Facebook Founder Sued For Source Code Theft - Plaintiffs Want All Profits

[DudeAsInCool]

This is a juicy story:

Facebook in Litigation 2.0

A long-simmering dispute over the origins of Facebook is set to erupt later this month at a federal court hearing about whether Mark Zuckerberg, the young web mogul now being feted by media honchos, stole the original code for his booming social network from three Harvard classmates.

The lawsuit, filed by brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accuses Zuckerberg, Facebook's 23-year-old C.E.O, of stealing the source code, design, and business plan for Facebook in 2003 when he briefly worked in the Harvard dorms as a programmer for their own fledgling social-networking site, now known as ConnectU.

The plaintiffs have demanded that Facebook be shut down and that full control of the site - and its profits - be turned over to them.

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[NelsonG]

I'd be surprised if this isn't settled out of court.

[DudeAsInCool]

The UK Guardian Observer reports that Zimmerman will be in court this week. Here are the allegations:

"According to a profile in the New Yorker magazine, three older students at Harvard learned of Zuckerberg's prowess and invited him to write a computer code for a new site they were planning. The Winklevoss brothers and Narendra based their idea on existing social networking websites that allowed members to post personal details and link to other members. By late 2003 they had designed a prototype, known as HarvardConnection, and approached Zuckerberg to help them to complete it. Tyler Winklevoss told the New Yorker: 'We met Mark, and we talked to him and we thought, "This guy seems like a winner".'

Zuckerberg began working on HarvardConnection in November 2003. But it was not his only assignment. Harvard had been planning to put its facebook online so students could learn more about each other. Zuckerberg decided to take on that task as well. With immaculate self-assurance, he said at the time: 'I think it's kind of silly that it would take the university a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.'

Thefacebook.com went live on 4 February, 2004, and within 24 hours more than 1,200 students had registered. By the end of February, about three-quarters of undergraduates had created a profile, consisting of a picture and details such as the user's course, club memberships, favourite films and choice quotations. There was a search box to look up others' profiles and a 'poking' button to make contact - now one of the most famous features on Facebook.

By the end of the month it had launched at Columbia, Yale and Stanford universities, again taking each campus by storm but maintaining an intimacy that many still regard as the secret of its success. With two colleagues Zuckerberg worked over the summer to build up a quarter of a million users. He decided to drop out of Harvard and moved to Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, met local venture capitalists and attracted millions of dollars of investment.

Then a cloud appeared on the horizon. In September 2004 the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra filed allegations with a federal court that Zuckerberg stole their idea and worked to drag out their site's launch so that he could complete Facebook first. He was not paid to do the work, they said, but he was a full member of their team and would have reaped any future rewards. In total they made nine claims, including copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract.

That November, Facebook filed a countersuit, charging ConnectU with defamation. Zuckerberg has said ConnectU asked him to do about six hours of work, which he did, and any delays were due to him getting bogged down by his studies. He points out that he was not paid and did not sign a contract. But ConnectU's founders claim he agreed an 'oral contract', deliberately played for time and that an email trail supports their case.

The messages, filed with the court, were reproduced in the New Yorker. On 4 December, in a message to Cameron Winklevoss, Zuckerberg allegedly wrote: 'Sorry I was unreachable tonight. I just got about three of your missed calls. I was working on a problem set.' Thirteen days later, he allegedly wrote again: 'Sorry I have not been reachable for the past few days. I've basically been in the lab the whole time working on a... problem set which I'm still not finished with.' Then, on 8 January, 2004, he allegedly wrote: 'I'm completely swamped with work this week. I have three programming projects and a final paper due by Monday, as well as a couple of problem sets due Friday.'

On 14 January, the magazine reported, the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra met with Zuckerberg to discuss his apparent procrastinations. According to Tyler Winklevoss, Zuckerberg mentioned that he had been occupied with other projects but did not identify them, even though he had registered the domain name Thefacebook.com three days earlier. 'He didn't mention it at all,' Tyler Winklevoss said. 'He didn't say he was working on anything similar to our site. It just seems like the way he acted was very duplicitous.'"

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[Shawn]

Hopefully it blows it offline. And kills everyone registered with the site.

Only blood can wipe the slate clean.

[DudeAsInCool]

Hopefully it blows it offline. And kills everyone registered with the site.

Only blood can wipe the slate clean.

i havent checked out the site yet. they made a smart move in buying parakey--i have a feeling that will help make it more mainstream.

have you tried it? dont like it?

[Shawn]

I just like seeing social networks implode. And the resultant deaths of their freakish hordes.

Facebook is the MySpace for the wealthier/better educated.

[method77]

Shawn and Method77 are now friends

[Shawn]

Special friends...

[DudeAsInCool]

Special friends...