It's a dark day for fans of the popular Facebook game Scrabulous. Facebook users who logged on for a little wordplay this morning were met with the following 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."
The shuttering of Scrabulous is most likely in response to Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble, and its lawsuit against the creators of Scrabulous.
Hasbro has asked Facebook to remove Scrabulous from the social network, a request that Facebook has so far refused preferring to remain a neutral party hoping the two parties can reach a settlement.
Last week Hasbro filed a lawsuit against the Calcutta-based brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who created Scrabulous, in a New York Southern District court alleging infringement of Hasbro's intellectual properties. The lawsuit came just as Hasbro has released an official version of Scrabble for Facebook.
General counsel for Hasbro, Barry Nagler, has said of the suit against Scrabulous: "We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property."
