Facebook, the Original Copycat, Sues Copycat

Whoever said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery didn’t have someone trying to knock off their bajillion dollar business. Facebook is in the midst of suing a German company for an unspecified amount for copying its site.
 

The German site, studiVZ, has similar features to Facebook, including a “wall” where people can leave each other messages, and Facebook claims the only real difference is that the site has a red background instead of blue. These complaints come not long after Facebook tried to launch its own German language version, which has not had much success. Bitter much?
 

Unfortunately for Facebook, studiVZ is not the only imposter trying to get a piece of the social-networking pie. There are other copycats in China, Russia, India, Turkey, and even a StudentFace site in Australia. And the impersonation doesn’t stop there. Apparently there are two Mark Zuckerbergs on StudiVZ!
 

Ironically, Facebook just settled its own legal battle over originality. The founders of ConnectU, a rival website started around the same time at Harvard, accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. Their message to Mark now that this German brouhaha has erupted?
 

Karma’s a bitch.