Scrabulous isn't playing fair, says Scrabble maker

"We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property," said Barry Nagler, Hasbro's general counsel.

Hasbro also sent a letter to Facebook asking the social networking site to shut down Scrabulous. As of noon Pacific time Thursday, the game was still up.

Filed in the Southern District of New York federal court, the suit against Rajat Agarwalla, Jayant Agarwalla and their company, RJ Softwares, claims copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

This month Hasbro introduced a beta version of its official Scrabble game on Facebook. Developed by Electronic Arts Inc., the game is slated to be available to all Facebook members next month.

"We want to give Scrabble fans a legitimate way to play the game," said Mark Blecher, Hasbro's general manager of digital media and gaming.

So far players have ruled in favor of Scrabulous. Scrabble counted 8,862 active Facebook players Thursday, and Scrabulous had 512,961.

Blecher said the match hadn't really begun, given that Scrabble was still in beta.

Yahoo's board slate gets backing

Despite widespread investor discontent, the recommendations are in, and -- for the most part -- Yahoo Inc.'s board passed.

RiskMetrics Group endorsed Yahoo's slate of directors Thursday, though it expressed reservations about the board's decision to adopt a controversial severance compensation plan and about the way it handled failed merger talks with Microsoft Corp.

The report from the shareholder advisory firm says Yahoo investors should reelect Chief Executive Jerry Yang and seven other directors.

The endorsement came on the heels of the board's truce with billionaire Carl Icahn, which gave Icahn a seat at the table and allowed him to recommend two other directors. One is likely to be former AOL Chairman Jonathan Miller.

RiskMetrics said the agreement should allow directors to tackle compensation issues and the direction of the struggling Internet company.

On Wednesday, Egan-Jones Proxy Services recommended that Yahoo shareholders support the board at the annual meeting Aug. 1.

Recommendations from the advisory firms don't matter much anymore now that Icahn is no longer attempting to oust the Yahoo board and fire Yang.

Instead, Microsoft is on the hot seat with its shareholders for online ambitions that are in disarray and for the departure of its online business chief.

-- Jessica Guynn