Winners. (Photo: Smedio)

Typing Facebook.com on a roller coaster just got so much easier! A U.S. District Court in California has awarded Facebook a victory against several so-called typosquatters--companies that buy domains names similar in spelling to big websites, then profit off of users' terrible typing skills.

More than 100 domains that involved variations of the word Facebook (i.e. facesbook.com, facebof.com, or our favorite, facebookforteens.com) were found being controlled by just a few companies with names that sound like they were ripped from a Law and Order script (lookin' at you, Domain Inc.). They didn't respond to allegations of violating the social network's trademark for profit, so Facebook was awarded a default judgement of $3 million in statutory damages. 

But attorney Eric Menhart told Bloomberg that he doesn't expect Facebook to receive that money since the "defendants almost certainly don’t have it.” Facebook will soon control the domains implicated in the lawsuit. A company spokesperson said they won't rest until all of the shadowy sites are thrown offline:

“We are pleased with the court’s recommendation. We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to enforce against those who attempt to take advantage of the people who use our service,” said Craig Clark, Associate General Counsel, Facebook, to TechCrunch.

Perhaps this will give Zuck a reason to smile--he needs it.

(Photo: Tumblr)

Over the weekend, a Tumblr called Reasons My Son Is Crying went viral, thanks in large part to Reddit. The dad responsible for the Tumblr uploads photos of his kid crying with wry captions about the backstory behind the meltdown. "I wouldn’t let him drown in this pond," is one example.

This morning, BuzzFeed discovered that Facebook began blocking users from sharing a link to the Tumblr. Many users also awoke to find the link they shared last night deleted from their Timelines.

So what's the deal? Was this a Facebook censorship conspiracy, with the company taking a moral stand against the mildly controversial Tumblr that seems to capitalize on a child’s misery? Not exactly.

A Facebook representative told Betabeat that blocking the link was "a mistake by one of our automated systems," and noted that it's "already been fixed." When we tried to post the link again, it was successfully published to Facebook. Furthermore, deleted posts containing the link appear to be back.

It's unclear exactly what caused the automated system to flag the post, but we surmised it might have to do with just how quickly the Tumblr spread. If links to it went from zero to thousands in a matter of hours, it's easy to see why Facebook's robots might think the link was spam or contained malware. A Facebook rep told Betabeat this "wasn't exactly" the case. "This was a false positive on an automated system that has 100's of features, so it wasn't based on any single factor," he clarified. Seems like Facebook itself isn't quite sure why the link was blocked.

So go forth, Facebook user: post links to crying babies to your heart’s content.

Not happening. (Photo: TechTheBest.com)

During a Reddit AMA today, Facebook product engineer Bob Baldwin faced a barrage of questions about everyone's favorite website to hate.  He confirmed there was a secret, creepy sounding room at the bottom of its Palo Alto headquarters, he admitted that the much beleaguered "Questions" feature sucked, and he repeated Mark Zuckerberg's mobile mantra to prospective web developers.

Then, of course, somebody named Buttraper asked this: “Will Facebook ever have a dislike button??” In response, Mr. Baldwin wrote this:

Actions on Facebook tend to focus on positive social interactions. Like is the lightest-weight way to express positive sentiment. I don't think adding a light-weight way to express negative sentiment would be that valuable. I know there are times when it'd make sense, like when a friend is having a rough day, or got into a car accident like my sister yesterday (she's okay!). For these times, a nice comment from a friend goes a long way.

We'd dislike this news but we have no idea how to show our displeasure. 

While Facebook claims it's an effort to stop spam and promote apps that add value to the network, "Developers say the crackdown is an attempt to stifle applications that compete with Facebook-owned services," or pay for ads on Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported last night.  

This past Friday, MessageMe joined the ranks of apps like Vine, Voxer, and Yandex's social discovery app Wonder, in getting blocked from Facebook's platform.

