August 15, 2007

Google Removes Blog Showing Leaked Facebook Code

Michael Arrington

45 comments »

FacebookSecrets, the blog that posted the accidentally released source code for the Facebook main index page, has been taken down. The blog was hosted on the Google-owned Blogger blog network and was removed pursuant to a DMCA take down notice from Facebook.

A new blog (also on Blogger) has gone up that chronicles the back and forth between Google and the author (well, it’s one way communication, actually).

Facebook’s statement on the matter came down to “it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook” and “the reprinting of this code violates several laws.” We disagreed on both points - the leak provided information to potential hackers as to potential security holes, and the fact that Facebook accidentally released the code themselves on their site may have made it very difficult for them to claim protection under the law.

That being said, it’s unlikely the anonymous author of the blog would be around to defend his/her position. I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.

Sphere It

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Comments

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Someones-Ex-Gf.com

August 15th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

….and this was worthy of front page news?
Michael Arrington

August 15th, 2007 at 8:12 pm

#1 - This is a blog. Blogs only have one place to put new news.
Jay S.D

August 15th, 2007 at 8:15 pm

That did take a really long time to occur.
EM

August 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

Did someone happen to save this code and post it somewhere else? I didn’t bother but it would be nice to archive it now that I think about it. Please post any links to the source here, otherwise, I will be forced to hack the website myself.
tuber

August 15th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

@EM

I dont think it would be smart to post a link directly to the code. It would most likely be deleted. Good luck with hacking it yourself though:)
Jesse

August 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pm

Mike you should post the code here and pwn them in court bro.
Satish

August 15th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

Good comeback Arrington *h5*.
Alex

August 15th, 2007 at 8:38 pm

“the fact that Facebook accidentally released the code themselves on their site may have made it perfectly legal for others to repost it.”

Wait, what?

I’m not a copyright lawyer, but I was under the impression that the only way someone else can legally repost my copyrighted code is if I specifically grant them that right - for example through an individual agreement or an open-source license. I don’t think “accidentally releasing the code” counts as giving someone else permission to distribute it.
Jimmy

August 15th, 2007 at 8:39 pm

In few years, I’m going to see Facebook vs. Google generation.

Google or Yahoo wants to buy Facebook. I know Mark’s attitude. He will say “No” or “F*ck off”. He’s very good at making business deals. I call him Business Genius.
Bob

August 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

They should hold themselfs to the same standards and take down Youtube. As it is the harbinger of stolen videos.
Jordan

August 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

Mike,
Aren’t you a lawyer? Shouldn’t you understand the basics of copyright law? I would have suspected more intelligent comments from you.
Jordan

August 15th, 2007 at 8:42 pm

suspected = expected
Tim

August 15th, 2007 at 8:42 pm

Strangely enough, gOOgle didn’t remove it from their cache. lol

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=.....ent=safari
Jay S.D

August 15th, 2007 at 8:43 pm

B.ackles

That was not the author of FB Secrets. That guy claimed to post the code first and then claimed the blog copied.
dubC

August 15th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

Good comeback indeed Mr. Arrington.
Michael Arrington

August 15th, 2007 at 8:49 pm

re copyright issues (#8, #11) - it would be extremely hard to prosecute this under the copyright laws, prove damages, etc. The code itself wasn’t very unique. Trade Secrets was the way to go, and that’s where they lost rights by posting it accidentally. Could go into a long treatise on this in the post but I’d like to keep readers awake.
Advice

August 15th, 2007 at 8:53 pm

Advice:

In the future, never interview Mark Zuckerberg. I have special gift. I can read Mark’s mind. He does not like Mike Arrington. He wants to beat up a journalist who writes nasty comments about facebook.

Mike never talk to Mark on phone. I bet you… in my special gift. He will yell, cuss, or scream at you. You should never write more stuff about Facebook or leaked source code.
Jessie

August 15th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

“It would be extremely hard to prosecute this under the copyright laws, prove damages, etc. The code itself wasn’t very unique.”

The code is certainly unique enough to Facebook to be copyrightable. Also, if this is your argument, why did you disagree with Facebook’s claim on the basis that Facebook posted the code itself? That would seem completely irrelevant.

As far as proving damages, Facebook made no claim that it had a right to damages. It simply said that reposting the code was in violation of the law, and I haven’t seen anyone disprove that yet. If TC is going to take the position that this is untrue, I think it owes it to its readers to clarify why, even at the risk of putting them to sleep.
Jesse

August 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

Advice is my hero
Jordan

August 15th, 2007 at 9:39 pm

Mike,
I would be very interested in hearing your logic. I agree that getting money out of these people would be very difficult, but getting them to cease in distributing copyrighted content seems like an easy step. If you have the time and feel like a response would be to boring for the general reader feel free to email me. Thanks.
Advice

August 15th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

Thanks…

If Mark like”Achilles” in Dinner. What does that mean?

