Build your own system or come up with your own great idea. You don't need to copy Facebook any more than they had to copy MySpace.
You just need to put in some original hard work and make it happen. It isn't Facebook's fault you can't come up with something better that people want to use. There's no patent on social networking.
How would it be fair if you invested a billion dollars in code and marketing only to have someone come along and steal your code? You might not like patents, but they will help protect you and your great idea if you every execute on one.
Facebook isn't stopping you from doing anything.
This is a straw man argument. I didn't say violate trademarks. I said trademark enforcement. A small competitor can be wiped out easily with legal costs associated with an extended trademark battle in court.
>Build your own system or come up with your own great idea.
Same straw man. I don't have to violate patents to be sued out of existence.
>There's no patent on social networking.
This statement is categorically false. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=social+network+patent
Has anything like that ever happened? Someone starts a business and a competitor with a completely unrelated name wipes them out with a trademark battle?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dr-reddys-blocked-from-selling-p...
Don't be a dick. We're having a conversation here. Lots of people in this very thread don't use Facebook.
In other words, "You're free to speak, as long as no one can hear you." Nice bait. Look at all your replies.
>Having open speech on Facebook's platform is not an inalienable right.
So long as the government ensures that Facebook is the only platform via patent/copyright/trademark enforcement, I beg to differ. When I can build a Facebook clone of my own and not be sued out of existence for it [1], then you have a valid point. Until then, Facebook isn't greatly different from VKontakte or Renren.
[1]http://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-sues-german-rival/