But it would be hard to make the case that MessageMe--a rich, incredibly easy-to-use app that lets users send doodles, locations, photos, Google images, videos, iTunes songs, and even Snapchat-like drawings on photos--doesn't add value considering Facebook reportedly tried to acquire the app.

Rather, cofounder Arjun Sethi told Betabeat, he was informed Friday that MessageMe was not compliant with platform policy guidelines related to duplicating Facebook's core services (i.e. Facebook Messenger) and that "they’d be shutting off access to our users to get to their friends list."

Mr. Sethi said his team "worked over the weekend and basically removed the feature. So if you looked at the app now it’s not there anymore." When we downloaded the app last night, the option to find friends on Facebook still showed up, which would have been a welcome option considering only seven early adopters from our contact list were already on the service, but MessageMe is that supremely rare app we actually wouldn't mind bugging our normal friends to join.

That explains why, in a blog post today revealing seed funding from True Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, SVAngel, Resolut.vc, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Social+Capital Partnership raised last year, MessageMe also announced that it picked up more than 1 million users since launching (with the Facebook connection) on March 7th.

The company said it's sending more than 500 notifications per second worldwide and that in the U.S. alone, users have shared more than 10 million doodles and more than 4 million songs on iTunes.

Facebook's social graph may be in the midst of midlife crisis, but MessageMe's features are perfectly suited to the current state of discourse, which seems to be frozen in adolescence.

Mr. Sethi said his team's background is in social gaming and they plan on introducing in-app monetization when the time is right, rather than advertising or selling data to third-parties. (The "stickers" and "money" buttons next "video" and "doodle" are currently turned off.) The same cofounders previously collaborated on a company called Lolapps, which was acquired by a Korean company.

When it came time to build MessageMe, they took their inspiration from the more personal social network Path and its so-called "stickers," as well as the Chinese messaging app QQ and the older BBM-style messaging on Blackberries. "When you look at our product, you can see there’s a PIN system so we focus a lot of our attention on that as well, rather than like some sort of public broadcast of usernames," he explained.

(An earlier version of MessageMe's blog post noted typically "Asian" messaging behaviors becoming more mainstream.)

And like Path, MessageMe sets its sights smaller. "We’re not focused on the replication of your Facebook graph," he explained. "We’re focused on having you communicate with people that you want to communicate with the most and people that you feel you can be yourself with." The average customer, he said, will have a network of 20 to 25 people they spend their time chatting with, rather than hundreds of Facebook friends.

That may be more than just a defensive posture. As John Herrman recently wrote on Buzzfeed, app developers at SXSW were "actively planning for the graph-rot contingency" by "leveraging to build separate graphs of their own." Besides at this point, getting booted off of Facebook offers its own little media boost.

Mr. Sethi acknowledged that tensions between Facebook and developers were rising. "I do feel like some developers are feeling the pain depending on the type of applications they’re making. It’s just part of like a natural cycle of any platform or ecosystem, depending on what is core to them."

However, that hasn't been the case between MessageMe and Apple. "Our product is competitive with iMessage and they’re not revoking access for us. So I think it just depends on the way each company thinks about the platform and product."

In the meantime, DM us if you want our MessageMe pin? We really want to spend the morning sending doodles and most of the people on our contact list are venture capitalists. :(

Mr. Ceglia. (facebook.com)

You've got to hand it to Paul Ceglia, the man who would own Facebook. Most people, when charged with criminal fraud by the U.S. government, would abandon the civil lawsuit that got them into trouble in the first place. Not Mr. Ceglia. This onetime wood-pellet salesman is continuing his quixotic quest to claim a slice of the social network.

The Wall Street Journal reports that he's now suing to stop the criminal proceedings against him, accusing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of violating his constitutional rights.

This is starting to sound less Law and Order, more junior varsity mock trial. 

Yesterday, Mr. Ceglia's representatives filed a complaint alleging that Misters Holder and Bharara are violating his first amendment rights, claiming they "intentionally, willfully and maliciously interfered with Plaintiff's enumerated protected right by commencing a federal criminal prosecution." He's well within his rights to file a lawsuit, the complaint argues, and the federal government has no right to prosecute him for doing so. (This of course ignores the fact that the case against him revolves around documents that the federal government says are false.)

