Scrabulous: Board Game Piracy

The recording, publishing, and motion picture industries aren't the only ones worried about piracy lately. Now even board games companies like Hasbro and Mattel are fending off infringement.

I, and apparently thousands of other Faceboook users, have been hooked on Scrabulous, an online version of Hasbro's Scrabble. Initially, I wondered what sort of deal, if any, the makers of Scrabulous may have with Scrabble. The slight (and brilliant) differentiation in names signaled an unreconciled trademark issue at minimum. Sunday's New York Times confirmed that Hasbro and Mattel are currently threatening legal action against the developers of Scrabulous on the grounds of piracy.

Clearly, Hasbro and Mattel simply want their fair share of the hefty ad revenues Scrabulous has been enjoying. But if the companies don't come to an agreement soon, heavy users like me will have to face withdrawal when the Facebook application gets shut down. But then what? Just as Napster was the music industry's slippery slope into the vast world of illegal music downloads, Scrabulous' popularity doesn't bode well for the board game industry... or does it?

Scrabulous has brought Scrabble back in style, exposing it to a new generation of users who may never have been interested in the game had it not been leaked onto the internet. I would be interested to see what effect, positive or negative, the Scrabulous phenomenon has had on sales of the game's physical format. I wouldn't be surprised to see a slight spike, even. But the long-term implications are as as uncertain as their music industry equivalents. Too bad the Board Game Industry doesn't have its own RIAA. ...yet.