So, for those of you who live under whatever blissful rock the drama of the internet is far away from, the popular Facebook application and blatant copyright violation Scrabulous was recently shut down. This was too bad. I liked Scrabulous. Most people liked Scrabulous. But even if you have never played Scrabulous, I'm sure you can already guess what it's a ripoff of. (That's the second preposition in this paragraph I've left hanging, and I don't care.) When an online version of Scrabble from Hasbro--the people who, natch, shut down Scrabulous--came out, the internet's judgement of this clearly evil $ CORPORATION $ was swift, and it led to a lot of people completely irrationally hating a product that is no less buggy or ugly than the illegal one. It's just...less illegal. It also led to tons of people who understand nothing of copyright law pretending like they have any friggin' idea what they're talking about. Let's have a look, shall we?
7. Celeste Coursey in the thread "Die, Hasbro, Die Die Die!"It WILL be undoubtedly slow and painful. A boycott will take some time... but it will prevail. I for one am glad I don't own any Hasbro stock.A BOYCOTT! THIS IS AN HONORABLE CAUSE LIKE THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT. Also, you don't own any stock at all.
6. Kris Capps starting the thread "i didn't think it was possible to hate Scrabble until I met Scrabble Beta"
Hasbro's Scrabble Beta turns playing a game of scrabble into a chore.. Bring back Scrabulous, you whores.
So...when you were playing Scrabulous, the "game of scrabble" wasn't a chore, right? So...they're the same game, right? Because most of the morons here are somehow trying to argue that they're not. You whore.
5. Susan Wells in the thread "Tired of the ugly, buggy Scrabble Beta that never starts? Try Wordscraper, from the creators of Scrabulous." (their new, less blatant copyright violation)
good going for posting this liink but wait - has been aka hasbro might pull this thread tooHAS BEEN AKA HASBRO B-)
4. June Dafgard in the thread "www.scrabulous.com" (which touts the functionality of the website)
I was gonna start a thread like this, but I was afraid the title might draw too much attention from ... Big Brother. ;)Ten bucks says this girl hasn't actually finished
1984. Also, yeah, Big Brother=Hasbro, which hasn't deleted all the
other moronic threads from you guys in a forum they're providing, which they would have a perfectly legal right to do if they wanted.
3. Alex Chira starting the thread "The idea for a game is not protected by Copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game."
Straight from the U.S. Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’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.then, a later post:
Considering I'm in law school taking IP law, I'm not complaining :)I don't even necessarily know where to start with this one. First of all, whatever law school you're enrolled in, even if it's a degree mill, should kick you out for your idiocy. Second, Scrabulous isn't on "similar principles," dude, it's on the exact same rules. Third, you managed the part of the document that covered what
could be copyrighted: "For example, the text matter describing the rules of the game, or the pictorial matter appearing on the gameboard or container, may be registrable." Um, so yeah, a pictorally equal gameboard is violation. Sorry this one wasn't funny, it's just some shithead on the internet who is probably lying about going to law school pretending he understands what's involved.
2. Jeremy Stamp in the thread "The idea for a game is not protected by Copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game."
Welcome to America where you can sue anybody for anything. I am going to go shave with your wit, thank you.
1. Neal Meyer starting the thread "remember scrabulous"
hey, best way to insure your product wins, wait untill someone else poopularizes it, and instead of teaming up with them sue them and keep them from competeing....Oh my God, do I love this post. I can't think of anything I could say that could make it any more fun than it already is. This comment poopularizes itself.