As the complaint puts it:

Acting in their official capacities and under color of legal authority, with malice aforethought, Defendants commenced a federal criminal proceeding arising out of the proper and good faith filing of Plaintiff's civil lawsuit against a United States Citizen.

Mr. Ceglia and his representatives take their accusations a step further, playing up the fact that Mr. Bharara previously worked at Gibson Dunn, the firm representing Facebook in Mr. Ceglia's civil suit.

It's all in the service of attempting to get the criminal case tossed or, to put it in fancy lawyer talk, Mr. Ceglia "brings the instant action to restrain and enjoin the Government from continuing to violate Plaintiff's First Amendment rights."

Say what you will about Mr. Ceglia--the man sure knows how to stick to his story.

(Photo: Tinypic)

Remember the heady days of Livejournal, when your emo post about how much your parents don't "get" you was only complete with an accompanying song and mood, the latter of which could be entered by choosing from a surprisingly robust menu of descriptive emoticons? Facebook, it turns out, certainly remembers those rosy days of yore, and is intent to bring back the emoticon feature to your very own status box.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook is testing "visual sharing," which would allow users to share what they're feeling (emotions!), reading, watching and eating, all with accompanying emoticons. Users can input a traditional status update ("Facebook attention fulfills me in a way nothing IRL does") and then append their mood or activity, which is accompanied by an emoticon ("Feeling unbearably alone").

TechCrunch points out that should the feature roll out to every user, it could be an easy way for Facebook to determine what users like to help serve more relevant ads. So if you add that you're "Listening to Bright Eyes," it can show you an ad for your old Livejournal account.

For now, Facebook says this is just a small test and the results aren't incorporated into graph search, so feel free to get as emo as you want.

Mr. Ceglia, photogs scurrying along beside.

Earlier today, (alleged!) Facebook fraudster Paul Ceglia appeared at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse downtown and pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges of wire and mail fraud. It was his first appearance in the wake of yesterday's indictment.

Always something of a riddle, Mr. Ceglia has become even more ghostly of late. Despite his ongoing case against Facebook, he's kept a low profile. He spent a fair bit of time in Ireland. But there he was this afternoon, in the flesh, in a mahogany-paneled courtroom. He even put on a suit! (The prospect of decades in federal prison will inspire even the sloppiest of dressers to don a tie.) The effect was only somewhat spoiled by the anorak draped over the back of his chair.

Out of "an abundance of caution," Judge Arthur Carter opened by walking Mr. Ceglia through the accusations against him, pausing each time to make sure the defendant followed. It was nothing new, but the word "fraud" really hits with a thud when you're actually sitting in an IRL courtroom.

Facebook has long held that Mr. Ceglia's claims were, not to put to fine a point on it, so much upcountry bullshit. With the decision to arrest Mr. Ceglia, the federal government seems to have sided with Team Facebook. The U.S. Attorney's office alleges that the upstate entrepreneur both doctored an old contract with Mr. Zuckerberg and tampered with email to bolster his case.

Mr. Ceglia, for his part, denies it all and continues to press forward with his civil suit.

Not present: Dean Boland, the attorney who just petitioned to be removed from Mr. Ceglia's lawsuit against Facebook. Also absent: The numerous other lawyers who've done a stint on the civil case. Seated by Mr. Ceglia's side was David Patton, the executive director and attorney-in-chief of the Federal Defenders of New York.

Mr. Ceglia on his way out.

After a formal back and forth, it was onto the discussion of discovery--i.e., the fine points of how to handle the transfer of evidence, which is the kind of thing that usually gets cut from Law & Order. There seemed to be a fair bit of concern over the proper handling of the original, disputed contract, which the judge in the civil suit has yet to actually rule a fake. (Sam Waterston, call your office.) Mr. Patton also noted that he'd be requesting a change of venue, though he didn't elaborate on his reasons and wouldn't respond to a question afterward about where he wanted the trial relocated.

