Oops: Lawsuit Over Name Delays Today’s Full Facebook Timeline Launch
- Posted on October 3, 2011 at 2:59pm by
Liz Klimas
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The drama over Facebook Timeline began before it even launched. Although you were supposed to start seeing the new blog-like changes to your Facebook profile today, Facebook Timeline has been delayed — till at least tomorrow — as the company was met with a trademark infringement last week.
Timelines.com is a small website based in Chicago that “allows people to collaboratively record, discover and share history.“ Its website says ”It’s history recorded by the people, for the people.” According to Timelines, Facebook would “essentially eliminate Timelines and leave the public with the confusing impression that plaintiff Timelines is somehow affiliated with Facebook.” Mashable reports that Facebook and Timelines will discuss in front of a federal judge if an injunction will be issued.

Timelines.com began a lawsuit with Facebook over its new Timeline profile, which was set to launch today, last week.
Here is Gizmodo’s quick analysis of how tomorrow’s events will take place:
Here‘s how it’s going to play out: Facebook is a massive, massively rich company which can afford the best possible lawyers in the world. Timelines.com is the opposite of that. Even if their claims had some validity to them — which they don’t — Facebook would prevail. That’s just sort of how it works! But again, they don’t have a single toe to stand on here. Facebook’s Timeline profile and Timelines.com to completely different things.
Facebook Timeline was announced at Facebook’s F8 conference a couple weeks ago. Instead of pushing older content on one’s profile down to make room for more recent information, Timeline will “help you tell the story of your life.”
For now, Mashable reports that the judge did not grant Timelines‘ request that Facebook’s developer app, which allows people to manually set up their own Timeline, be disabled. If you can’t wait to get your Facebook Timeline rolling, here are Gizmodo’s instructions.




















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asybot12
Posted on October 6, 2011 at 12:48amNo matter who “provides” the service. If any of you still think you have privacy and any government cannot get the info it wants you are sadly mistaken. The problem is your own egos and that most of you think the Government wants YOUR info, please give me a break! What makes you think they want to know how JoeBlow living the average live is important to them you are just an average # to them. 350 million people in the US alone for god’s sake get real!
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:41pmWhy is the Blaze post so flaky? Some post right away and others take forever? Please get this fixed.
Report Post »Waterlyly
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 7:44pmLeaving as quickly as I can! Trying hard to convince my friends to follow me to G+
Report Post »cjltrekker
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:49pmDitto- Leaving but not going to Big Brother- Google + and Obama just like Facebook and Obama… I’ll pass. But leaving Facebook.
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 6:44pmSorry, but Zuck and his minions blew it when they changed FB last week. How wall postings from 12 hours ago are now displayed ahead of those from 25 minutes ago makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t need some flunkie programmer telling me which postings to my page are “more important”. This new format ZUCKS!
Report Post »SquishyBear
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 5:59pmfacebook wasnt broken, so why fix it?
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 5:33pmFacebook now REQUIRES a unique telephone for every new account.
If you don’t already have an account, you won’t get one without a telephone of your own.
So, if you have one phone in your house and 5 family members… FOUR of you will NOT get accounts.
This is the short-sighted, heavy handed decisions that are being made at Facebook.
Similarly, and I forget if it is facebook or twitter, but, everything you post, I hear that contains either “obama” or “white house” is copied and re-transmitted from the WH official page. That makes it an official record of the WH so it is permanently recorded by the WH, and is then searchable by them… FOREVER.
Now, combine the REQUIREMENT for a unique telephone, and the government can make a definite link to you via your telephone company. So, they have all your communications, combined with your telephone number, payment information, credit card info, ssn, dob, etc. They link that to credit bureaus and they have absolutely everything they could ever want about you.
Big Brother IS watching.
Report Post »Midwest Blonde
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 6:18pm@TomFerrari
Report Post »I use facebook and I have NEVER been asked for my phone number. In fact I have two accounts on facebook. It’s the unique email addresses that limit your participation – so I have two email addresses for my facebook accounts.
Midwest Blonde
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 6:27pmAND – just out of curiosity – I created a third account – no phone number asked for. Get your FACTS straight before you spout this kind of crap!
Report Post »USAMama
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 8:15pmI also have FB and never gave my phone # or address. Those are optional. I also certainly never gave them my social security number or credit card number!! Its free, why would you give them that information?!
Considering your credibility has been jeopardized by these facts, I don’t believe that they send info to the White House. I would have to hear that from a much more reliable source.
Report Post »wordweaver
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 10:17pmTom – you need to get out of mom’s basement once a while, bud. Get some fresh air. Read some poetry instead of conspiracy novels. Oh, and take off the tin foil hat before you go outside. Get well soon.
Report Post »BenInNY
Posted on October 4, 2011 at 10:32amTom’s not just making it up, even though he’s incorrect. Just a rumor is all. Youtube, on the other hand, keeps asking for my phone number when I log in and it can be very hard to locate the “skip” link.
Report Post »BenInNY
Posted on October 3, 2011 at 5:20pmAn only slightly related “oops” – this story was not present on the Stories page, I just happened to notice it in the tech sidebar. This happens off and on for some reason. Sometimes they’ll eventually turn up under Stories, but not always.
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