Filed under: Business, Developer, Games, Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0
Hasbro and Mattel after Facebook for Scrabulous
Both Hasbro and Mattel are asking Facebook to remove the Scrabulous application, a third party add-on, saying that it's too similar to Scrabble, and therefore infringing their copyright.Apparently, Hasbro has the rights to the game in the U.S. and Canada, while Mattel has the rights everywhere else. As such, Scrabulous is in a troubled spot - the AP reports that Hasbro has threatened to "close down the site [Scrabulous] and its associated distribution points" in the event that an agreement cannot be made. In a letter Hasbro is sending to those who protest their actions, the company states that Scrabulous is an "illegally copied online version of the world's most popular word game," and encourages people to switch to legal online venues to play Scrabble instead.
Even if, legally speaking, Hasbro and Mattel are in the right and their copyright is indeed being infringed upon by an application that is easier, faster, and more accessible than all other legal Scrabble incarnations, let's hope that a good agreement is reached and everyone gets to go home happy.
[via Reuters]
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