When the hearing concluded, Mr. Ceglia zipped up his North Face and was ushered to the elevators by Mr. Patton, a line of notebook-clutching reporters trailing behind like ducklings.

As our motley crew waited for the elevators, a Bloomberg News reporter who'd previously interviewed Mr. Ceglia stepped up to say hi, but Mr. Patton quickly shut down any attempts to solicit a statement or answers to any of this case's many, many questions.

"I just wanted to say hi!" the reporter parried. "Hi is okay," Mr. Patton allowed, sounding only slightly grudging.

We all piled into elevator, Betabeat standing next to Mr. Ceglia, who gives off a distinct vibe of harmlessness. After a moment, he looked up at the reporter and told him he almost hadn't recognized him. "You look more distinguished," he said, with a smile that only seemed sly if you really thought about it.

Mr. Ceglia. (facebook.com)

Paul Ceglia, the penny-ante hustler who once attempted to convince the world he was part owner of Facebook, has been indicted on counts of wire and mail fraud. Bloomberg reports that, after hearing the charges and evidence against Mr. Ceglia, a grand jury has deemed the U.S. attorney's case strong enough to go to trial.

Things aren't looking too good for Mr. Ceglia, who stands accused of faking both a contract with the wunderkind coder and emails to support his case. Turns out the federal government will not abide by (allegedly!) bullshit lawsuits (allegedly!) meant to wrest billion-dollar companies from their owners.

Nor has the man's luck exactly taken a turn for the better since his arrest. His lawyer wants to withdraw from the case for "personal reasons," and he might end up on the hook for Facebook's legal fees.

The indictment means that, unless Mr. Ceglia strikes some sort of a plea bargain, this case will go to trial. Presumably that means Zuck--a key figure in this drama--will have to testify. Presumably such an occasion is on the brief list of circumstances in which Zuck puts on a suit.

Illustration by David Saracino.

For years, Facebook's lawyers have been arguing that Paul Ceglia's claim to at least half of Facebook was baseless. Even federal judges have been moved to strong language by Mr. Ceglia's lawsuit, which offered up a Microsoft Word document of cut-and-pasted emails between him and Mark Zuckerberg as proof that he helped fund Mr. Zuckerberg's work in the early days of development and was therefore entitled to a share of Facebook.

Today, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has come out with a surprising complaint that screams "Team Zuck." In the complaint, the U.S. Attorney's office has charged Mr. Ceglia with an attempt to con Facebook to the tune of several billion dollars. Mr. Ceglia, 39, was arrested in Wellsville, N.Y., this morning on one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

This isn't Mr. Ceglia's first brush with the law. In our profile of Mr. Ceglia, we covered his 2009 arrests on grand larceny charges related to his wood pellets company, which was shut down by the attorney general. In the Facebook case, the involvement of the U.S. Attorney's office appears to be triggered by what Mr. Bharara calls "an attempted corruption of our legal system through the manufacture of false evidence." The mail fraud charge comes from his sending those forged documents via the post office, and the wire fraud charge relates to his accused email fakery.

On the count of wire fraud, the complaint claims that Mr. Ceglia, having devised his scheme, "did transmit and cause to be transmitted by means of wire communication in interstate and foreign commerce, writings, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds for the purposes of executing such scheme and artifice." On the count of mail fraud, it also says Mr. Ceglia "would and did place and cause to be placed in a post office and authorized depository for mail matter, matters and things to be sent and delivered by the Postal Service" that were, in short, total bunk.

In today's press release, U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector-in-Charge Randall C. Till added: “When Mr. Ceglia allegedly decided to take advantage of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, he underestimated the resolve of the Postal Inspection Service to bring him to justice for illegal use of the U.S. Mail.”

Facebook also offered a statement to Betabeat through its attorney, Orin Snyder, a partner at Gibson Dunn: "We commend the United States Attorney for charging Ceglia with federal crimes in connection with his fraudulent lawsuit against Facebook. Ceglia used the federal court system to perpetuate his fraud and will now be held accountable for his criminal scheme."

