Following on from last week’s story that saw leading toymaker Hasbro Inc. filing a copyright lawsuit against Facebook application Scrabulous for its design and gameplay similarities to classic board game Scrabble, the two Indian brothers behind the online clone have hurriedly moved to avoid Hasbro’s legal crosshairs by restyling Scrabulous and re-launching it as Wordscraper.
Scrabulous creators scramble to avoid Hasbro\'s Scrabble lawsuit. Image: Toxickore/Flickr.
Although Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla of RJ Softwares have instructed Facebook to block access to their hugely popular word-based game, the brothers are looking to get the Scrabulous concept back up and running as Wordscraper, a new take that comes complete with circular tiles rather than square, a different point-scoring system, and an altered set of rules -- all the contentious elements Hasbro accused Scrabulous of lifting from Scrabble.
Unveiled yesterday, Wordscraper also stands apart from Scrabble in that it enables players to apply personal customisation to the game board, shaping it anyway they choose while also allowing them to assign point values as they see fit.
However, while Wordscraper might attract a fair amount of the fan base left longing for Scrabulous, it remains to be seen whether the sudden rush of creative scrambling is sufficient activity to appease Hasbro’s legal hounds.
Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, renowned intellectual property lawyer Henry Sneath commented that, although RJ Softwares has tweaked the structure of Scrabulous and changed a number of its rules along the way to Wordscraper: “I don’t think it saves them from further questions.”
“It’s still a 15-by-15 board, and you get seven letters with point value,” he added. “Here they have changed some of the rules, but the overall premise is pretty much the same.”
According to Sneath, copyright laws do not protect ideas but rather the expression of the ideas, which will likely see any residing judge in Hasbro’s lawsuit evaluating whether RJ Softwares and the Agarwalla brothers have created Scrabulous and Wordscraper through a clear developmental reliance on Scrabble.
In response to the appearance of Wordscraper, Rhode Island-based Hasbro offered only that it evaluates every situation on a case-by-case basis and will “act appropriately when necessary.”
Since its launch on Thursday of this week, Wordscraper has already amassed several thousand active players -- thanks, in part, to heavy Facebook promotion. However, RJ Softwares has a considerable distance yet to cover if it hopes to emulate the 500,000 fans that frequently enjoyed Scrabulous.
Hasbro’s recently released Facebook version of Scrabble, which is officially licensed through thirty-party publisher Electronic Arts, continues to stutter in terms of popularity. Some Facebook users have even vowed to boycott the application due to Hasbro’s attack on Scrabulous.
Hasbro’s copyright lawsuit against RJ Softwares in North America is being matched by toymaker Mattel, which owns the rights for Scrabble in India and is also suing the India-based developer.
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