Are facebook pages copyrighted?

Me and my friend are planning on making a page on the Social website facebook, However, A person told us that it was a copyright. The person who owned the other page of course, and said they could sue us for the page they were talking about has a copyright but ours has a different name but of the same thing. A video game, a Cartoon and a Comic, theirs is made of a comic and ours of the cartoon, ours has different names and tags. Can we be sued?
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Answered By: Intellectual Property Center, LLC
Your question is unclear, are you asking to copy a page from Facebook or are you creating your own page? Please call or email with further clarification and i would be happy to answer your question, if possible. Good Luck.

Answer Applies to: Kansas
Replied: 8/12/2011

Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.

Answered By: Devon & Associates
I cannot determine from your description whether there is "substantial similarity" between your proposed page and the Facebook page you believe is protected by copyright. A judge or jury would look at the two side-by-side to determine whether, in their opinion, it is "substantially similar". It can be a quite subjective determination. It is an area where a good legal argument and summation can make all of the difference in the outcome. As I cannot give you specific advice without more information from you about exactly what is on the two pages, I will give you general legal advice: make it as different as possible from the other page. "Ideas are as free as the air."[quote from a well-known judge], but specific expressions of the idea, text, artwork, drawings etc. may be protected under U.S. Copyright law.

Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/10/2011

Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.

Answered By: Barton Barton & Plotkin
Yes you can be sued. If you use images that infringe someone else's copyright, you can be sued. Changing the name or caption won't help if you infringe. More generally, if you post articles or photographs on facebook that infringe someone's copyright, you can be sued for infringement.

Answer Applies to: New York
Replied: 8/10/2011

Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.

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