Being Technically Scrabulous

For anyone who doesn't know, Facebook is a social networking website designed to let people all over the world share photos, chat and in general stalk any member of the public you met in a pub and think is rather attractive. As well as being an amazing time wasting device when students like myself should be focusing on writing essays, instead I find myself becoming more and more addicted to Scrabble...oh I'm sorry I meant Scrabulous.



I came across an interesting article in The Daily Telegraph the day I arrived back from University titled "Why Scrabulous is Fabulous."

This immediately caught my attention because I for one am not used to reading the Daily Telegraph and finding any article I find find remotely interesting outside the Sports pages. This is partly in fear of the danger of warming to David Cameron, but that is for someone else to discuss.

When the game Scrabulous was first introduced to me I was immediately addicted and was horrified as an avid Facebook whore to find out that Hasbro who own the copyright laws to the original Scrabble were launching a lawsuit against the creators of the online application version that can be found on Facebook. What Hasbro were not prepared for was the back lash against the lawsuit. One thing the lawyers didn't count on was the online fan club that exists within the Facebook community. I confess to myself joining the group wanting to save this application from the grasps of Hasbro. What Scrabulous has managed to achieve that perhaps the board game never could is the opportunity to sell the product to a more modern market.
Scrabble is a game I have always associated with arguments at Christmas and keeping my Grandma amused after Countdown had finished. What Facebook has done, and the creators of Scrabulous have done is make an old word game into an online, transnational sensation. A user can play with anyone all over the world, it no longer has to be a game one is dragged into against their will.

So that is pretty much the only defence Facebook has against the lawsuit from the outset...the fact that Scrabulous is popular. However what I fail to understand is why Hasbro are annoyed at all?! The creators of Scrabulous have found a way to reinvigorate an old game, to make it appeal to a generation who now apparently spend over 20 hours a week on the Internet. But if I were to stand up in court and argue for the guys who made Scrabulous possible for us Facebook fans, I would say that not just Facebook but the whole of the Internet is in a public domain. Once a Facebook user publishes a wall post on a friends wall, or makes a comment about a photo it is there for everyone to see. When I play a move in Scrabulous I've done exactly the same thing. Scrabulous is about Text, its a text based game with new ways worked in to make Scrabulous or Scrabble more versatile online.

Scrabulous is within the public domain, and the fact that it was the online Facebook users who have now caused Hasbro to backtrack on their lawsuit claim proves that the users online have considerable power over the far more private domain of the law courts. Its an interesting turn of events. But I would choose Scrabulous over Scrabble any day.