Following the recent announcement that social networking firm Facebook has been ordered to remove the Scrabulous game from its site, fans of the application have joined together to mount a defence campaign.Lawyers for toymakers Hasbro and Mattel claim that Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the word-based board game.
However, 13,000 enthusiasts of the online version - which attracts around 500,000 users a day - have now signed up to a Save Scrabulous group on Facebook in an effort to save it.
Discussion among the group centres on fans' wishes for Hasbro and Mattel to "back off", with some threatening to boycott the toymakers if the legal action goes through, the BBC reports.
According to the BBC, over 100 members of one Facebook group taking a stance against the ban stated that playing Scrabulous had led them to purchase a copy of the board game. What's more, some users are calling the decision to pull the game "short-sighted" and potentially damaging to the companies' reputations.
Indeed one fan, named Alexandra York, stated: "[I had] never played Scrabble until I played Scrabulous.
"This is the best application on Facebook and has brought Scrabble to many people who have never played before, whilst allowing friends and family to enjoy the game in spite of living far from each other."
Founded in 2006 as a standalone website by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, Scrabulous experienced significant growth when it launched as a Facebook application.
