Why would facebook DO this to themselves?
A couple of days or so into the self-inflicted vanity-land-rush on Facebook, we can only imagine how many trademark-infringing land grabs have been perpetrated, and how long the cleanup will take the armies of lawyers at Facebook and countless firms who find themselves with yet another venue in which to battle.
Was it an IP-rights lawyer who suggested the vanity URL idea to Facebook in the first place, an a self-serving attempt to ensure a steady flow of work for the next dozen years?
Moreover, why invite users to create usernames that differ from their “real” names? It had always seemed that the cornerstone of Facebook’s raison d’être was linking each user’s online presence to their offline person. (Yes, I realize, there are several other Ben Levins out there, and my solution is simple: the winner of a steel cage no-holds-barred wrestling match gets to keep the number off the end of his name.)
For the corporations and other copyright and trademark holders out there, consider this just one more top-level domain you need to register.
2 years ago • Notes