This is breaking news, and we'll update as we learn more details. For now, here's the the press release from Mr. Bharara's office, and the complaint is below:

Years later, in April 2011, following an initial lawsuit in New York State court, CEGLIA, through counsel, filed a 25-page amended complaint in federal court in the Western District of New York claiming that Zuckerberg, in the April 2003 contract, had promised him at least a 50% interest in “The Face Book” project that ultimately became Facebook, Inc. In support of his claim, CEGLIA attached a copy of what he alleged to be the two-page April 28, 2003 contract between himself and Zuckerberg (“Alleged Contract”). The first page of the Alleged Contract contained language giving CEGLIA “a half interest (50%) in the software, programming language and business interests” derived from the expansion of “The Face Book” or “The Page Book.” The second page of the Alleged Contract contained the signatures of CEGLIA and Zuckerberg. Also in support of his claim, CEGLIA described emails he alleged to have exchanged with Zuckerberg beween July 2003 and July 2004 via Zuckerberg’s Harvard email account (“Purported Emails”). The Purported Emails reflected conversations between CEGLIA and Zuckerberg about the design and functionality of “The Face Book” website, as well as ways to generate income from its expansion. The Purported Emails also reflected conversations in which Zuckerberg offered CEGLIA money to “repair [their] business relationship.”

As alleged in the Complaint, however, CEGLIA’s claim to having a contractual right to 50% of Facebook was entirely false. CEGLIA simply replaced page one of the real contract with a new page one doctored to make it appear as though Zuckerberg had agreed to provide CEGLIA with an interest in Facebook. And CEGLIA doctored, fabricated and destroyed evidence to support his false claim. The evidence demonstrating CEGLIA’s lawsuit is a fraud included the following:

• A search of one of CEGLIA’s hard drives uncovered a copy of the real April 28, 2003 contract, which CEGLIA had emailed to an attorney in March 2004, years before his lawsuit against Facebook and Zuckerberg (“Real Contract”). Page one of the Real Contract does not refer to Facebook in any fashion, let alone give CEGLIA a 50% interest in it.
• The spacing, columns, and margins of page one of the Alleged Contract are different from the spacing, columns, and margins of page two of the Alleged Contract. No such differences exist as between the pages of the Real Contract.
• A review of Harvard University’s email servers reveals that none of the Purported Emails appears in Zuckerberg’s email account as of February 2012. Further, none of the Purported Emails appears in Harvard’s backup tapes for Zuckerberg’s emails as they existed in October 2010, nor do any of the Purported Emails appear in Harvard’s backup tapes for Zuckerberg’s emails as they existed in November 2003. The emails between Zuckerberg and CEGLIA that do exist in Zuckerberg’s email account do not show any discussion of Facebook and, contrary to Ceglia’s claim, show that Zuckerberg was asking CEGLIA for money he was owed in 2004, not offering to give CEGLIA money.
• A forensic expert examined CEGLIA’s hard drives and other electronic media and found evidence that in February 2011, CEGLIA deleted files relating to the April 2003 contract with Zuckerberg and replaced them with new files that supported his lawsuit but that were backdated to make it appear as if those the files had in fact been created in 2003 and 2004. Further, a CD Rom revealed that CEGLIA had done test runs on fabricating some of the documents, including the Purported Emails, upon which his lawsuit relied.

Mark Zuckerberg's dog, Beast. (Facebook)

Facebook is finally following up on its plan to eliminate the phenomenon of fake page or profile 'likes' produced by malware or deception. As CNN reports, this has caused noticeable dips in likes on a number of popular pages, such as those for Lady Gaga, The Simpsons and Zynga's page for Texas HoldEm Poker. We tried and failed to see if the page for Zuck's dog Beast had taken a hit during the purge, but with 989,000 likes and counting, we think the adorable Hungarian Sheepdog can rest easy, for now.