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i am addicted to Scrabulous.
it's the first internet Scrabble interface that doesn't suck...and it has successfully pulled me into internet Scrabble after almost twenty years of playing board-and-tiles Scrabble.
i started playing in September. i have finished 208 games since then, and am in the middle of 14 more. i play from home. i play from class. i play from coffee houses and libraries. i play everywhere.
and now, Hasbro is sending cease and desist letters to Scrabulous.
i'm not surprised. the game is a dead ringer for board-and-tiles Scrabble. the letter values are the same, the bonus structure is the same, and the rules are the same. it's Scrabble. if the copyright on Scrabble is still valid, which it probably is under the ever-extended copyright terms [thanks, Disney!], then Scrabulous is almost certainly copyright infringement.
but, i hope they can strike some kind of a bargain, some kind of licensing deal. it's a fantastic program with a huge player base. it's great to play with friends, and it's great to play with random people i don't know. if they could strike a licensing deal and even charge a reasonable monthly fee, i don't care. i play enough on there, and enjoy it enough, that i would pay to continue using the game.
i just don't want them to kill Scrabulous. they killed a different site, e-Scrabble, in 2005...and they've also already licensed the digital rights to the game to EA, who has done nothing with them yet. what they really need to do is buy the rights back from EA and sell them to Scrabulous...there really is no sense in having no workable online version of Scrabble, and no sense in waiting for EA to deign to develop something when such a good one--and also a popular one--already exists.
it's the first internet Scrabble interface that doesn't suck...and it has successfully pulled me into internet Scrabble after almost twenty years of playing board-and-tiles Scrabble.
i started playing in September. i have finished 208 games since then, and am in the middle of 14 more. i play from home. i play from class. i play from coffee houses and libraries. i play everywhere.
and now, Hasbro is sending cease and desist letters to Scrabulous.
i'm not surprised. the game is a dead ringer for board-and-tiles Scrabble. the letter values are the same, the bonus structure is the same, and the rules are the same. it's Scrabble. if the copyright on Scrabble is still valid, which it probably is under the ever-extended copyright terms [thanks, Disney!], then Scrabulous is almost certainly copyright infringement.
but, i hope they can strike some kind of a bargain, some kind of licensing deal. it's a fantastic program with a huge player base. it's great to play with friends, and it's great to play with random people i don't know. if they could strike a licensing deal and even charge a reasonable monthly fee, i don't care. i play enough on there, and enjoy it enough, that i would pay to continue using the game.
i just don't want them to kill Scrabulous. they killed a different site, e-Scrabble, in 2005...and they've also already licensed the digital rights to the game to EA, who has done nothing with them yet. what they really need to do is buy the rights back from EA and sell them to Scrabulous...there really is no sense in having no workable online version of Scrabble, and no sense in waiting for EA to deign to develop something when such a good one--and also a popular one--already exists.
