Facebook In Court With ConnectU; Press Conference at 3 PM PST

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1. The Buxr Widget
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 11:47 am

   Nice publicity for ConnectU

2. Sean
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 11:54 am

   Just what this site needs. More news on FaceBook!

   Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

3. Dominic
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

   I have to believe there is a lot more to this litigation than meets the eye. I think a lot of trickery has occurred and will eventually surface on this one. Lawyers, even highly paid ones, don’t take on cases where there isn’t at least some small fire.

4. Nik Bonaddio
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

   I agree with #3. I’m not a lawyer so I can’t speak towards the allegations in strict law terms, but the projects in question are remarkably similar and I’m sure there were NDA agreements and other measures in place. I’m sure it’s also true that the ConnectU camp is simply looking for a handout, but I have to think it’s reasonably justified.

5. Allen Stern
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

   Would be funny if no media showed up.

   I think Zuckerberg is the next coming of Steve Jobs based on reading the thousands of posts about him. Don’t ever bash either of them or you will end up with cement boots in the hudson river.

6. Jared
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:42 pm

   Mark Zuckerberg is not the next coming of Steve Jobs.

   Steve Jobs is a creative genius from a modest background who took on significant personal risk to create an entire new market for home computers.

   Mark Zuckerberg is from a wealthy background (They don’t let just any one into Excelsior & Harvard), stole the premise of facebook from the connectU guys (even if the lawsuit fails, he worked for a college oriented social network before he started facebook), (maybe) stole the source code from them too, took no risk in starting facebook (Harvard lets students take time off), and in the end facebook is at best a re-hash of friendster.

   Zuckerberg is in many ways the antithesis of everything Steve Jobs represents.

7. Rex Dixon
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

   Yup… Zuckerberg probably did take snippets of ConnectU, but as pointed out in earlier comment threads - Zuckerberg did SOMETHING, and ConnectU sat around and watched with their jaw to the ground. So now years later, they sue. Classic American example of poor sportsmanship.

   Rex

8. Frostfirebuzz.com
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

   I think ConnectU could get a nice check from Facebook at some point soon. A new business model, leave your idea about, let people steal it, build it for you and then go after them. Perfect.

9. Frostfirebuzz.com
   

   July 25th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

   How can anyone compare these guys to Steve Jobs.

   chris @ http://www.frostfirebuzz.com - Internet News

10. Alaska Miller
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    Ha! Zuckerberg :: Jobs!

    I tried to find as many vid clips of Zuckerberg online as I can and unfortunately there’s really not that many. I tried so hard to make it through that F8 keynote but minute 5 I just wanted to make a post on my Facebook account saying I’ve committed suicide and bash my head against a wall because of how boring and grating it was.

    As for having beef, this is akin to Apple suing Microsoft for ripping off the GUI. I guess the point is: you can’t sue over a concept but you sure can sue if you prove legitimate IP rights was violated. The trump card for ConnectU would be to prove that at various stages of Facebook, actual code was harvested and used and that, irregardless of what Facebook looks like now, should make Facebook culpable.

11. Jared
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Even back in the day, Jobs was a natural showman, watching zuck try to talk to a crowd is painful.

12. Ben
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

    Actually, this suit was filed a few years ago prior to Facebook’s current fame….so I doubt they are looking for a handout ( or perhaps more accurately, I doubt they were at the time the suit was filed)

13. Jeffrey
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    Well even if the Zucker fails on this one, he still can create another similar site. Well, if the court would allow him to.

14. Boz
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    Classic American example of poor sportsmanship.

    Rex, you moron. American example!

    Your father didn’t do your mom right impregnating her with a defective semen to have a freak like you think the way you do.

15. Jesse
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

    @Ben

    So many people are overlooking that very important point on this story.

16. Dominic
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 2:10 pm

    Sportsmanship has nothing to do with it. It I waltz into your home or office and steal your checkbook and credit cards, and you have me arrested , are you an American example of poor smportsmanship? If you download something illegally and someone has you nabbed, are they also bad sports? I smell an idiot here.

17. WTF
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

    Didn’t Shawn Fanning steal the idea and source code for Napster from Seth Green (as chronicled in the documentary, “The Italian Job” — Charlize Theron was just so hot in that one…) too?? It happens all the time!! No big deal…

18. ITPD
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 3:27 pm

    Well, no big deal if there was no an IT job contract involved. Still I am sure that in the European Union it would be rather impossible to win such a trial if there was evidence that the IT professional working on some contracted IT project stole not only the idea but system logical architecture. But on this one I bet on Facebook. It is USA you live in:)

19. SunnyvaleBizDev
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

    The full complaint is available at FindLaw.com: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/.....ok_cmp.pdf

20. Jorge
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    Steve Jobs a god? Hell no. Steve Jobs didn’t do diddly squat.

    Wozniak did all the work, and Steve took all the credit. Steve was a good marketer, and that’s it.

    Sadly, he more than anyone else is responsible for the shallow depravity of modern marketing, which focuses exclusively on style to the detriment of functionality, usability, content, depth, etc.

21. Safi
    

    July 26th, 2007 at 12:13 am

    Is there a problem with the ConnectU site (www.connectu.com)? I’m getting “We are sorry, but we had a problem connecting to the database server”.

    Coincidence..or something sinister perhaps?

22. Ken
    

    July 27th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

    @ Jorge

    “Steve Jobs… is responsible for… modern marketing, which focuses exclusively on style to the detriment of functionality, usability, content, depth, etc”?

    You couldn’t be more wrong to blame Steve for what you consider the focus of modern marketing.

    Steve Jobs is the reason why the iPod is so eminently functional, usable, and has the largest music store to back it up (content AND depth).

    I’ve owned several MP3 players, both flash and drive-based - and I’ve stopped using all but the iPod, because it’s the easiest to use.

    That’s not a failure. That’s brilliance. And Steve Jobs is cited as the fellow driving the brilliance.

23. Jack
    

    August 7th, 2007 at 4:12 pm

    “irregardless” is not a word.