Facebook v Lamebook

Before I get on the main topic I’d like to introduce you to Lamebook if you don’t know what it is. If you know, you can sure skip the next few senteces. 

Lamebook is actually a website – a nifty, and a naughty parody website of Facebook.

Lamebook is a daily updated site where users sent in screenshots of amusing, unusual and mostly hilarious (or lame) posts by them or their friends. The site, which is a brain child of two Texas graphic designers – Jonathan Standefer and Matthew Genitempo started in April 2009 and since then has been growing at a pretty freaking rate!

The site is funded by panoptic adverts and the content is categorized in various categories.

I discovered about Lamebook somewhere last week and have been a regular visitor since then and mind me, the stuff out there is either freaking hilarious or freaking lame. But no matter what the content is, it makes lol like hell! Mind me, makes me LOL!

If you are keen, you must check out Lamebook here.

But you might ask, why did I name this post as “Facebook v Lamebook”?  Well I named it so because there is actually a fight going on between guys from Facebook and between guys from Lamebook.

And I’m not kidding.

Indeed. These guys are fighting like joshes.

To understand the fight in its’ clear sense we need to flashback a bit. So here we go.

It was someday in March 2010 when Facebook sent a “cease and desist” notice to Lamebook and asked them to change their name and logo. Lamebook in reply claimed that Lamebook is “just a parody” and so it does not infringes or/and dilutes Facebook mark.

Talks after talks continued, but the parties couldn’t reach any resolution. Considering the same, in July Facebook readdressed their same concern to Lamebook, this time threatening to sue.

Then more talks. And all of them failed. This bought us close to somewhere near the end of October.

Then things got serious as just around 10 days back news broke that Lamebook had sued Facebook over infringement.

Yeah I wrote it right. Lamebook actually filed a complaint against Facebook.

Lamebook here simply intended to seek judicial declaration from the court of Texas which said “Lamebook did not infringe/dilute the Facebook mark”. Read the copy of the complaint if interested.

Facebook guys sure were disappointed on Lamebook’s move. They quoted,

It’s unfortunate that after months of working with Lamebook to amicably resolve what we believe is an improper attempt to build a brand that trades off Facebook’s popularity and fame, they have turned to litigation. We are confident in our position and believe we will prevail in court.

And then it was Facebook’s time to play some tricks. Yes, Facebook sued Lamebook now. Infringement of Facebook mark was their argument. 

And then Facebook decided to do more shitty things.

Just around 48 hours back, Facebook shut down Lamebook’s fan page, blocked all the content on Facebook that directed to lamebook.com and that’s not it, they also disabled the Facebook “likes” functionalities on lamebook.com.

Yes even I felt like WTF?!

But then there was a twist to the Facebook’s final move. Just after people criticized Facebook’s move to block Lamebook, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer had the following to say…

This was a mistake on our part. In the process of dealing with a routine trademark violation issue regarding some links posted to Facebook, we blocked all mentions of the phrase “lamebook” on Facebook. We are committed to promoting free expression on Facebook. We apologize for our mistake in this case, and we are working to fix the process that led to this happening.

And hence all such lameness shown by Facebook was revoked.

As of now, sharing stuff directing tp lamebook.com works and so does “likes” functionality on lamebook.com but the official Lamebook page wasn’t resurrected. It remains shut down.

Meanwhile, Lamebook has been asking for readers support. In the latest statement on the home page of the site,

Well, Facebook didn’t like us sticking up for ourselves, so they shut down our Fan Page. In light of this, be sure to follow us on Twitter so you get updated with the latest and funniest of the lame!

The Lamebook's home page which now boasts various messages asking people to support the parody website. (Click to enlarge)

And that is what the Facebook v Lamebook battle has to offer.

The point is why Facebook has to be so rebellious? I mean wtf does a small company running on advert revenue would do the behemoth? And then the suffix “book” isn’t something that Facebook owns, do they? And then, Lamebook is nowhere in the competition with Facebook. So why the fuss? Why act like cry babies?

And this is not the first time, Facebook did sue Placebook (now TripTrace) and Teachbook for using the suffix –book in their names.

As a personal opinion, I want Lamebook to win this case and take the shit outta Facebook’s attitude. I don’t think Facebook can run around all over the web threatening people if they use the -book suffix or do something like lamebook has done.

Lamebook makes me laugh and so does to people. Facebook in literal sense doesn’t. And something that makes people laugh is very precious. Not everything or everyone can do that job – the job of making people laugh and enjoy. Lamebook is doing that, since 2009.

And I have a gut feeling that Lamebook will survive the battle!