Facebook is close to putting an uncomfortable and embarrassing legal episode behind it.
ConnectU founders Tyler Winklevoss, left, and Cameron Winklevoss, right, and Divya Narendra. (Photo: Charles Krupa/Associated Press)
A person briefed on the status of dueling lawsuits between Facebook and the competing site ConnectU said on Sunday that Facebook was finalizing a settlement with the founders of ConnectU — brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their colleague, Divya Narendra.
The ConnectU founders were accusing Mark Zuckerberg and the original crew behind Facebook of pilfering their profitable idea back in 2003, when they were all Harvard students. Facebook had filed a countersuit, accusing ConnectU of unfair business practices.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. In the meantime, all motions in the case against ConnectU have been terminated.
ConnectU did not immediately respond to an e-mail message requesting comment. A California federal judge had ordered the parties into mediation last year.
The ConnectU founders asserted that they hired Mr. Zuckerberg, then a sophomore at Harvard, in 2003 to help create a campus-wide dating site called Harvard Connection. They say that he stalled on the project for months while nurturing his own idea and ultimately starting TheFacebook.com. The case cast doubts on Mr. Zuckerberg’s ingenuity, and discovery efforts turned up some embarrassing material — like his diary. Facebook clearly needed to make the suit go away before a widely expected initial public offering that could come as early as next year.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company would not comment on legal matters. But the person briefed on the status of the negotiations said motions to dismiss the cases were expected to be filed “within weeks.”
From 1 to 25 of 37 Comments
It will be interesting to hear how much the settlement was with ConnectU. Will they walk away millionaires?
Zuckerberg, I feel, is why Facebook succeeded, no matter what its origins may have been. Otherwise, we’d be talking about ConnectU. Clearly Narendra and the brothers Winklevoss didn’t have the talent, drive, or vision to make their site a success.
— Jim NelsonIntellectual plagarism at Harvard! Say it ain’t so.
— MarkPerhaps there is some “doubt” to Zuckerberg’s ingenuity but talk is cheap. As the saying goes “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
As Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have been able to see farther, it is because I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants.”
Yeah MS might have copied the GUI from Apple, but then Steve Jobs supposedly got the idea from Xerox’s PARC.
A social networking site doesn’t strike me as innovative. If you manage to one up your competitors given the crowded space, then it’s probably much more perspiration than inspiration.
Anyway, the truth is somewhere in the middle but ideas are just that, ideas. Success in business can be as much about making connections as anything else and if someone one ups you on that front because they have more charisma, more contacts from perhaps having had a silver spoon in their mouth, c’est la vie, get over it.
-M
PS: I think I’ll go patent “flying cars” so I can sue anyone who makes them a reality (if I’m still alive).
— MarioNot surprising, as the entire Web 2.0 concept involves ripping people off, and breaking the rules as much as one can get away with. Open source plagiarism and pilfering is just the way of the online innovator these days. Major corporations do it all the time now, and make millions of dollars everyday.
— FedUpI’ve read a lot about this case over the past year and it seems as though there are some extremely fishy/shady things going on with regards to Mark’s work at ConnectU and what code he produced and/or borrowed when he worked there. By settling it sends a message that ConnectU’s case was not without its merit which could be a warning sign to the Facebook board that Mark Zuckerberg’s history is far from squeaky clean. If he really did take ConnectU code and turn it into the basis for Facebook, he needs to be booted from the company immediately.
— Mike Rundleall of the filings in the two Federal cases can be found here:
MA Case
http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/massachusetts/madce/1:2007cv10593/108516/
and here
CA Case
— Jayhttp://news.justia.com/cases/featured/california/candce/5:2007cv01389/189975/
I’m not commenting on legal matters here.
But it’s good that they resolved the issue, avoiding a prolonged fight and headlines.
Americans all over the world are keeping in touch with politics and friends by using Facebook. It would be badly missed were something to happen to the site.
After creating a Meetup group in the UK for Obama, members *begged* me, really pleading, for it to be on Facebook. It’s beyond hot around the world.
Carole
— Carolehttp://www.Americans-Away-From-Home
Justice is done. Scoundrels!
— ashaI think it’s a good decision for both parties. The Winklevosses and Mr. Narendra had the original idea for ConnectU, but Zuckerberg had the programming expertise. While no legal documents were formally signed, one can hardly blame the founders of ConnectU, as few could have envisioned the later success of Facebook.
I like Facebook and have tremendous respect for the vision of all the people in the case (especially because Harvard University had dragged its feet on providing an online facebook for students). I hope that all parties can finally move past this to the rest of their careers.
