Friday, February 01, 2008

Word to the wordsmiths and Scrabble-lovers out there:

For Scrabble fans, there are few bigger dilemmas than how to play a Q without a U. But what about users of Scrabulous, the Scrabble-like Facebook application that has become one of the social networking site’s most popular activities since it was launched this past July? A cease-and-desist order could soon block their triple-word scores indefinitely.

On January 15, players learned that Hasbro — the Pawtucket, Rhode Island, company that owns the US and Canadian rights to Scrabble — had thrown down the legal gauntlet against the application’s creators, Indian brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, claiming copyright infringement.

This has provoked fear among the more than half a million active users of Scrabulous. In Facebook groups with names such as “Please, God, I Have So Little, Don’t Take Scrabulous, Too,” thousands of users post petitions and lament the possibility of losing their favorite time waster. An anonymous artist even penned an R&B ode called “Scrabulous,” which begins with the rap: “Damn thing won’t reload/I can’t tell if I can go.” ....

Hasbro didn’t respond to a request for comment, but has stated publicly that they “hope to find an amicable solution.” The Agarwalla brothers — who also run a non-Facebook version of the game at scrabulous.com — thanked fans in a statement noting, “It is amazing to see that a small application has touched so many people across the world.”

In other news, N4N hears word of the Blackstone Chess Academy, a new chess club at the intriguing To Kalon Club in Pawtucket.