FT: Facebook sues German StudiVZ | Hacker News Reader

FT: Facebook sues German StudiVZ

d2cft.volantis.net

9 pointspmjordan9 comments

I wonder if that's all there is to this; I find it hard to believe that StudiVZ actually copied directly from Facebook. Maybe they did in the early days, but I'd have thought that at the very latest the due diligence before acquisition would have found any such cases.

If they have any success with this because the site is "similar" then that would set a precedent for about a gazillion other websites.

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Hysterical.

The Samwer brothers funded StudiVz and sold it for > 85 million Euros.

With the proceeds of the sale, they then invested in Facebook.

Facebook then sues StudiVz.

What about the Chinese and Russian clones?

well its not like Facebook has any innovative technology...does it?

This is pathetic. How about these two? http://www.aol.com http://www.yahoo.com

Or these two? http://live.com http://ask.com

When there isn't any technology behind your "look and feel", then "look and feel" is the only thing you've got to protect.

... and this is happening after Facebook itself admitted and settled on charges of code (!) theft.

If they have any success with this because the site is "similar" then that would set a precedent for about a gazillion other websites.

The thing is StudiVZ is EXACTLY as Facebook...

Yeah, the first time I saw studiVZ the only difference seemed to be the css changed from blue to red...

http://img-a4.pe.imagevz.net/photo3/f3/9a/ce37499d84437cb744...

The faceook management team with the StudiVZ founders: Matt Cohler + Owen Van Natta

The T-shirts say "Poke me!" in German. (the equiv on studiVZ)

Here's a screenshot of StudiVZ vs. Facebook from 2006: http://www.sebbi.de/archives/2006/10/04/einziger-deutscher-b...

on what basis could they sue in a US court, Studi VZ is not active in the US

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