  15. ^ a b "Mattel takes on Scrabulous in war of the words", The Independent, 2004-04-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-08. 
  16. ^ a b c d e f g "Scrabble Tries to Fight a Popular Impostor at Its Own Game", The New York Times, 2004-04-07. Retrieved on 2008-04-08. 
  17. ^ Save Scrabulous. Facebook. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
  18. ^ Scrabulous music video. TastesLikeTV.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
  19. ^ Scrabulous Music Video. Team Awesome Productions. Retrieved on 2008-03-02.