Is Facebook Built on Stolen Code? Court to Decide
Monday, July 16th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
While Facebook continues to attract media attention - with talk of acquisition partners or an IPO - it’s haunted by a three year old law suit that claims it is built on code stolen by founder Mark Zuckerberg.
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.
A federal court will finally hear the case this month.
While I don’t believe ConnectU will get what they want, they’ll likely get a tidy sum to settle. It reminds me of Google’s settlement with Yahoo, just before its IPO. The company gave Yahoo 2.7 million shares to settle a dispute that AdWords violated an Overture patent.
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July 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[...] Andy says that Facebook may be built on stolen code. Wow, that is one court case I’m going to be watching closely. [...]
July 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[...] Andy says that Facebook may be built on stolen code. Wow, that is one court case I’m going to be watching closely. [...]
July 17th, 2007 at 3:12 am
[...] or consider the idea of Andy Beal. Save to del.icio.us • Stumble It! • Submit To Netscape • Digg This! Enter your email address toSubscribe: [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:50 am
[...] Andy says that Facebook may be built on stolen code. Wow, that is one court case I’m going to be watching closely. [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 12:21 am
[...] Is Facebook Built on Stolen Code? Court to Decide [...]
July 28th, 2007 at 12:27 am
[...] Elsewhere bloggers are asking: Is Facebook built on stolen code? Founder Mark Zuckerberg was sued by ex-Harvard classmates who say he snatched Facebook’s source code from them (via Andy Beal). Valleywag runs mug shots of the wannabe founders, while In a Day’s Work wonders if the suit isn’t the death of trust: forget batting ideas around with your buddies anymore. MySpace has its own problems with trust: The FBI remotely bugged the account of a man suspected of making bomb threats to a high school in Washington State, then busted and convicted him. ADVERTISEMENT [...]