wordscraper

Hasbro drops 'Scrabulous' lawsuit

Hasbro is apparently content to call its contest with the makers of Scrabulous a draw.

The toy maker on Friday withdrew its copyright and trademark lawsuit filed against the creators of the ad-supported online application, according to court documents cited in an Associated Press report.

The game, which rose to fame when its creators turned it into an embeddable Facebook application, was a word game that resembled the classic board game Scrabble. The game boasted an astonishing half-million daily users on Facebook, but was removed from the social-networking site not long after the lawsuit was filed in July.

The game … Read more

Revealed. The game Facebook believes will be even bigger than Scrabulous

Facebook might be neutral on the subject, but it is fair to say that Scrabulous was an enormous success for its business. And, while Wordscraper may have a chance of some success, the company has found something it believes could be even bigger.

"When your goal is to get long-term usage and engagement, it's hard to find new and imaginative ways to secure people's attention," said an insider.

In short, you can't just copy something that's been around for a while and has illuminated lifeless dinner parties since people started experimenting with pre-marital sex.… Read more

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

'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