If the Social Network taught us anything, it's that one Mark Zuckerberg in the world is plenty. But one intrepid Israeli businessman didn't quite see things that way. Wishing to take advantage of a kind of capital that doesn't quite exist in solid terms yet, Rotem Guez set out on a journey to become the next Mark Zuckerberg--literally. As in, he legally changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg in the hopes that it would offer him a little more credibility in his online business. We live in a world where people do this stuff, kids. It's getting pretty weird out there.

Exactly what kind of business would profit from having yet another Mark Zuckerberg at its head? Zuck 2.0 was apparently manipulating the original Zuck's creation for his own benefit, selling fans to businesses who wanted to artificially inflate the number of "likes" on their Facebook pages. So if you're an entrepreneur with a company no one's heard of, you can hire Guez's company to make a bunch of fake Facebook profiles "like" your company's profile, thereby elevating your brand to eternal internet glory. I guess having "Mark Zuckerberg" among your fans was part of the package deal, or maybe you had to pay extra for that. 

 

Either way, the original Zuckerberg wasn't too keen on the idea that somebody might be profiting by pretending to be him. Facebook has been trying to sue Guez/Zuck II for operating the "Like Store". They've also been shutting down his own personal Facebook profile, claiming him an impostor. Guez has retorted that he has as much a right to the name as any other Jew and that because it's legally his name, Facebook can't keep him from claiming it on their site. 

 

While corporations may not really be people, it certainly seems as though people are corporate brands in their own right. The original Mark Zuckerberg's name and presence seems to have plenty of inherent capital that needs to be kept out of the hands of the rabble, even those dedicated enough to have their names changed by a judge. It remains unclear whether Guez changed his own name in a deliberate attempt to elevate the worth of his own "like" or whether he was just so into Facebook that he thought it would be a pretty cool idea. Either way, the battle of Zuckerberg vs. Zuckerberg continues--and if I had to bet, I'd place my money on the one with the billions.