The mania that is Google Maps integration (or mashups) has generated a huge variety of map-based web services, and now its first copyright victim.

Computer Science student Chris Hazen (who is, ironically, concentrating on game design as part of his studies) developed a mashup based on Hasbro’s RISK game, to great applause back in August.

Unfortunately, in place of his game there is now reproduced a copy of the “cease and desist” letter he received from Hasbro’s lawyers.

Now I’m no lawyer, and Hasbro are perfectly entitled to property their intellectual property, but I concur with many other commentators on this issue.

What Hasbro and their lawyers may not have realised is that Mr Hazen had clearly re-ignited interest in RISK amongst many people who had probably forgotten how much fun it was (in fact, he is trying to collect names of people who went out and bought the board game as a result of playing his version). His mashup was also one of the best examples of this new format that the software development community had seen.

By stamping on his efforts, Hasbro has deprived both communities. Of course, that’s not to say you can just allow anyone to infringe your copyright because they’re creating value for others. But in this case, I can’t help but think that it might have been more beneficial to the company to hold the lawyers off for a few days whilst entering into a conversation with Mr Hazen, explain the copyright infringements to him, and then harness his enthusiasm for the brand. I sense that the overall result would have been much better for Hasbro.

It’s now only a matter of time before someone like Mattel gets in touch with him to encourage him to do what he did with RISK to one of their brands.