Well, this is just great. I was literally one move away from finishing a very close Scrabulous game when I heard. Apparently, it was the game’s developers, not Facebook, who blocked US and Canadian users. It’s little consolation that clicking on the Scrabulous icon gets you a screen that asks for your e-mail address, so the developers can keep you updated on the games status.
Who do I blame? Hasbro, of course, the makers of Scrabble. This is all the result of their lawsuit against the Scrabulous makers, who are based in freakin’ India and probably aren’t subject to the same copyright laws that US developers would be. What’s really dumb about the whole thing is that Scrabulous has undeniably incited enthusiasm for offline Scrabble-playing, too. The NYT points out that Hasbro has created its own Scrabble Facebook app, but their blogger and others have had trouble using it. I’m annoyed enough to not support Hasbro in any way, so I think I’ll be ignoring their game. Meanwhile, you can still access Scrabulous through its non-Facebook website.
And though I support the developers, I really wish they would have given us a week of warning before taking down the app.
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30 July, 2008 at 9:59 am
Stef
As long as the Indian creators are conducting enough of their copyright-violating business in the US (even merely over the internets into the US) they are subject to our copyright laws. Of course, this doesn’t make Hasbro any less a bunch of whiny poop faces, legally speaking.
1 August, 2008 at 12:21 am
dontquityrdayjob
Thanks. I’m actually more interested in what a crap business decision that was, regardless of legality. Scrabulous turned a bunch of teenagers and 20-somethings on to Scrabble, and Hasbro has gone and pissed on its own progress in a demographic that is probably pretty coveted in board-game world. They think people won’t remember that they screwed Scrabulous, but young people hold grudges.