Word: hasbro
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Those killjoys at Hasbro have created a p.r. disaster: after filing a lawsuit last week against the makers of the immensely popular Scrabble ripoff Scrabulous, the toymaker succeeded in making Facebook finally take the app down today. Now fans of the classic word game must play the official version, which was built by video-game maker Electronic Arts and has been in public beta for the past week...
...even after weeks of preparing for the inevitable takedown, even knowing that half a million people played Scrabulous every day, Hasbro still couldn't handle the traffic at the switchover. The site crashed like a carload of clowns at the circus early Tuesday. Soon, a notice was posted on Facebook: "We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible!" the developers wrote, adding that "we're making changes to Scrabble for its official launch in mid-August...
...Riots, mayhem, looting and lots of UPPERCASE SHOUTING. Well, really, just the latter, since there's no way to poke Hasbro itself on Facebook. (I think.) But dozens of Facebook groups have materialized, hoping to shame Hasbro into restoring the rebel application, which was launched last year on Facebook by two brothers who live in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta...
...manager said he also believed that Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, the developers of Scrabulous, would comply and pull their knockoff version from the Web. Blecher said Scrabulous is in obvious copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is enforceable in the U.S. and Canada, and that Hasbro has also sued for damages, attorney fees and profits from Scrabulous. Despite earlier stories suggesting that Hasbro was negotiating with the Agarwallas and that talks stalled when the brothers asked for too much money for Scrabulous, Blecher said Hasbro has consistently declined to negotiate. "Hasbro never contacted the folks...
...Hasbro holds the intellectual property rights for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, while online rights have been licensed to EA, which built the authorized app on Facebook. Outside the U.S., however, Mattel holds licensing rights, and the company has already filed suit against the Agarwallas in India...