Facebook sues identical German site StudiVZ – apparently
Facebook is suing a German social networking site by the name of StudiVZ for producing a site for central Europe that is more or less a direct rip off of the well-established international favourite. Well, that’s what the German company hear but, since the news broke on Friday, they have yet to receive any legal contact whatsoever.
StudiVZ does rather look like just a red version of Facebook but then, so what? They have around 10 million users compared to 80 million plus and given Facebook only launched a German language version at the beginning of March, then whose fault is it really?
Social networking sites tend to have a similar template. Admittedly, StudiVZ has stuck rather too close to the original but then that wouldn’t be a problem if Facebook hadn’t ignored a rather significant region of the developed world for so long.
But I’ve a feeling this is all a smokescreen anyway. What better way to bring to the attention of their audience that they’ve launched in German by suing their rival? Why should Facebook care about a template that they’re in process of changing anyway?
I’ll be interested to see when StudiVZ receive an official complaint and if the case ever actually makes it any further.
(via the Inquirer)
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