Moroccan computer engineer Fouad Mortada, pictured here, created a fake Facebook profile for a Moroccan prince. Fake profiles are nothing new to Facebook; do a search for any popular celebrity on the site and you’re bound to find a profile or ten.

But Moroccan courts have misinterpreted the just-for-fun profile as something malicious – impersonation and identity theft – and thus have ordered Mortada to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three years in prison. The blogosphere is up in arms, and rightfully so: the prince and Moroccan government should have gone a less litigious route in protecting the Moroccan prince’s personal brand, by asking Mortada for ownership of the profile rather than throwing him in jail.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Facebook, International, Legal Issues, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.