Date: Thursday, August 2, 2007
Facebook Loses Face
Facebook wunderkind, Mark Zuckerberg, has yet to comment on claims that he stole the idea for the website from college peers at Harvard. The creators of rival site ConnectU have launched a law suit against the man who has brought social networking to the masses.
It seems it was only a matter of time until the bubble would appear to burst on the Facebook dream, but Zuckerberg is not taking it lying down, and it appears that the judge presiding over the case is getting to ready to throw the claim out. The creators of the rival social networking site ConnectU, Divya Narendra and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss claim that they came up with the idea whilst students at Harvard University, and asked Zuckerberg to programme some of the content for them. They then claim that Zuckerberg went against this agreement and instead stole their ideas for himself. Zuckerberg’s lawyers strongly deny the accusations and maintain that the claimants are merely trying to cash in on Facebook’s success, which currently numbers approximately 30 million members, compared to ConnectU’s rather paltry 70, 000. Now the judge in the case has asked the Winklevosses’ lawyers to come up with evidence of the precise agreement that was entered in to between them and Zuckerberg in order for him to decide if any contract was breached.
The creators of ConnectU want Facebook shut down, and its profits handed over to them in addition to damages. They likened it to having their car stolen and they didn’t just want the car back they wanted to be able to use it again. However it seems that this may be a long way off as the judge appears to need some convincing that an infringement really took place. He said dorm room banter did not constitute a binding agreement. The case has been dismissed until August 2007 to give the claimants more time to build up their case.
Sources:
BBC News
BBC News
This article is the intellectual property of Pan European Consulting Limited and any unauthorised reprinting or publishing on other websites is an infringement of copyright.