Facebook and Seppukoo - Facebook has no sense of humor

Facebook is apparently really against the funny idea of virtual euthanasia. In last weeks news, we wrote about the website Seppukoo.com and now Fachbook is blocking Seppukoo. It's just a silly app that would let you kill your Facebook account.

Now people started talking about a similar service called the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine (which is similar, if a bit more inclusive -- it will delete all your web 2.0 profiles -- and entertaining -- you get to watch the deletions in real time), Facebook again rushed forward to block access.

Apparently Facebook has no sense of humor at all when it comes to you actually leaving its service.

The LA Times reports that, Facebook and Seppukoo get lawyered up.  

The battle between social networking giant Facebook and Seppukoo.com may spill into the courtroom over privacy violations, according to a letter written by a Facebook lawyer.

The letter contended that Seppukoo violated Facebook’s statement of rights and responsibilities, which governs the website’s relationship with its users, and that it must “cease and desist” from breaching the terms.

If Seppukoo continues with business as usual, Facebook said it would take "whatever measures it believes are necessary to enforce its rights, maintain the quality of its site, and protect its users’ privacy and information.”

Facebook began to block the site early this month. On Dec. 16,  Leota L. Bates of the law firm Perkins Coie wrote a letter on behalf of Facebook, saying that Seppukoo is violating five of its rights and responsibilities:

# oliciting users' Facebook login information.
# Accessing a Facebook account that belongs to someone else.
# Collecting users’ content or information using automated means.
# Sending commercial communications.
# Using Facebook’s intellectual property.

In a Dec. 22 reply, a Seppukoo legal representative denied the accusations and said that the website is solely for artistic purposes. It’s one of the many net-art projects created by the Italian art group Les Liens Invisibles (translated from French: The Invisible Links) and is a nonprofit website.

Seppukoo’s lawyer points out that there are no commercial advertisements or banners on the site and that users are not requested to pay any money.

Internet News: Facebook and Seppukoo

Source: LA Times