Yes, this is the real deal.  According to the National Counterterroism center’s website, “[t]his edition, like others since the Calendar was first published in a daily planner format in 2003, contains useful information across a wide range of terrorism-related topics: terrorist groups, wanted terrorists, and technical pages on various threat-related issues. The Calendar marks dates according to the Gregorian and Islamic calendars, and contains significant dates in terrorism history, as well as dates that terrorists may believe are important when planning ‘commemoration-style” attacks.’

Hasbro, makers of the famous crossword board game Scrabble, has filed a copyright and trademark infringement suit against RJ Softwares, creators of the immensely popular Scrabulous Facebook App. The application has gained immense popularity amongst the users of the Facebook social networking website, gaining over a million regular players since it’s launch of July 2006.

Hasbro claims that it has both valid trademarks and copyrights in Scrabble. According to the Hasbro’s Complaint, the original game dates back to the Great Depression when an out-of-work architect invented the game in his spare time. The game was first brought to the market in 1948.

Scrabulous contains no formal rules, but rather relies on user’s knowledge of how to play Scrabble in order to play and enjoy the application. The application’s website, http://www.scrabulous.com, also contains meta tags that include “Scrabble online” and “free online Scrabble.”

Recently, Hasbro has licensed the rights to Scrabble to software maker Electronic Arts (“EA”) . The New York Times reports that EA has contacted RJ Softwares regarding the application but talks fell apart. EA eventually decided to create its own official scrabble game on Facebook. While the officially sanctioned application is new, it only has 8,000 users in comparison to Scrabulous, which has over a million users.

RJ Softwares is owned by two brothers, Rajat and Jaynat Agarwalla of Kolkata, India.  Hasbro has also exercised its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to request that Facebook remove the Scrabulous application as it is claimed to be in violation of intellectual property rights. This may leave the million-plus users of Scrabulous in the dark if the issue is not resolved quickly. If Facebook were to refuse, it could face sanctions under the DMCA.

A company called Psystar has begun shipping a version of its unauthorized, cheaper Mac clones, despite technical difficulties and/or legal intimidation from Apple. The alleged beauty of Psystar is that its prices are cheaper than “authentic” Macs. However, the hardware does not come packaged with any operating system, including OSX.  The operating system costs extra.  Authentic Apple operating system software is wrapped with a user license that forbids its sale or installation on third party hardware. Such license terms are a severe roadblock to anyone looking to own a Mac-esque machine for less money.

In the past, Mac-cloning companies were able to stay afloat via a legitimate licensing agreement with Apple. In the end, though, Steve Jobs killed this licensing deal due to potential cannibalism of Apple’s sales. Presently, only the occasional DIY techie can bypass the OSX-installation ban for use with his or her own “Hackintosh”. Apple made its legal licensing/patenting policy a little murkier and looser when it migrated to an Intel platform and blended its software with that of its rivals. But Psystar might have reawakened the sleeping litigation bug in Apple.