Facebook Scrabble application hit by legal woes

With the clocks counting down to 5 p.m. on Dean's Date, Rich LeBano '08 sat at his computer unable to find that perfect word. The letters were scrambled together; no word would fit.

It was not a case of writer's block, but of intense wordplay: a game of Scrabulous, the facebook.com application that is very similar to Scrabble.

"Scrabulous is fabulous," Nathan Buch '10 said, giving a description many students would echo when speaking of the addictive online game.

Scrabulous, one of Facebook's most popular applications, draws an average of 600,000 users per day. The game is also available at scrabulous.com.

But this may not be the case for much longer. Though Scrabulous has become extremely popular, the companies that hold licenses for Scrabble — Hasbro and Mattel — do not share in the profits. The two firms sent a joint letter to Facebook asking the site to remove Scrabulous, claiming that it constitutes a breach of copyright.

There are other free websites on which people can play Scrabble, such as Yahoo! Games, but these sites have agreements with Hasbro and Mattel. Scrabulous is independent of these companies and claims all profits for itself.

Wilson School professor Stanley Katz said there is no doubt that Hasbro and Mattel have a legal claim to Scrabble, which is their property. Otherwise, he said, "anyone could market the identical game."

Katz said Hasbro and Mattel might take measures similar to those used by the Recording Industry Association of America to confont copyright infringement, pressuring the universities attended by the students who use Scrabulous. Specifically, he said, the companies might focus on the fact that colleges provide internet service to students who then go online to play Scrabulous.

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"The next move, like the music industry, [might be] to threaten universities with action if they don't remove it," Katz said.

The news that Scrabulous could be removed from Facebook has prompted "Save Scrabulous" Facebook groups.

Nevertheless, many of the application's fans agree that Hasbro has a just claim. Standard Scrabulous is identical to Scrabble except that it is played over the internet. The game can extend over many days, as the players can make moves at their convenience.

"It's Scrabble. That's what it is. There's no denying it," Irene Moskowitz '09, a regular Scrabulous player, said.

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"It's like sitting down at a game of Scrabble, except your opponent is thousands of miles away," Buch said.

"I think they have a legitimate argument that they have stolen [Hasbro's] game and put it online for free," he added. But, he said, instead of forcing Facebook to eliminate Scrabulous, Hasbro and Mattel should endorse it and consider joining forces with Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the creators of the online application.

Scrabulous is so popular, campus players say, because of its convenience, and because it is a great study break. The game also allows for multitasking. "You can move and then think about something else," Moskowitz said. "It's a fun diversion."

With Scrabulous, Buch said, there is a "bigger degree of freedom ... you don't have to worry about leaving the board out."

"It's so easy to have the computer on and hit the refresh button," LeBano said. "It's a nice little break from work that can easily get out of hand."

"I think to an extent that it's more popular on this campus," he added. "It has an appeal to any sort of college student, but particularly at Princeton because it's remotely competitive, and sort of slightly academic, just how like trivial pursuit would be more appealing to Princeton kids."

"Whether there is any actual academic value," he said, "I don't know."