Comments on: The Stakes of Scrabulous http://madisonian.net/2008/07/30/the-stakes-of-scrabulous/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Thu, 10 May 2012 20:32:56 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Risch http://madisonian.net/2008/07/30/the-stakes-of-scrabulous/comment-page-1/#comment-256594 Michael Risch Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:28:41 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=1456#comment-256594 I like the "sameness" analysis, but I'm not sure I agree it applies in this case. I know many people who thought Scrabulous was an online version of Scrabble, brought to them by the makers of scrabble. The likelihood of confusion surveys are not going to be good here, and I give people more credit than you do (in this case) for understanding that there is a real legal problem here. Indeed, why didn't they just rename it and change the colors? Because it wouldn't be the same game and people wouldn't play it as much. I think (in this case) it really is an immature sort of "poor sport" mentality - you are ruining our fun when there was no harm to you (because you didn't get online first). Just like when the neighbor shoos kids playing a game of baseball from the street. Sure, the kids shouldn't be playing in the middle of the street, but is there really any reason to stop them if there isn't any harm? I like the “sameness” analysis, but I’m not sure I agree it applies in this case. I know many people who thought Scrabulous was an online version of Scrabble, brought to them by the makers of scrabble. The likelihood of confusion surveys are not going to be good here, and I give people more credit than you do (in this case) for understanding that there is a real legal problem here. Indeed, why didn’t they just rename it and change the colors? Because it wouldn’t be the same game and people wouldn’t play it as much.

I think (in this case) it really is an immature sort of “poor sport” mentality – you are ruining our fun when there was no harm to you (because you didn’t get online first). Just like when the neighbor shoos kids playing a game of baseball from the street. Sure, the kids shouldn’t be playing in the middle of the street, but is there really any reason to stop them if there isn’t any harm?

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