In an unprecedented act of generosity during the season of giving, Lexington philanthropist and artist Dmitry “Dima” Strakovsky, announced that he is gifting his valuable digital art property, facebookportrait.com, to the Facebook corporation. The property, which according to its latest valuation is worth between $11.39 and $1.28 billion, uses Facebook images and likes that a user posts on the site to create a self-portrait of fast-changing images.
In a letter posted on a website, addressed to “Ethel”, whose identity UnderMain is unable to confirm, Strakovsky acknowledges that Facebook has raised a trademark claim and requested/demanded that he cease using facebookportrait.com. Perhaps inspired by the recent record-shattering gift of Facebook stock worth $45 billion by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Strakovsky gave the corporation outright ownership of the contested domain, no strings attached.
In the letter, Strakovsky makes clear his intent to provide Facebook with an unrestricted and inspired gift:
[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#000000″ width=”content” align=”center” size=”2″ quote=”Facebook is an entity that has the unenviable responsibility to satisfy and control billions of individual desires through a host of services, both monetized and otherwise. An immense part of the public communications sector is impacted by its every decision. This must be a lonely and difficult task. I hope to bring a moment of happiness and respite to your employer, and it is my sincerest hope that Facebook, Inc., will enjoy this GIFT.” parallax=”off” direction=”left”]
UnderMain will be following this story closely and hopes to have Mr. Strakovsky address the issues raised by his gift in a future post.