— FromwhereIsitI agree with the idea that Zuckerberg and his team are responsible for the growth of Facebook — there can be no doubt in this. But this case isn’t about seeing an idea and coying it from a 30,000 foot level. The issue at hand was stealing code and stealing an idea from an employer. Zuckerberg says he didn’t, but if the payout is substantial, he basically did. In that case, he’s a creep.
— MaxNice to see the mighty getting a healthy helping of comeuppance. The idea that you can become a billionaire with such smoke and mirrors still baffles me.
— JamesJust goes to show why you should never share information on new untested ideas with anyone who can potentially steal them and claim them as their own. In such a case, all you have is one persons word over another. Zuckerberg pulled a Bill Gates and has succeeded wildly from the gamble if Facebooks current popularity is any indication, but his achievement even in success owes everything to the original idea and that was not his. As a technologist and inventor, I know I couldn’t imagine profiting in some way off of another persons idea without giving them at least credit for “the idea”. However, you can’t get a settlement for idea stealing, so Zuckerberg actually did something far more egregious than just make his own implementation of an idea they shared with him.
So all you budding folks with lots of ideas, if they are untested (meaning they are not in the public in any form) do not share that knowledge with anyone until you have a finished implementation (and preferably a patented implementation) of the idea ready to sell, market or launch. This is the first thing any competent patent attorney will tell you.
— davidTo those who forgive Zuckerberg’s actions because he became a success: I’m working on an energy project for which I did NONE of the chemistry or design. I’m an implementor like Zuckerberg. Is it okay for me to walk away with a bunch of drawings under my arm just because I think I can do a better job of pitching it to investors?
Who’s to say what ConnectU could have been if they’d hired an ethical programmer instead? It might not be as grand as Facebook is now, but it’d probably still be pretty successful — while Zuckerberg would be absolutely nothing without the resources he stole from ConnectU. Whatever the settlement is, it’s not enough.
— ESAdditionally, Zuckerberg stole Harvar’s database to start his comany (he later apologized).
— TedFrom criminal to millionaire. I guess the ends justifies the means…
I believe it was Picasso who said “good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
Nonetheless, leave it to Harvard to nurture such cut-throat, win-at-all-costs behavior. Perhaps it’s not financial aid that needs examining, but rather the values such a “fine” institution fosters.
Such stand-up guys surely make Larry Summers proud.
— JohnFacebook = Friendster 2.0 (which probably ripped off one of its predecessors too).
It’s just bizarre how copycats can make so much money.
— Create something newCall me “Web 1.0,” but I’m still trying to figure out the relevance of Superpoke and Scrambler. Facebook is cluttered up with mind-numbing fluff: where is the money to be made from that?
People will soon move away from it just like they did MySpace and whatever the big site was before Myspace (which no one can name because Web atttention spans are shorter than a Chevy Chase Talk Show career.)
Just give me an email account and a keyboard and I’m fine. (And you all can “unfriend” me for that comment.)
– Angry Young Man
— Angry Young ManIt’s obvious these guys were all undergrads, because at the MBA school they teach you one essential thing, Non Disclosure Agreement.
Before talking to anyone about your “next big thing,” have them sign an NDA. If you’re planning to steal someone’s idea, then convince them that you don’t need to sign an NDA.
— Kensimple as that “stealing trade secrets”
— rogerprosecute him
Let’s see. An employee stole his employer’s property. That’s the whole thing. He was hired to do a job FOR them, not ON them. Success or not, it’s plain old thievery. Payback time.
— harrisFacebook is so yesterday. And wasn’t there an article in the NYT just a few weeks back about people determined to get rid of their profiles from the facebook tentacles? All that aside, the magazine ‘02138′ articles linked under “his [Zuckeberg's] diary” definitely seem to show Zuckerburg is a compulsive liar and a shady operator, consumed with double dealing, back stabbing, and his ego. Probably he will sell his Facebook shares too late to get the over-inflated value out before it inevitably collapses as people go to the next online social fad.
— EdJust a comment about this blog item: Though the diary mentioned was included in the discovery process, it only became public in an article published in 02138 magazine (where I work).
Readers can find the article here: http://www.02138mag.com/magazine/article/1724.html .
The 02138 article was the first (that I’m aware of, anyway) to take the lawsuit seriously and actually read the court documents…
— Richard BradleyCan’t we have just a peek at the diary.
— NatI believe that they founded the company and Z’town stole the idea. I hope these gentlemen are set for life!
— susanShame on Zuckerberg. Perhaps if he goes work for Obama, he’ll get straight A’s too, considering how convenient Obama picks up someone else’s ideas and passes them off as his own. Even my 5-year-old knows this is wrong, very ethically wrong. While Zuckerberg might settle the lawsuit, this bad-taste-in-mouth will never go away. Dream on, dude.
— tiddle