Game Over for Scrabulous Players on Facebook
One of Facebook’s most popular features is now kaput.
Users of the social networking site in the U.S. and Canada can no longer play Scrabulous; the two individual developers of the Internet version of the classic Scrabble board game decided to take it down after they were sued by Hasbro, which owns the rights to Scrabble, according to the New York Times’ Bits blog. Scrabulous reportedly attracted nearly half a million players on Facebook daily.
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, the developers, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla of Calcutta, India, were sued recently in an infringement action filed in federal court in Manhattan.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Mattel, which owns the right to the game in other countries, is also pursuing legal action against the brothers in the Indian courts.
Additional coverage:
PC Magazine: ” The Fall of Scrabulous: A Lesson to All IP Pirates”
The Social: “‘Scrabble’ app on Facebook crashes in wake of ‘Scrabulous’ takedown”
Tech Observer (Portfolio): “Status Update: Argh. Scrabulous. Is Gone.”
