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Why Isn’t the ‘Sphere Covering the Facebook Lawsuit?

July 17, 2007 at 14:47 |

This one has me a little perplexed. A few days after the latest round of coverage on UConnect’s lawsuit against Facebook appears, the ’sphere finally notices – long enough to be momentarily distracted from the latest round of twitterings over how much Facebook is worth today – but not long enough to actually do any journalism – or any in-depth writing, for that matter – on the story.

The ’sphere spends a lot of time talking about whether bloggers are journalists, and a lot of time talking about the (short, so far) life and death of citizen journalism ventures, and a heck of a lot of time promoting the idea that the ’sphere is a potent new form of media, but this really has me wondering – apart from writing up summaries of new companies, competing to be the first to market with the latest leaked news of a financing or a sale, and the fanboy posts, where is the journalism? In the poli-’sphere, outfits like TPM and others are having a profound effect on political journalism – from original reporting to extraordinarily smart opinion (and everything else under the sun, too). Why not the tech-’sphere, too?

Surely, if it’s worth talking about what Facebook is worth, it’s worth talking about what it might not be worth. And lawsuits like the RIM-NTP litigation are a pretty good reminder of how expensive IP ownership / infringement litigation can be, especially if not settled early. So, who’s after the real story? Anyone?


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9 Responses to “Why Isn’t the ‘Sphere Covering the Facebook Lawsuit?”


  1. July 17th, 2007 at 15:03

    These lawsuits, as you know, are somewhat tedious to review and very hard to predict the outcome. It is much easier to report on what you think happened, after the lawsuit ends.


  2. July 17th, 2007 at 16:21

    That’s certainly true, Michael – though many a reporter has done the legwork of basic journalism on lawsuits before the outcome. Eg, the NTP-RIM suit. My point is really that there’s a franchise there waiting for someone to take it. It’s certainly easier to write opinion.


  3. July 17th, 2007 at 18:14

    It may also be that for many, writing about tech the model is more like writing about fashion than it is true journalism. So, generally positive coverage, making sure one gets invited to all the right parties, and so on.


  4. July 18th, 2007 at 09:50

    I think that you are onto something.

    But in the NTP-RIM lawsuit there was the clear drama of the “bad guys” NTP being patent squatters versus RIM, the “good guys”.

    The injunction by NTP threatened to disable one of the bloggers favourite gadget. Even the US Government had to get into the act. This was high drama.

    On the other hand, the Facebook litigation appears only to be about who is going to get what sum of money, I didn’t see any injunctive relief being requested.


  5. July 18th, 2007 at 09:57

    Maybe, Michael. I guess we won’t know for a while how serious it is. But I would have thought that that mystery would justify some reporting (!)


  6. July 18th, 2007 at 11:03

    There has also been limited discussion about the Google / Double Clicks proposed merger -which has far more ramifications.

    But here is an excellent discussion by Scott Cleland, http://www.googleopoly.net/
    He sure makes a lot of good points.


  7. August 23rd, 2007 at 11:39

    I think the nature of this story makes it very hard to cover from an investigative journalism approach (bloggers or MSM). The claims in unfair competition litigation are even more facts-and-circumstances dependent than other types of civil lawsuits.

    This is a classic “his word against mine” evidence battle. Since there is no contract, almost all of the evidence is going to involve what was said between the parties in dorm rooms and cafeterias and the computer lab, and what other people overheard, and time/date stamps on computer files. You can be sure the attorneys for both sides are telling their clients not to make any comments about what happened in the media.

    Carol Shepherd, Attorney
    http://arborlaw.com/blog/


  8. October 3rd, 2007 at 10:36

    Rob – I felt like I was doing some real journalist work when I wrote up a post on the KPMG lawsuit herein Toronto filed the day before Labour Day.

    http://neilmcintyre.ca/index.php/2007/09/18/work-life-balance-kpmg-sued-in-canada/

    I found that the originator of the lawsuit now works for the law firm that filed the suit. I thought it was more scandalous than comments turned out to indicate!