Fabulous Scrabulous

If you're not on Facebook - the social networking site - and wonder what all the fuss is about, you might ponder on the latest controversy in the Scrabble games market.

Scrabble has been enjoying a renaissance lately, led in no small measure by the popularity of a Facebook version called Scrabulous. Srabulous is one of thousands of so-called "applications" on Facebook. These applications are clever bits of software built by enthusiasts within the Facebook community.

It is probably the only thing that keeps me coming back to the Facebook site day after day. Just now I have four games going with my sons, one of whom is at Southampton University, so it's a nice way of keeping in touch.

Enterprising Indians

As the Times story makes clear, the two enterprising Indians, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who are earning a nice income from advertisements on the Scrabulous mini-site within Facebook, are facing challenges from Hasbro and Mattel, two companies that make and sell Scrabble.

Hasbro and Mattel want Facebook to take down the game as they say it infringes their copyright. People who play the game are dismayed and some have pointed out that the popularity of Scrabulous must have been responsible for a big increase in Scrabble sales over the past six months. I, for one, bought a travel Scrabble for one of my sons this Christmas as a result of rediscovering the joys of Scrabble on the internet.

The old board was dusted down recently for family games once more and I'm sure this wouldn't have happened had we not have been playing it online.

I hope that Hasbro and Mattel do take Facebook to court. I hope that Facebook defends the action and I hope that a court, through the discovery process, reveals how Hasbro and Mattel sales have been influenced by the Scrabulous phenomenon. I hope then that a sensible judge awards a big slice of Hasbro and Mattel profits from Scrabble in marketing fees to the Indian software developers and Facebook.

This is unlikely to happen but it should. The actions of Hasbro and Mattel - which have taken time to emerge since Scrabulous has been around for months - is symptomatic of blinkered corporate greed and a stubborn refusal to wake up to the "win win" benefits of brand-sharing, using the internet.

Brand Sharing

Instead of asking Facebook to take down the Scrabulous game, Mattel and Hasbro should engage themselves in a good old business discussion with the brothers and with Facebook. It shouldn't be beyond all of them to agree a royalties deal that saves face for the rights owners (and a hell of a lot of business), keeps Facebook and the application developers well in pocket, and the rest of us happy playing one of the best online games around.

Next up, I guess, will be an action to protect the rights of Boggle, which is also available to play on Facebook although the online version is a rather solitary game.

Mattel and Hasbro should learn from the folly of the record producers. Chasing down those who infringe copyright is an expensive pursuit that brings limited success. Shut down Scrabulous today and there will be another version elsewhere tomorrow. As it is Scrabulous has created it's own website. The copyright owners must see that the Scrabble pie has grown a whole lot bigger while they stood by and watched.

Their instincts are the same as the record producers - they still want it all. Instead they should try sharing the pie around. They'll find it's a great way to do business. At the same time The Indian brothers should not believe they can have everything their own way. They've had a good run on the back of an established copyright delivered within a global internet platform that understands the value of their contribution to its success. In business terms it's time for each of the parties to talk turkey.