Facebook’s rich history of crushing competitors with legal tactics made for great cinema last year, but it looks like Austin’s own spinoff site lamebook.com has bested the social network at it’s own game.
The legal battle comes on the heels of Facebook’s rampant copyright pursuits of the words “face” and “book,” disallowing any other websites from having those words in hopes that Facebook is the only website (entity) you’ll think about when you look at a “face” or open a “book.”
But lamebook.com, a college-favorite parody website that lets visitors post their “friends’” most scandalous real conversations (with names and pictures fuzzed out, of course,) recently escaped the clutches of infringement. The website started in April 2009 by Jonathan Standefer and Matthew Genitempo, two graphic designers who apparently noticed that when people expose their private lives online, some musings aren’t as classy as others.
Facebook’s efforts to relocate the legal scuffle to Paolo Alto, California were shot down by a Texas federal judge, likley because unlike most Facebook lookalikes, Lamebook is an explicit spoof and can defend itself in court by proving there’s no way to confuse the two brands.
If you’re looking to celebrate Lamebook’s local victory with a kick of irony, you can “like” lamebook.com on facebook.com to make fun of over 750,000 million people (including you!) who get online and talk about themselves every day. And who doesn’t love to laugh at themselves?
