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The internet has really done it this time. It’s not enough that the ‘net has gone and made all this music free for us to steal. Now, it has done the unthinkable: it has created free-ware versions of classic board games that just anyone can go and play without a paying a dime! Now with game maker Hasbro to accompany it, the RIAA is no longer lonely in its victim chair.

The prime example of this internet controversy is Scrabulous, an application that can be installed on a Facebook profile that allows users to mimic a game of good old-fashioned Scrabble. The brainchild of two brothers in India, the game is free to players, its costs borne by on-page advertising. The problem is that it is not licensed or authorized by Hasbro, which owns the rights to the official game in North American (but not the rest of the world). So far, Hasbro has been unsuccessful in its attempts to shut down the Scrabulous application, which boasts 518,641 daily active users, according to its information page. Now, they have gone an alternate route by contracting with Electronic Arts Inc. to provide an official version (which is presumably simply a way to collect licensing fees). Which will only be available to those of us in the US and Canada, so anyone who likes to play with friends overseas would be S.O.L. in this scenario. That’s because Mattel owns Scrabble elsewhere and has already contracted with RealNetworks to provide an online version of the game. Confusing yet?

A friend of mine who recently created a Facebook profile asked me what all the hype was about Scrabulous because everyone seemed to be talking about it. She had never played Scrabble before in her life and was unfamiliar with the rules, but she decided that she would give it a try anyway. While she enjoyed it, she also immediately recognized that the electronic arena could never replace the fun of a true board game. Just perhaps, playing this online, unlicensed, unauthorized version created a new Scrabble player in the non-virtual world.

It has been suggested that illegal downloads of music have actually helped the music industry by allowing artists a greater breadth of exposure that has created new demand for legal purchases of their music. Despite this, the RIAA and music companies have chosen to treat internet downloads of music as dangerous and have pursued all possible legal action to stop it and punish offenders. Hasbro is on the verge of doing the same thing. Perhaps, in being so worried about the threat, they have forgotten that all publicity is good publicity. By letting go some control, they could instead create a new generation of players who, just like those who hear a good song and buy the CD, will go out and buy their own Scrabble board.

The internet and its endless possibilities for free content are a gateway for these companies to move forward in the digital age. If they choose to reject it, they lead themselves down the path of rejecting their own relevance. Soon, the victim chair that Hasbro and the RIAA choose to inhabit will be the quiet spot where they sit while society passes them by.

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