Comments on: The Ghost Of Zuckerberg’s Past May Haunt Facebook IPO

By: RoR!! | Titillating Tech

RoR!! | Titillating Tech — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:26:16 +0000

[...] can always have someone else code it for me then steal the source code and call it my own, AKA the Mark Zuckerberg [...]

By: Facebook To Settle With ConnectU « Tech Talk

Facebook To Settle With ConnectU « Tech Talk — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:21:34 +0000

[...] those unfamiliar with the case , a lawsuit before the US Federal Court alleged that Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg stole [...]

By: Is Zuckerberg Nothing But a Big Phony? « Facebookers Anonymous

Is Zuckerberg Nothing But a Big Phony? « Facebookers Anonymous — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:21:16 +0000

[...] site called HarvardConnection back in 2003 before changing the name to ConnectU, and they claimed to have hired Zuckerberg as a programmer in late 2003 who neglected his nerd duties, presumably to [...]

By: habit47

habit47 — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:39:11 +0000

Intellectual property is hot property and one should defend it as such. if ConnectU was careless about their big idea, the fault lies in their yard. I’m not condoning any sort of theory-theft (if that is indeed the case) but if you’re a developer of ideas, I’d suggest you read this book: http://www.amaz...t/dp/0756626021.

On a slighlty different note, this also makes for interesting reading: http://blog.eri...books_lawsu.htm

Good luck.

By: Facebook In Court With ConnectU; Press Conference at 3 PM PST | Tekjuice.com

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:19:19 +0000

[...] Facebook/ConnectU litigation is moving ahead steadily – lawyers for both sides are in court today arguing over a preliminary [...]

By: PSST! it

PSST! it — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:56 +0000

The Ghost Of Zuckerberg’s Past May Haunt Facebook IPO…

Zuckerberg is accused of stealing the source code, design, and business plan for Facebook in 2003 when he worked in the Harvard dorms as a programmer for their own tertiary education focused social-ne…

By: jay

jay — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:12:39 +0000

mong other things, facebook and connectU are hardly ‘original’ ideas, which I think makes the theft issue a more complicated one.

that Zuckerberg undertook similar work for them is unfortunate, but it doesn’t actually prove anything within itself- er, zietgeist anyone?

ethically it may not be kosher, but from a legal standpoint I wonder much actually holds up.

finally: to suggest that this case is more valid because it began when facebook was not actually making a bunch of money doesn’t hold a lot of water- at that point in time the potential for growth and profits was pretty high

By: collaboration and facebook — onlinevideoconferenceandcollaboration.com

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:47:46 +0000

[...] unless you get sue-ed of course [...]

By: patrik

patrik — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:13:57 +0000

i bet you it’s a case of these guys walked into a dorm room, asked him what he was doing, then determined that that’s enough to consider themselves co-founders.

it happens everyday. people come up with ideas, but only one person in the group has the wherewithal to forge ahead. then when the lone person strikes gold, the others come waltzing in trying to get their slice of the pie.

if you think you don’t have any relatives, for example, win the lottery.

By: rh

rh — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:36:17 +0000

why is it that zuckerberg stopped using the line ” a mark zuckerberg production” at the bottom of facebooks home page could it possibly be that he realizes that the production of this 6 billion dollar website was not his idea? I am not amazed it has lasted this long because each side has their own weapon for zuckerberb, money. For the winklevoss twins proof along with what i believe is the truth. this could easiely go either way and it would probably be best to settle out side of court for facebooks image, but it will be interesting to see what the upcoming court date brings

By: mike

mike — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:42:15 +0000

I think these guys have a case. Theft is a pretty big deal.

By: MikeM

MikeM — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 01:07:43 +0000

Genius is often misunderstood. Zuckerberg is a genius. You allow and expect genius to be exceptional. So what if he speaks like a robot, hail robot speak.

Those Google guys are a bit out there as well. Cuban and the Youtube guys are a little out scrambled too.

Gates seems relatively normal as does Woz and Jobs.

By: Srini

Srini — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:15:14 +0000

Visions are very powerful, but without implementation…

Implementation is very powerful, but without a vision…

One difference:
You can’t steal an “implementation”.

Therefore, if you are an inventor, shut up about your ideas until you can implement them, and bind everyone you hire to secrecy by waving expensive lawyers at them.

This is the opposite of open source, but this case casts us all out of the Garden for sure.

- Srini

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:28:16 +0000

Hopefully Facebook won’t be shut down, its a wonderful service.

