e-Scrabble gets Cease and Desist Order from Hasbro

Matthew Dull writes "Home-brewed e-Scrabble.com recently received a cease-and-desist order from Hasbro Inc., owners of the famous board game Scrabble. E-scrabble, home to over 100,000 active players, has been hosting up online versions of the game to happily addicted players for over a year now (maybe more), and only now does Hasbro come forth with a lawsuit. The creator of the site, known only as Jared, has posted the letter he received from Hasbro's lawyers. However common it may be, it always seems a tragedy when a big corporation stomps its heavy foot on a fledgling but very successful piece of web software that is close to many people's heart." (It's also the best online Scrabble game I've seen; Hasbro should pay Jared, not sue him.)

y'know

[heptapod]

There's a great way to enforce a cease-and-desist order. Slashdot the site.

Happened to me too

[Dimwit]

When I started up www.e-slashdot.org, over 100,00 people came and read my geek news. Then some lawyers from some Open Source Lab place got all pissy and sent me a letter. Once more a large corporation slams the little guy!

I was posting good news from independent sources. Heck, they should have paid me!

Well...

[carpe_noctem]

It's also the best online scrabble game I've seen; Hasbro should pay Jared, not sue him.

If you can't innovate, litigate.

Transfer URL to me

[attobyte]

Well transfer the name to me and I will host it until Hasbro sues me. Then I will grant them thier wish but only after I transfer it to one of the other 100,000 players. I think we should be able to do this for at least a couple of years. :)

Re:y'know

[l810c]

Yea, I clicked the link and all I got what a blank page with the word "Quijibo" on it.

Easy fix...

[Nimrangul]

Change the name to Elb-Barcs and rearrange the board, maybe make it a little bigger, just some minor touches to it to make sure it doesn't look "scrabbly".

Then you're free to go, just remember to yell Elb Barcs when you win and not Scrabble.

Re:Pay him?

[j0e_average]

What kind of bullshitery is that?

I don't know, but bullshitery would be worth 19 points, assuming 1) no premium word/letter spaces, and 2) that it was a real word!

Re:Showing Milton Bradley how Monopoly is played

[UWC]

When I told a friend a while back that Hasbro owns both Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, he asked, perfectly sincerely, "Isn't that some sort of monopoly?" And then instantly recognized the accidental pun.

Re:Go To Romania To Play Scrabble

[un1xl0ser]

That site may have the best Scrabble game in the world on it. My problem is that the last time I downloaded a "client program" from Romania, I ended up paying a lot of money in long distance phone bills that I couldn't explain.

Someone else willing to vouch for this guy? :-P

Could Be Worse

[TimCrider]

He could have called it iScrabble and had Apple on their ass too.

Re:Copyrightable?

[Profane MuthaFucka]

If he really wanted to stick it to them, he could just change the name of his game to "Hasbro the Scrabble Bully". Now with triple-lawsuit score.

Re:Uhhh

[SeventyBang]

With that logic, everyone and their brother will be creating knock-offs of offline games and expect to be bought out by the owners.

Instead of Monopoly, I think I'll create Oligopoly [reference.com], or add some political overtones and call it Plutocracy [reference.com].

How long do you think you'd hold out in court with a product called "Video Basic" or "Visually Basic"?

Re:Uhhh

[stratjakt]

It's Hasbro's game, and Hasbro's money, and I bet many of those 100,000 players thought (as in were deliberately tricked into believing) they were playing official Scrabble.

Fuck Jared and his Subway subs. He'll always be fat on the inside.

Re:y'know

[Pseudonym]

Was it on a triple word score?

Re:Showing Milton Bradley how Monopoly is played

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but it is a very painful Operation to separate a monopoly once it has been created. It is a real Twister with all of the different common departments that must be sorted out. There are ways but none of the approch Perfection.

Re:Showing Milton Bradley how Monopoly is played

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess that is just what happens in the Game of Life.

