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As loathe as I am to say anything nice about our copyright system or scrabble (a territory capturing game without the most obscure and silly rules for capturing space), it does seem like the sort of thing that ought to be covered.

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That may have been true in the past, but the game is now over 75 years old. There is just absolutely zero chance that the inventors of the game would have been more motivated to invent if they were given a longer exclusive term. Since the stated goal of copyright is to advance the progress of the arts, there is no justifiable reason the public should continue granting exclusivity to the game at this point in time.

The word lists are frequently updated to cover innovations in language. E.g. you'll be allowed to play VAX and ZONKEY starting in 2024.

The game itself, sure.

The list, I’m not sure. I mean if someone is actively curating a tournament list, that seems like ongoing working that ought to be protectable somehow.

Then again, various sports maintain a tournament scene without protected rules, so I may be wrong about this.

If scrabble world lists are copyrightable then why wouldn't telephone directories be copyrightable?

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