Lexulous

Infobox Dotcom company
company_name = Lexulous
company_
foundation = Kolkata, India
(July 5 2006)
location = Kolkata, India
key_people = Rajat Agarwalla, Co-founder
Jayant Agarwalla, Co-founder
services = Online word game
num_employees = 2 (January 2008)


url = [http://www.lexulous.com/ www.lexulous.com]


caption = The Scrabulous Homepage
website_type = Casual game
language = English
registration = Required
revenue = $300,000+/year
launch_date = 2005
current_status = Active

Lexulous, formerly Scrabulous, is an online word game based on the commercial board game Scrabble. It is run by an Indian company of the same name on the dedicated website at www.lexulous.com, and was previously also available within social networking site Facebook.

The Scrabulous web site was launched in 2005, and the game was added to Facebook as an application in 2007, quickly becoming the most popular game on Facebook. In 2008 the game was removed from Facebook, first for North American users and later worldwide, due to copyright infringement lawsuits. The original web site was shut down as of 25 September 2008. Users attempting to access it were advised "The site is taking a coffee break. Sorry for the inconvenience".

On September 26, 2008, the scrabulous.com site had been fully replaced with a GoDaddy.com placeholder page.

This is a result of the ruling by Delhi High Court that Calcutta-based Rajat Agarwalla, 27, and Jayant Agarwalla, 22, retained the right to post their word game online, but were not allowed to use Scrabulous, Scrabble or any other “similar sounding” name. [http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080926/jsp/calcutta/story_9887315.jsp]

On September 27, 2008 a site at [http://www.lexulous.com/ www.lexulous.com] had opened up, with access to the old database of scrabulous.com users. The Live version and Practice Mode are working. The email version is not enabled yet (October 10 2008).

Creation

The Scrabulous company was founded by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, both commerce graduates of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, India. Scrabulous.com was created at the end of 2005,cite news |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=195219c6-5a29-4672-aacb-b5383c39648e&&Headline=Kolkata+boys+build+hottest+online+game
date = 2007-10-01 |title = Kolkata brothers ‘scrabble’ Facebook’s hottest game |accessdate = 2007-11-05 |publisher = Hindustan Times] after the Agarwalla brothers, Rajat (26) who holds a degree in business administration and Jayant (21) an undergraduate who has won numerous Scrabble tournaments, felt the need for a free gaming site where the popular game could be played. It was initially made available as BingoBinge.com. On July 5 2006, the site was moved to Scrabulous.com. A new logo was introduced in January 2008 by J.Pink Design. [cite web
url =http://www.jpink.co.uk/portfolio/index.htm#logo
title =Portfolio Logo Design
accessdate =2008-02-13
publisher = J.Pink Graphic Design]

Users

it has been added to 840,000 user pages, [cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/04facebook.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=business
date = 2007-10-04 |title=In Facebook, Investing in a Theory (page 2) |accessdate=2007-11-05 |publisher =The New York Times] with more than 500,000 users daily, [cite news |title=Facebook / Scrabulous |url=http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=3052170175 |accessdate=2007-12-21] cite news
url =http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/17/nscrabble117.xml
title = Scrabulous fans fight back to save game
date = 2008-01-19
accessdate = 2008-02-12
publisher = The Telegraph] giving it "the most active users of any game that can be played over Facebook". [cite news |first=Shailaja |last=Neelakantan |title=Students Score a Hit with Scrabulous | date=2007-10-11 |url=http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2448/students-score-a-hit-with-scrabulous |work =The Chronicle of Higher Education |accessdate=2007-12-21]

Legal and copyright issues

There were certain legal issues involved regarding Scrabulous because it very closely resembles Scrabble, exactly copying the board layout, number of tiles and rules, and having a very similar name. The rights to the Scrabble game are currently owned within the US and Canada by Hasbro, and throughout the rest of the world by Mattel.

