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Why Facebook left 'Scrabulous' alone

There's something funny about Facebook's handling of this week's Scrabulous affair.

One of the social network's most popular developer applications, as the Web well knows by now, was pulled by its creators after Scrabble parent company Hasbro filed a copyright and trademark infringement claim. The game returned several days later as Wordscraper, a redesigned and renamed game that's probably just different enough to keep Hasbro's lawyers away. And all the while, Facebook says that its only action was to forward Hasbro's complaint to the creators of Scrabulous.

What was so odd? Facebook'… Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Using water to harness solar power

Inspired by photosynthesis, MIT researchers have devised a catalyst to capture the sun's energy by unyoking hydrogen and oxygen. They're calling it a breakthrough in solar-energy storage. CNET News' Leslie Katz asks reporter Martin LaMonica to explain.

NBC is gearing up for its exclusive broadcast of the Olympic Games in Beijing, and it has teamed up with Microsoft's Silverlight for online video viewing.

Also, Scrabulous' creators have made a new word game for Facebook that bears even less resemblance to Hasbro's Scrabble.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

De Vere's Olympic iPhone has more bling than a medal… Read more

Intel to provide Facebook with hardware, Jedi secrets

Recent rumors of Intel employees signing up for Facebook accounts en masse might not have been totally unfounded: Facebook has chosen to use Intel's Xeon 5400 processor-based servers to deal with its hardware and software demands. Additionally, the two companies have signed an agreement so that Intel can continue to assess how Facebook can stay stable and improve performance.

Facebook will have "thousands" of Xeon servers, a release said.

It's not an earth-shattering announcement by any means, but Intel's pretty psyched. "Intel is excited to engage with Facebook as they are a dynamic force … Read more

'Scrabulous' gets a nip-tuck, returns as 'Wordscraper'

In the high school cafeteria of Facebook apps, Scrabulous is like that girl who gets in trouble for showing too much skin, only to throw on a hoodie and be let back into the principal's good graces. Sort of. The game has effectively returned, but with a redesigned board, a few original play options, a different points tabulation system, and a new name, Wordscraper.

Props to Adam Ostrow of Mashable for picking up on this one early.

The Facebook application Scrabulous had been taken down by its creators earlier this week when Hasbro, the game manufacturer that owns the … Read more

FBI warns of new Storm worm variant

On Wednesday, the FBI and its partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), warned against a new e-mail campaign being used by the creators of the Storm Worm botnet.

The e-mail uses the the phrase "F.B.I. vs. Facebook" in its subject line and contains a link to view an article about the FBI and Facebook, a popular social networking website. Clicking on the link downloads malicious software onto the victim's computer.

"The spammers spreading this virus are preying on Internet users and making their computers an unwitting part of criminal botnet activity," said … Read more

EA: Hack took Facebook 'Scrabble' down

The saga continues: Electronic Arts, which handles digital versions of the board game Scrabble for North American parent company Hasbro, has claimed that malicious hackers were responsible for the disappearance of its Facebook application on Tuesday.

The game had crashed on the same day that the creators of Scrabulous, a popular imitation game, blocked access to North American visitors after a legal complaint from Hasbro. With the real Scrabble inaccessible, irritated fans assumed that there was a server problem--the game is in beta, after all--and filled the application's discussion wall with angry comments.

But the real problem, EA has … Read more

'Scrabble' app on Facebook crashes in wake of 'Scrabulous' takedown

When Scrabulous, a popular game on Facebook's developer platform, was shut down earlier on Tuesday because of copyright infringement issues with the manufacturer of the Scrabble board game, word game fans weren't totally left in the dark. After all, Electronic Arts (which handles the digital rights to Scrabble for the game's parent company, Hasbro) had recently created an official beta version of Scrabble for the platform.

Problem is, the servers that were hosting the "real" Scrabble app couldn't handle the load of new migrants, and the application crashed on Tuesday afternoon. Oops!

"We'… Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Taking a spin with Microsoft Sphere

Microsoft recently pulled an operating system switcharoo--a la the Folgers taste test or the Pepsi Challenge--on a focus group with the hopes of changing public perception of Windows Vista. Now the company has posted some of the videos of people's reactions online. But will the marketing scheme work? And separately, while in Redmond, reporter Ina Fried got an up-close look at an experimental research project, called Sphere. News intern Holly Jackson checks in with Ina on both those stories.

Also in this podcast: after a 17-month antitrust saga, satellite radio companies Sirius and XM are now one; a new … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 776: The Dark Knight kills the Godfather

The wisdom of the crowds turns out to be simple mob rule, as Dark Knight fans not only mod up their new favorite movie but start modding down The Godfather on IMDB. Also, we do a probably wildly inaccurate (but, we think, hilarious) T. Boone Pickens impression because plain old financial stories are just not interesting enough. Oh, and Scrabulous is now gone from Facebook. So, you know, get back to work. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 776

Yahoo says DRM issue overblown by media, but will offer refunds http://www.betanews.com/article/Yahoo_says_DRM_issue_overblown_by_media_but_will_offer_refunds/1217287551

Microsoft goes … Read more