Re:y'know

[nmx]

Yea, I clicked the link and all I got what a blank page with the word "Quijibo" on it.

The preferred spelling is "kwyjibo," though "quijibo" may be an acceptable ethnic variant.

Re:Happened to me too

[DAldredge]

It is funny to see the owners of a site with NO ORIGINAL CONTENT bitch about others copying what they themselves have copied. :)

Re:Uhhh

[PedanticSpellingTrol]

If you let anybody use your trademark

without permission

They could have easily worked out a license deal, they didn't have to stop the dentist convention. They just didn't want to be associated with the kind of physical pain the words "Worldcon Dental Edition" summons.

Re:y'know

[mirful]

I just went to the escrabble site and there it said "greetings, Slashdot readers. Due to a huge number of visitors coming in from the site Slashdot.org, e-Scrabble games are temporarily unavailable." Ok, we've done it! You can call off the lawyers now.

Re:y'know

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you'll find KWYJIBO a much more cromulent word to use ... http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7G02.html/ [snpp.com]

Re:Well...

[Ohreally_factor]

Let's play a game of word substitution for a minute. Let's pretend that "Hasbro" = "F/OSS developer", "Scrabble" = "GPLed code" and that "e-Scrabble" = "commercial/CSS developer". Now, imagine a commercial/CSS developer took someone else's GPLed code and ignored all relevant copyrights, trademarks and legal protections. Now whose side are you on?

I'm surprised that no one is claiming that Hasbro is attacking free speech or that Jared should be protected by journalist shield laws. Or that because Jared and those that visit his site obviously like scrabble, Hasbro is attacking its own fan base.

On the other hand, I think Jared's strongest defense would be to claim his site is a parody of Scrabble, and thus protected by fair use. To overcome the plaintiff's claim that they don't get the joke, the defense, at closing arguments, could merely pass their hand above their head, and say, "Whoosh!." That would be almost as good as the Chewbacca defense.

Re:Showing Milton Bradley how Monopoly is played

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

Yeah, one Frustration after another.

Re:y'know

[Anonymous Coward]

Scrabble pirates!

How many points is "arrrrr" worth?

Re:Well, a better name would have helped

[Anonymous Coward]

You could even try the Microsoft route and release a laundry detergent called Detergent(tm), and toothpaste called Toothpaste(tm).

Can't they just buy a few boards...?

[johnsmith2005]

Seems to me that if e-Scrabble just buys a few Scrabble sets, one for every concurrent virtual board in play, they would be perfectly entitled to run their remote playing service.

Re:Uhhh

[pozzy]

Otherwise every new product would be a monopoly and the system would break down pretty fast.

Hasbro own that too :)

Re:Why Work So Hard To Be Wrong?

[MynockGuano]

I don't think it's really fair to say that they have a right to sue people over a basic word game. In fact, I doubt even they came up with the idea in the first place -- there's probably some ancient depiction of Greek commonpeople playing a local variant of similar game somewhere.

"I have [snake][square][dagger][cat][squiggly][triangle] on a triple-word score!"
"Hey, that's not a word!"
"Is so! The -[squiggly][triangle] is an accepted alternate spelling. Check the Book of Ra-sha-ha if you don't believe me!"

Tomorrow, the New York Times will sue online crossword-puzzle sites.

P.S. darn you, /., and your non-support of heiroglyphic charactersets!

Torrent?

[gothzilla]

So who's got a torrent of the game?

Re:Why Work So Hard To Be Wrong?

[mopslik]

Anyone who copies a product like Scrabble but expects not to be sued is naive beyond imagination. Get a clue.

No, no, no. Hasbro owns Clue [hasbro.com] as well.

Re:You get sued by Marvel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Marvel has no problem with the paper industry, but so help me, if you have coloured pencils...

They didn't even have to call their lawyers...

[chinton]

Hasbro(TM)(R)(C)(YMMV) should've just posted the story to /. and let nature run its course.