According to Anthony Falzone, head of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University, copyright laws do not allow someone to freely copy the particular expression of an idea. [cite news |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119222790761657777.html
date=2007-10-13 |title = Networking Your Way To a Triple-Word Score |accessdate = 2007-11-05 |publisher = Wall Street Journal Online] In his article in the "Wall Street Journal", Jamin Brophy-Warren has said that Hasbro Inc has refused to comment on legal matters, while the creators have mentioned informing the company about their site. [cite news | first=Kevin | last=Pang |title=My latest obsession: Scrabulous | date=2008-01-18 |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0108scrabulous_coverjan08,1,856926.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |work=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=2008-01-14] The former Scrabulous website made several references to Scrabble, and previously promoted itself as the best place to play Scrabble online. [cite news |title=Scrabble's C&D Spells the End for Scrabulous? |date=2008-01-23 |url=http://www.thelegality.com/archives/11 | work =The Legality |accessdate = 2008-01-25]

Rumors suggest that in January 2008, Hasbro made an attempt to acquire Scrabulous for an undisclosed sum in the $10 million range. [Cite web|url=http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2008/07/dang-just-one-letter-short-of-a-really-good-expletive.html|title=The Bigger Questions Behind the Scrabulous shutdown|accessdate=2008-08-02] The game had been generating advertising revenue of over $25,000 per month for the Agarwalla brothers. [Cite web|url=http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_9815181|title=EA to launch rival to Scrabulous|accessdate=2008-08-02] The Agarwallas refused to sell their application to Hasbro, instead requesting a "multiple" of $10 million. It was reported that the Agarwallas had also been looking for other potential suitors who would be willing to pay higher premiums. [Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/29/so-long-scrabulous-hasbro_n_115685.html|title=So Long, Scrabulous!|accessdate=2008-08-02]

In January 2008, Hasbro threatened to shut Scrabulous down via legal means. [cite news |first=Caroline |last=McCarthy |title=Big surprise: Scrabble manufacturer targets 'Scrabulous' online game |date=2008-01-11 |publisher= |url=http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9849032-36.html | work =c/net News |accessdate=2008-01-14] Facebook was also asked to pull Scrabulous from the site's application database. [cite news |title=Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous |date=2008-01-16 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7191264.stm | work =BBC News |accessdate = 2008-01-16] Until 28 July 2008 the game had not been removed by Facebook, which had refused to confirm Hasbro's request to remove the game. [cite news |first=Caroline |last=McCarthy |title='Scrabulous' debate may rewrite the rules of the game |date=2008-01-16 |publisher= |url=http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9849032-36.html | work =c/net News |accessdate=2008-02-04]

As of October 2007, the term "Scrabulous" was registered as a trademark and service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but on February 2008 it was officially abandoned by the applicant.cite web
url=http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77304811 |title=Latest status info on Serial Number: 77304811 |accessdate=2008-01-14 |publisher=US Patent and Trademark Office] cite web |url=http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/PA_1_2_V9/OpenServletWindow?serialNumber=77304811&scanDate=2008021327780&DocDesc=Notice+of+Abandonment&docType=NOA&currentPage=1&rowNum=1&rowCount=6&formattedDate=12-Feb-2008 |title=Notice of Abandonment |accessdate=2008-05-23 |publisher=US Patent and Trademark Office]

Mattel launched its official version of online Scrabble, Scrabble by Mattel, on Facebook in late March 2008.cite news
url =http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mattel-takes-on-scrabulous-in-war-of-the-words-805825.html
title =Mattel takes on Scrabulous in war of the words
date = 2004-04-08
accessdate = 2008-04-08
publisher = The Independent] cite news
url =http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/technology/07scrabulous.html?ex=1365220800&en=84df098d42df01ee&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
title =Scrabble Tries to Fight a Popular Impostor at Its Own Game
date = 2004-04-07
accessdate = 2008-04-08
publisher = The New York Times] The application was developed by Gamehouse, a division of RealNetworks who has been licensed by Mattel. However since Hasbro controls the right for North America with the rights for the rest of the world belonging to Mattel, the Facebook application is available only to players outside the United States and Canada. Ownership of the rights to Scrabble by multiple companies is limiting the introduction of the game to Facebook and, between its launch date and 6 April 2008, fewer than 2000 users had registered, compared with 600,000 registered "Scrabulous" users.

