Frabble - Facebook Scrabble under scrutiny

When Mark Zukerberg came on CBS channel in the 60 minutes talk show last Sunday, he made it a point to show the Scrabble game and talk about how he enjoys playing it with his grand parents. Now, this could be just a gimmick. But, if he really is addicted to playing Scrabble on FaceBook, along with 500,000 other users who play each day, he will have to STOP.

The reason is simple. The quick journey to fame and money for brother pair from India is short lived. When they integrated their sleek software with the all-so-easy-to-integrate APIs of Facebook, little did they know about Copyright Infringement. Now, the copyright holder of the Board Game Scrabble has issued a notice to the brother duo and are on their way to sue them, if the notice is ignored.

When you are 21 years old, live in Calcutta (India) and if you can make $25000 per month, just through advertisement revenue, why you would think of anything that is negative – in this case, copyrights! But, wait a minute. Copyrights for a game of Scrabble? Are there not SO MANY versions available online, illegal circulating the wires? Oh, but now, there is a clear traction and these guys are making money. And this is when it hurts, the owners.

Nevertheless, this is another example of how huge and lucrative the revenue model of FaceBook is becoming. Making quick and dirty money is fine, but it always makes sense to play by the rules!

And Mark, last time when you were on channel, you had an unfinished game. Did you get to complete it?