Social-networking website Facebook has fought hard to preserve its intellectual property rights against all competitors using the words “face” or “book," recently suing a company that had developed a program called "Mobile FaceCash." This, however, has not deterred the launch of an Egyptian Facebook lookalike called "EgyptFacebook." Although the site currently boasts relatively few subscribers, one of its users opined that Facebook should refrain from suing other websites for the use of common, everyday words. He went on to point out that Facebook had also brought a lawsuit against the owners of a site called "Teachbook," which focuses exclusively on educational issues. EgyptFacebook, which is only available in English, is not user-friendly and is riddled with grammatical errors--even the welcome message is mispelt. The website's management, meanwhile, remains unknown. There has been some speculation that the site was covertly launched by the government to serve as a substitute for the original, which has recently become an effective means of mobilizing the public for strikes and demonstrations. Facebook has also become a popular venue for publicizing abuses by the police and government. An official source at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, however, ruled out such speculation, denying any inclination on the part of the government to block the world's most popular social-networking site. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