RealNetworks has stated that the application is currently in its beta stage and there have been reports of a number of bugs and limitations.

Scrabulous users have reacted to Hasbro's announcement asking Facebook to shut it down by creating a group called "Save Scrabulous" [cite web
url =http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4772916593
title =Save Scrabulous
accessdate =2008-02-12
publisher =Facebook] on Facebook. Reportedly more than 54,000 fans have joined this group. It has also been reported that fans have been writing to Hasbro and Mattel demanding that the companies make "the right decision", and have threatened to stop buying Mattel and Hasbro products if they shut down Scrabulous.

In reaction to the news that the Facebook application was in legal jeopardy, two groups made a "SCRABULOUS" music video spoof of the Fergie song "Glamorous." The video from web entertainment group TastesLikeTV.com [cite web
url =http://www.tastesliketv.com/shorts/latest/scrabulous/
title =Scrabulous music video
accessdate =2008-02-12
publisher =TastesLikeTV.com] professes "L, T, S, and R / Ain't gonna get you very far," while the YouTube video created by Team Awesome Productions says that Scrabulous is the "swappy, swappy." [cite web
url =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtiaMifYmEs
title =Scrabulous Music Video
accessdate =2008-03-02
publisher =Team Awesome Productions] Both viral web videos were mentioned in the February 22, 2008 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

On July 24, 2008, Hasbro formally sued Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, along with their company, RJ Softwares. The suit claims Scrabulous violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and infringes upon Hasbro's intellectual property rights. [cite web | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/chi-fri-hasbro-scrabulousjul25,0,7068069.story | title="Hasbro sues, seeks to ban Scrabulous from Facebook" | author=Wong, Wailin | date=2008-07-25 | accessdate=2008-07-25]

On July 29, 2008, Scrabulous was shut down on Facebook for users in North America, with the error message, "Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here." Hasbro, the owner of the rights to Scrabble in North America has released a free legal version of Scrabble for Facebook, developed by Hasbro and Electronic Arts. [cite web| last = Goel| first = Vindu| title = Game Over: Scrabulous Shut Down on Facebook| publisher = New York Times| date = 2009-07-29| url = http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/facebook-shuts-down-scrabulous/| accessdate =2009-07-29]

On 22 August 2008, the application was blocked by Facebook in all countries except India. [cite news|url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328866,00.asp|title=Save for India, 'Scrabulous' is Dead|publisher=PC Magazine|date=2008-08-26]

On 26 September 2008, the web site at www.scrabulous.com was suspended. This followed a ruling by the Delhi High Court that although the game Scrabble itself could not be copyrighted, and the Agarwalla brothers could therefore continue to offer their similar game online, they would not be permitted to use the name Scrabulous or any other name similar to that of Scrabble. [cite news|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080926/jsp/calcutta/story_9887315.jsp|title=The game is won, the name lost - Brothers get court nod for online wordplay, but can’t call it Scrabulous|publisher=The Telegraph (Kolkata)|date = 2009-09-26]

On 27 September 2008, the game became available once more, with the new name Lexulous.com. There was a makeover, but the essential elements of the old game had been retained, along with all past records, user IDs and saved information intact.

Wordscraper

A game design application (the design space of which almost includes Scrabble) has received an influx of people from the recent closure of Scrabulous in North America. Much of the popular press reports inaccurately that Wordscraper was released after Scrabulous was shut down. It has in fact been available on Facebook since January 2008.cite news |http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/technology/04scrabble.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
date = 2008-04-04 |title = On Facebook, an 11-Letter Synonym for Scrabulous Turns Out to Be Wordscraper|accessdate = 2008-04-05 |publisher = New York Times]

Media and popularity

Being one of the very first applications launched on Facebook, Scrabulous enjoyed relatively large popularity on the social networking site. It was recently featured in PC World's 100 best products of 2008. [Sullivan, Mark, ed. [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,146161-page,12-c,electronics/article.html The 100 Best Products of 2008] . "PC World". 2008-05-07.]

References