Facebook vs. Teachbook

Many teachers have been reluctant to use Facebook. The reasons for this are pretty obvious. If I were a teacher, I wouldn't want my students to know a lot of the personal details of my life (and I probably wouldn't want to know too much about theirs). Being in contact with students through a platform like Facebook could become uncomfortable for many teachers. With Facebook's atrocious record for dealing with issues of privacy many teachers refuse to sign up for an account in the first place.

A new internet venture called Teachbook has been launched for teachers. Not only is it a bit of a social network, it's also a place where teachers can share resources, lessons and many other things that could be helpful to the teaching profession. It is simply an online community for teachers, similar to many online communities that other professions have. Seems like a pretty logical thing for teachers to have in my books.

Facebook doesn't like this new venture. According to a CNN article Facebook is taking this new venture to court. Read the lawsuit here. (It's a PDF File).

Apparently Facebook objects to the new venture's use of the word "book" in their name. Since when did Facebook own the word "book"? They are alleging that Teachbook is trying to ride on their coattails. Facebook just passed the 500 million user mark (an incredible 1 in 7 people on this planet have an account), and are a universally recognized name, but does this give them the authority to prohibit others from using the word "Book" in their names? I wouldn't think that it should. After all, the word book did precede Facebook by a couple of years or so.

I think Facebook have become too big for their britches and that this is a pretty clear case of bullying.