Hint: Don’t talk about history. Mark’s dinner is about not a European history. If you have business plan or want to know facebook’s next secret product.

You should say to him “Achilles should meet napoleon…. I need battle plan.” Have nice chat with him. Don’t pay dinner… Mike will take care it. He will fund your startup or help you with press thing.

He’s good at something.
missenlinx

August 15th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

http://facebooksecrets.blogspot.com actually is full of adverts now not relating to facebook
Brian Rowe

August 15th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

Releasing the code may remove its trade secret protection, but does not affect its copyright status. Unfortunately in the US source code is usually protected by copyright law as if it were a literary work, for 90 years if done as a “work for hire.” Which is asinine as the code is really just an algorithm that should have no protection under copyright. By the time copyright runs out the code is obsolete, which defeats the intent of the intellectual property clause all together.

The blogger might be able to claim fair use if they are writing a story about the code and only reposting parts of it.

- Law Student Seattle University
Michael Arrington

August 15th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

I love law students.
Jimmy

August 15th, 2007 at 10:05 pm

Techcrunch. What the heck you are doing?

I think TC does not get it. Have you heard of Libel? Well… In state of Califorina, there no way you win libel suit or “Facebook leaked source code”. It is not about publication freedom of press.

You cannot have TC disagree Facebook laws. I think you better watch out. Facebook are going to slap you with huge libel lawsuit. Don’t say it’s not going to happen.

Techcrunch give users link to illegal link to Facebook Source code. “Facebook leaked source code” is not free press — It’s copyright fragement without premission to facebook. Who disagree with me?
Jimmy

August 15th, 2007 at 10:14 pm

Come on mike. How many times libel press get sue by Hollywood celebrities?
Million times. Celebrities can sue copyright images or leaked sex videos.

If Techcrunch moved Nevada. The lawsuit would be different. They would reject Facebook libel suit.

California libel suit is pain in ass. Nevada.. I think will drop the case.
Jordan

August 15th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

Always take legal advice from people who can’t create complete sentences.
Jon

August 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

#25, Jimmy,

> You cannot have TC disagree Facebook laws.

I didn’t know Facebook make its own laws… Do they have their own police too?
your master

August 15th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

I just love the comment in the code:

// Holy shit, is this the cleanest fucking frontend file you’ve ever seen?!
too funny -
Jimmy

August 15th, 2007 at 11:39 pm

Jon. I don’t make the law. I don’t know much about facebook.
Have you seen facebook’s investigation at Wikipedia?
Shane

August 15th, 2007 at 11:54 pm

Jimmy

typing accents are funny
asdf

August 16th, 2007 at 12:32 am

http://blog.myspace.com/index......=300031253
Derrick

August 16th, 2007 at 12:56 am

Is there a typo in the title? Or am I really outdated about web lingo?
Gopinath M

August 16th, 2007 at 5:55 am

Better not to have start a blog on blogger.com. We can be free to express what ever we want if we own a server.
-gary

August 16th, 2007 at 9:32 am

“We can be free to express what ever we want if we own a server.”

Then you get to deal with the takedown notice yourself. Fun. Usually, they don’t even bother with you. They just go right for your hosting provider, be it shared hosting or colo.
Michael Fischer

August 16th, 2007 at 9:57 am

“The fact that Facebook accidentally released the code themselves on their site may have made it very difficult for them to claim protection under the law.”

I can only assume, Michael, that this means that you’d have no problem with anyone reproducing TechCrunch’s content (or anything else that you have written) because you released it voluntarily.

Please, hire a lawyer before you make stupid (and false) legal assertions.
James

August 16th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

HAHAHA you think that PHP code can allow “hackers” to break in? Obviously you’ve never coded ANYTHING in your life. A bunch of include statements don’t mean anything. Your credibility is really shot lately. How about next time you get a programmers opinion before making comments like that?
TV Blogger

August 17th, 2007 at 2:14 pm

lol have to agree the code that was around wasn’t anything special, even facebook acknowledge that!
anonymoustroll

August 17th, 2007 at 10:02 pm

Whops… it’s on the internet now and that’s forever.

Say, does anyone think they might be able to come up with the includes?

include_once $_SERVER[ ‘PHP_ROOT’].’/html/init.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/mailbox.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/profilediff.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/notebook.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/screenname.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/display/profile.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/orientation.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/feed/minifeed.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/elections.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/profilediff.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/application.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/growth/greatwall.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/cache_object.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/fbml/include.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/chat/channel_common.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/gifts.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/giftshop.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/classifieds.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/relationship.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/media_header.php’ ;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’ ].’/lib/video/video.php’;
include_once $_SERVER[’PHP_ROOT’].’/lib/privacy_platform.php’ ;