History Lexulous

1 history

1.1 legal , copyright issues
1.2 fan protest
1.3 lawsuit
1.4 launch of lexulous

history

the scrabulous company founded rajat , jayant agarwalla, both commerce graduates of st. xavier s college, kolkata, india. scrabulous website created @ end of 2005, after agarwalla brothers, rajat , jayant, had won numerous scrabble tournaments, felt need free gaming site popular game played. made available bingobinge , site moving scrabulous on 5 july 2006.

in 2006 website had 20,000 registered users, after developers made application popular social networking website facebook had been added 840,000 user pages, more 500,000 users daily, giving active users of game can played on facebook .

legal , copyright issues

a game in progress on facebook

scrabulous faced legal issues due resemblance scrabble along similar name. copied board layout, rules, , @ 1 stage number of tiles. these issues forced removal of game facebook in mid-2008 , eventual rebranding. rights scrabble owned within , canada hasbro, , throughout rest of world mattel.

according anthony falzone — head of fair use project @ stanford university — copyright laws not allow freely copy particular expression of idea. in article in wall street journal, jamin brophy-warren has said hasbro inc. has refused comment on legal matters, while creators have mentioned informing company site. former scrabulous website made several references scrabble, , provided link rules of scrabble , promoted best place play scrabble online.

it reported hasbro made attempt acquire scrabulous in january 2008 undisclosed sum in range of $10 million. game had been generating advertising revenue of on $25,000 month agarwalla brothers, refused sell application hasbro, instead requesting multiple of $10 million. reported agarwallas had been looking other potential suitors willing pay higher premiums.

fan protest

as of october 2007, term scrabulous registered trademark , service mark united states patent , trademark office, on february 2008 officially abandoned applicant. hasbro threatened shut scrabulous down via legal means in january 2008. facebook asked pull scrabulous site s application database, demurred.

in reaction news facebook application in legal jeopardy, 2 groups made scrabulous music video spoof of fergie song glamorous. video web entertainment group tastesliketv.com professes l, t, s, , r / ain t gonna far, while youtube video created team awesome productions says scrabulous swappy, swappy. both viral web videos mentioned in february 22, 2008 issue of entertainment weekly.

mattel launched official version of online scrabble, scrabble mattel, on facebook in late march 2008. hasbro controls rights scrabble north america mattel holding them rest of world, facebook application available players outside united states , canada. scrabulous users reacted creating group called save scrabulous, asking facebook shut down game on site. reportedly more 54,000 fans have joined group. had been reported scrabulous fans had written hasbro , mattel demanding companies make right decision , , threatened stop buying mattel , hasbro products if shut down scrabulous.

lawsuit

on 24 july 2008, hasbro formally sued rajat , jayant agarwalla, along company, rj softwares. suit claimed scrabulous violated digital millennium copyright act , infringed upon hasbro s intellectual property rights. on 29 july 2008, scrabulous shut down on facebook users in north america, error message, scrabulous disabled , canadian users until further notice. if stay informed developments in matter, please click here. less month later, game pulled in other countries india.

on 26 september 2008, scrabulous web site suspended. followed ruling delhi high court although game scrabble not copyrighted, agarwalla brothers therefore continue offer similar game online. not permitted use name scrabulous or other name similar of scrabble.

launch of lexulous

the day after delhi high court ruling, game once more made available online under new name lexulous . whilst game had appearance overhaul, still maintained essential elements of scrabulous version including of past records, user ids, , saved information.

lexulous altered layout of game differentiate more scrabble. change occurred on 3 december 2008, , saw score multipliers moved around board, , point score of tiles no longer matching of scrabble. in addition player given 8 tiles play instead of traditional 7 tiles. 4x multiplier had been added game, feature removed next day.

as of 2011, 1 of original lexulous features, ordinary seven-letter scrabble (including solitaire , versus robot) became available again on lexulous website users outside of usa , canada.