By: chat boy

chat boy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:09:56 +0000

Call me jealous, but I figure anyone who’s gotten as far as he has at the age that he is must have stepped on a few heads to get to the top. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this were true but I guess history is written by the victors.

By: Jean-Michel Decombe

Jean-Michel Decombe — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:20:55 +0000

@Ira:
True, all these other social networks are currently lame, but let’s see where we are two years from now… If Facebook won’t sell out or partner in some way, I doubt the other guys are gonna say “oh, okay, let’s not do anything with social networks then, since Facebook won’t play with us… and let’s not fix our crappy current offerings, especially since social networks are the hot thing right now and, in fact, forever… let’s just give up”. Also, Facebook customers cannot be called extremely loyal until after very compelling competition emerges. Yet I agree that it is currently the best out there and they deserve kudos for that achievement.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:12:00 +0000

I met the founders of connectu.com in 2004 and they told me all about Zuckerberg working for them, stalling the project then suddenly launching thefacebook.com. I hope he gets his just desserts and they get considerable compensation or facebook shutdown. What goes around comes around.

By: Ira

Ira — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:04:33 +0000

“Moreover, if he won’t sell out, I assume that he is preparing for the inevitable onslaught of competing social networks by the “majors”. There is still much to be done in that area…”

Yeah, like MSN spaces, Yahoo 360 and Google Orkut? I think the onslaught is over and Facebook won. They have a very unique product and extremely loyal users. Facebook doesn’t get the credit it deserves, I can’t see anything overtaking it soon.

By: Diddy

Diddy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:00:49 +0000

facebook?? has anyone heard of this new network by the name of peekamo??????????

By: kory

kory — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:59:12 +0000

do u think they are able to back it up, where the proof?

By: Jean-Michel Decombe

Jean-Michel Decombe — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:49:25 +0000

@Foley:
I have no idea whether he stole or not, stalled or not, and otherwise (only he and the ConnectU guys know) but, as you say, the courts will decide. Of course there is no product without code, but while you can easily hire engineers to write code that is good enough, you can’t easily hire a leader to develop and execute on a vision.

By: matt

matt — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:44:22 +0000

“probably borrowed the code too” = borrowed some code, probably a few thousand lines max. It wasn’t much but that’s the whole fruit of the poisonous tree concept.

By: matt

matt — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:42:57 +0000

I was at MIT when all this went down and knew people involved (on both sides). The bottom line is that Mark definitely “stole” the idea and probably borrowed the code too. He admitted in articles in the Harvard Crimson that he was hired and worked for the ConnectU team. Someone is bankrolling this lawsuit… someone thinks there is a payoff here.

By: Jean-Michel Decombe

Jean-Michel Decombe — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:41:33 +0000

It is quite interesting to see the reaction to this guy (with whom I have absolutely no connection whatsoever). So he is *supposedly* a poor speaker who exhibits little confidence and seems to be arrogant (probably as a result of the former) and the conclusion is… that he should not be allowed to pursue his dream? This is a poor outlook on life. If he is indeed all these things, then he should be commanded for pursuing his dream in spite of it all. If it was all about money, he would have sold the company a long time ago and retired with a billion dollars. And I can’t imagine he is thinking about becoming the richest man in the world, which is quite unlikely to happen since Facebook’s technology is so replicable and Web customers are so fickle (Google is a different case: access and gratification are instant, browser integration is fairly pervasive, and no competition is substantially better). Moreover, if he won’t sell out, I assume that he is preparing for the inevitable onslaught of competing social networks by the “majors”. There is still much to be done in that area…

By: Foley

Foley — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:23:11 +0000

Patricia 51:

Bill Gates didn’t steal, he rightfully paid for it. He purchased DOS from Seattle Computer Products, licensed it to IBM, retained the rights so he can license it to IBM’s competitor, and made a lot of money with it.

Jean 29:
Without code there is no product. Making money is not always about the product. What people forget is that when Zuckerberg was working with connectU, he actively stalled them. He promised to deliver code for them, which he never did. In the mean time, he made Facebook, and laucnhed before connectU and gained the first movers advantage for the college social network scene.
Many people attribute FB’s success with the first movers advantage, as it certainly was not the code or the interface because it sucked.

Zuckerberg didn’t have much of a development team when he first started. ConnectU did. If you want to believe that Zuckerberg was able to create a social network, launch before connectU (even though he started after connectU), without a little help (i.e. stolen code) then go ahead…but the courts will decide that.