Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., Case No. 08-cv-05780-JF (N.D. Cal. Oct. 22, 2009)
Order (Hosted by SPAM NOTES)
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has granted a motion by Facebook to dismiss counter-claims and strike affirmative defenses in its ongoing case against Power Ventures (Power.com). In his order, United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote that Power.com’s answer and counter-claim relied on legal conclusions which were not directly supported by factual allegations. Judge Fogel went on to note that antitrust claims, like those made by Power.com, “require a ‘higher degree of particularity in the pleadings.’” The order gives Power.com 30 days to amend its pleading.
TechCrunch provides an overview of the issues involved in this case. The Financial Times and Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog comment on the decision.
Power.com is a service that aggregates various social networking sites so that users can access them all via Power.com. The service promotes to users that they can have “all [their] friends in just one place.” Power.com had allowed users to integrate their Facebook accounts into the service until Facebook filed suit on December 30, 2008. In its complaint (hosted and discussed by the New York Times), Facebook alleges, among other things, that Power.com had violated Facebook’s terms of use, infringed upon Facebook’s copyright and trademark, and violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA").
In response, Power.com filed a motion to dismiss (hosted by and discussed by SPAM NOTES) that was subsequently denied. It then filed an answer and counter-claim (hosted by Power.com and discussed by SPAM NOTES) against Facebook. In the counter-claim, Power.com alleges that Facebook engaged in monopolistic and anti-competitive behavior by placing restraints on Power.com’s ability to manipulate users’ Facebook data even when their consent was given. The present order by Judge Fogel gives Power.com 30 days to support its claims against Facebook with facts.
Whether or not Power.com ultimately prevails may have far-reaching effects on social networking sites and the personal data they amass, since one of Facebook’s greatest assets is the personal information it has collected on its over 300 million users. Facebook has an undeniable interest in keeping this information from potential competitors such as Power.com. In such an environment, it may be difficult for a new competitor to reach critical mass and to obtain enough users for the network effect to take hold. At the same time, users are very concerned about their privacy and Facebook has faced vocal criticism in the past whenever it instituted policies that users felt were threatening (e.g. Facebook Beacon). It would be even more difficult for Facebook to protect its users’ privacy if the data was shared with third-parties. With this in mind, it may not be hyperbole to say that the outcome of this case could affect a population the size of America.