The makers of Scrabble should come to some kind of agreement that keeps the Scrabulous train rolling, for several reasons. In the first place, you can't buy the kind of publicity Scrabulous has gotten on Facebook. Well, you can, but it would be really expensive.

The point is, Hasbro and Mattel haven't had to spend a dime to make Scrabulous as popular as it is. Certainly, you can also argue that the developers of Scrabulous haven’t spent a dime developing the awesome game they’re now profiting from, so they should be willing to deal.

In an age when marketers are working to engage online audiences on a grassroots level, you have to recognize when it happens all by itself and cultivate it, not squash it. I'm sure there are commercial entities that would kill for 500,000 opt-ins on Facebook. Along with the coveted new media buzz, Google juice and all that goes with it, Hasbro should realize that Scrabulous is introducing an entire new generation of people to the game of Scrabble. To prove this point, some Facebook members have created a group themed I Got into Scrabble BECAUSE of Scrabulous, (currently at 43 members, but it's a start).

What this all adds up to is free advertising for Scrabble you can't get anywhere else. People get to actually play the game, enjoy it, and are more likely to want to play it OFF line. That's got to convert to some kind of cash flow for the makers of tabletop Scrabble. At a time when Hasbro has updated numerous games to keep them relevant, this online extension of classic Scrabble seems too good to be crushed by the legal department.

Perhaps Scrabulous can cut the makers of Scrabble a piece of the online ad revenue in exchange for some kind of brand-license agreement. Perhaps that's what Hasbro and Mattel have had in mind all along. Regardless, there is an opportunity here, and in Scrabble that's an 18-point word.