The Billion Dollar Monopoly (R) Swindle

Part detective novel, part history, and part horror story, The Billion Dollar Monopoly® Swindle not only recounts the true history behind one of the world's most popular board games but also reveals a world where the law sometimes seems as arbitrary and unfair as a "Go directly to jail" card. When Ralph Anspach released his game Anti-Monopoly in 1973, he suddenly found himself in the crosshairs of the formidable Parker Brothers legal machine, which claimed that his use of the word monopoly violated copyright laws. While conducting research to gauge the strength of Parker Brothers' case, Anspach discovered that the corporate giant might not even have the rights to the game.

His investigation revealed the existence of a board game called the Landlord's Game that had been played at least 30 years before Parker Brothers published Monopoly in 1935. When Charles B. Darrow was introduced to this game by a group of Quakers, he copied their board and rules verbatim (even duplicating their misspelling of "Marvin Gardens"), then sold it as his own creation. Parker Brothers supported him, putting a copy of the "story of Monopoly" that cited him as creator in every box.

As for the Anti-Monopoly case, Anspach faced down the game moguls in a battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court (and included an unexpected appearance by future independent counsel Kenneth Starr). You can still play Anti-Monopoly today--and Anspach has even started packaging the original version in the game boxes as a bonus. --Matthew Baldwin