Re: Ideas for boycotting Scrabble and Hasbro

OK, I'll bite... what does the acronym stand for?

I Am Not A Lawyer And I Don't Want To Be One .... you lose me after
that.  I though it was "biatch", but you're missing a C 

~Nelson~

Kevin Driscoll wrote:
> The printing and design is protected by copyright but the concept of a
> gridded gameboard upon which one places lettered tiles seems not.
>
> IANALAIDW2B1BIATH
>
>
> Kevin
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 2:42 PM, Elizabeth Stark <emstark <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> The design of the board is copyrightable.
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 2:37 PM, Kevin Driscoll <driscollkevin <at> gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>     
>>> Those dudes are b.a.n.a.n.a.s. for not taking $10millie if it were
>>> indeed offered but I am not sure about the infringement here. There's
>>> definitely trademark confusion (check out the board, dogs!) but game
>>> rules aren't copyright protected. I believe they fall under patent.
>>>
>>> I am consulting with some of my gamer colleagues in GAMBIT to find out.
>>>
>>> I used to play Literati all the time on Yahoo games. It was very
>>> similar to Scrabble... but perhaps not similar enough? Or maybe it was
>>> 2002 and Hasbro wasn't yet hip 2 da scene?
>>>
>>> Kevin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Oliver Day <oday <at> fas.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> What about the trademark issues though?  I forget what the extent of
>>>> trademark allows but I was under the impression it is protected for as
>>>> long as the product is on the market.  And as much as I love Scrabulous
>>>> I
>>>> can't help but notice that the colors, layout, etc of the board are a
>>>> nearly exact match.
>>>>
>>>> O
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 1 Aug 2008, Nelson Pavlosky wrote:
>>>>
>>>>         
>>>>> Elizabeth Stark wrote:
>>>>>           
>>>>>> And Nelson, just to play devil's advocate here, isn't this just a
>>>>>> clear
>>>>>>             
>>>>> case
>>>>>           
>>>>>> of infringement of the Hasbro's copyright (and the Scrabble trademark
>>>>>> for
>>>>>> that matter)? Should Hasbro not hold the copyright to scrabble? What
>>>>>> is the
>>>>>> scenario we'd like to see? Should board games not be copyrightable
>>>>>> matter?
>>>>>> Should naming a game with such a similar name not be trademark
>>>>>>             
>>>>> infringement?
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, ideally copyright would be shorter so that a game created in 1938
>>>>> would be public domain by now.
>>>>>
>>>>> Failing that, I think we should put pressure on companies not to
>>>>> enforce
>>>>> their copyrights to the hilt.  Just because you have the legal power to
>>>>> do something doesn't make it the right thing to do, either for your
>>>>> business or for the public good.  Working with "pirates" in a civil
>>>>> manner instead of trying to sue them out of existence might have given
>>>>> us a healthy online music business back when Napster was created
>>>>> instead
>>>>> of like a decade later with iTunes, Amazon etc.   A legitimized Napster
>>>>> I think would have been a seriously good thing.  Similarly, working
>>>>> with
>>>>> Scrabulous might have been more productive than suing them.  As the
>>>>> Economist article I linked to suggests, perhaps companies should
>>>>> consider more seriously whether the "piracy" is actually a bad thing
>>>>> before sending in the lawyers.
>>>>>
>>>>> We have carrots and sticks, folks.  We can boycott companies that don't
>>>>> play nicely with others, and we can do things like CarrotMob
>>>>> <http://www.carrotmob.org/> to benefit businesses that are friendly to
>>>>> their fans and customers instead of suing them.  Let's encourage people
>>>>> and companies to share more and to hoard less, because generally in the
>>>>> information economy, it's not a zero sum game, when you share
>>>>> frequently
>>>>> everybody wins.
>>>>>
>>>>> Peace,
>>>>> ~Nelson~
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Discuss mailing list
>>>>> Discuss <at> freeculture.org
>>>>> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>>>
>>>>>           
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>>>>         
>>>
>>> --
>>> )_)_)_)_)_)_
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>>     
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