Copy-cat by Kamila Moravcikova

Another case involving one company complaining about being imitated has occurred. It involves big concern (Hasbro, original Scrabble producer from USA) against the small group of people just "doing something for those who'd love to play scrabble on-line" (Scrabulous inventors from India). In fact, Scrabulous is on-line version of Scrabble. Nothing less, nothing more. And Hasbro now feels violated. Maybe there would not be such an echo around, if the Scrabulous was not being played on FaceBook by multitude of its users. The truth is that this world is full of fakes and imitations (more or less precious) pretending to be something unique. Furthermore, you don't have to be an unknown group of people thirsting for fame and fortune to become a copy-cat. This also happens to well-known companies. Haven't you told to yourself "this looks familiar to me" after installing in the new Vista? Actually, it looks little too much like Mac OS X to pretend it's just an accident and not the lack of real invention. Office and Open Office? One you have to buy and the second one is for free? Does this make the difference? Actually, can you see any relevant difference between sneakers produced by Nike and those produced by Adidas? At least, both of them are made in some less developed country. Fall Out Boys and My Chemical Romance? Just two groups of boys whose make-up is running? Is the difference really so subtile or it doesn't even exist?

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_hi_te/scrabble_scrabulous;_ylt=AnMwG67bAP5AhC5Qk1e5e.ys0NUE

by Kamila Moravcikova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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