Facebook moves to close down Hackney based Facebusks
Facebook has served a cease and desist notice against a website designed to bring local street buskers to a global audience – after taking umbrage at its use of the word ‘face’ in its title.
Facebusk, a London-based video hosting website, enables street artists to publicise their work in return for donations from viewers, although its use of the word 'face' brought it to the attention of the social media giants lawyers.
Writing to the sites co-creators; Jo’rel Mitchell and Servais Louis, Facebook's legal team informed them that the word ‘face’ was a trademark and that the site must therefore ‘withdraw the domain name Facebusks.com or abandon it’.
Commenting on the case Mitchell said: “We’ve been told by our lawyers there’s no legal standpoint, Facebook is a massive entity, and has the ability to draw out the process to the point where we don’t even get in front of a judge and we’re already exhausted financially”.
Louis added: “Our platform allows users to connect through Facebook. So if anything, we’re encouraging users to use Facebook.”