Facebook Files Suit Against Social Network Aggregator Power.com
Facebook has filed suit against social network aggregator Power.com for trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unlawful competition, violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and other charges. Power.com is a service that offers users the ability to manage multiple social network, email, and IM accounts from one dashboard.
The suit, which was first uncovered by Claire Cain Miller, alleges that Power.com “is offering a product that solicits, stores and uses Facebook login information to access information stored on Facebook computers without authorization and to display Facebook copyrighted material without permission.”
According to the suit, Power.com also falsely signed emails it sent as “The Facebook Team” and as being sent through “facebookmail.com” during a promotion in which it was offering $100 to the person that invited the most new users to Power.com.
In the complaint, Facebook says it notified Power.com on December 1 that it was in violation of Facebook’s trademarks and terms. On December 12, Power.com’s CEO Steven Vachani told Facebook that Power.com would switch its implementation to Facebook Connect, Facebook’s new service for third party websites to access the Facebook Platform, within two weeks. When Power.com had not made the switch by December 26, Facebook blocked access to its service.
“After discussing the issues with Power.com for about a month without reaching a resolution, we filed a lawsuit to enforce our terms of service, maintain the integrity of our site, and to assure our users’ privacy and security are protected,” Facebook’s Barry Schnitt told Miller.
For now, Power.com’s website says “a new and improved version of Facebook inside of Power” is “coming soon.”
