October 10, 2007

Facebook Vs ConnectU: “Facebook Makes Untrue Assertions” Claims ConnectU

Duncan Riley

19 comments »

The long running saga of claims and counter claims between Facebook and ConnectU hit court today with an initial setback for ConnectU.

The case before the San Jose Federal Court was not the allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole ConnectU’s code and idea to create Facebook, but Facebook’s counter claim that ConnectU illegally hacked into Facebook in 2004, stole email addresses then used those addresses to attempt to entice Facebook users to sign up to ConnectU.

ConnectU denied the claims and asked Judge Richard Seeborg to dismiss the suit, claiming “Facebook makes untrue assertions.” The Judge said that he was reluctant to dismiss the case given earlier court rulings, however he would take the matter under advisement and issue a decision at a future date.

See our previous coverage of Facebook vs ConnectU here and here.

(via ABC News)

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October 11th, 2007 at 5:24 am

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Your Daddy

October 10th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

Here comes another FB story. Sheesh, get off their jock already!
Chris

October 10th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

“but Facebook’s counter claim that ConnectU illegally hacked into Facebook in 2004″

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

“The school alleged that Zuckerberg had hacked into Harvard house websites to harvest images of students without their permission, for profit.”

Pot, meet Kettle
Your image should be modified to add a Harvard Ghost also chasing after him.

“A year later he dropped out.”

A drop-out ghost should also be in the distant background.

At any rate, who cares right?
We’ll make widgets for Facebook either way. As long as they pay us.
Chris

October 10th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Oh, and Mark, you can always try distance education. That’s what I’m enrolled in right now to finish my CS bachelors. Everybody else here is a CS graduate but me. I had dropped out too. I hear phoenix online is horrible though, so you may want to find a credible one.
Deals and Coupons

October 10th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

Keep these FB stories coming! I’m a big fan.
phenom

October 10th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

Nice move by ConnectU to get the fame and credit earned by Facebook.

http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
HappySlappy

October 10th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

TECHFACECRUNCH!
garage guy

October 10th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

Thank God! Another FB story! It’s only been one day and I was starting to get withdrawal. If I don’t get at least one inane FB a day I may actually have to use the site. Why is it that everyone I know uses LinkedIn and Myspace and no one gives a hoot about FB? We’re all highly educated and fit the FB demographic and none of us care and we all think that history will show that FB made a huge mistake by not cashing the ticket when they had a chance. Drinking the koolaid…….
EH

October 10th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

So, has anybody made a Dustin “Screech” Diamond joke yet?
cl8ton

October 10th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

Is it me or does the dude in the image look just like Screech ala “Saved by the Bell” circa late 80’s

Tell me I’m wrong
MadMax3000

October 10th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

@ cl8ton

You are wrong. It’s Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook.

You wanted me to tell you were wrong…. bam you are wrong.

—-

BTW…. Aren’t we tired of FB by now?
Steve Ballmer

October 10th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

Anyone surpirsed?

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Fabian Schonholz

October 10th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

If you step back a little bit, it is funny.
Berlin

October 10th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

Zuckerberg should get used to people claiming he stole from them. I mean people claim that Gates stole his ideas from Xerox, IBM, Ghandi, Apple, The Dali Lama, and that he no visionary just another phony who cheated his way up. Apple is the only company that come up with cool and original products, right? Most people think that Sony invented the Television and Toyota invented the Automobile, but no. Those bastards stole their ideas from the Americans. The only problem is that no one can prove they did.
Hammer

October 11th, 2007 at 7:23 am

On november 5th facebook will lose half its value when google steps in.
From there it will be downspiral to the deadpool.
Ed

October 11th, 2007 at 8:16 am

#13 - Gates didn’t steal! He bought and pretended he made it But really…same as Microsoft made the computer “cool” Zuckerberg was the one who worked to get Facebook off the ground and into the media darling it is today!
marcT

October 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am

MZ will do anything to get what he wants. with his track record, i am not surprised that he didn’t sell it for 1B, he is plain too greedy.
Alex

October 11th, 2007 at 10:06 am

#13 — Did Gates work with all of the companies and individuals you mention? The difference is Zuckerberg worked with ConnectU, delayed their production, and then walked away–taking the code with him–only to open a site which was an exact copy of the ConnectU idea. Wouldn’t you be angry?

And the accusation of “illegally hacking” is perhaps a bit too strong. I mean, before the privacy options to hide your email address or your profile from strangers, they were right there on the page for anyone to see. What they are probably referring to is an application the guys behind ConnectU later worked on called “Social Butterfly.” It was going to allow users to take their information from one social networking profile and import it into a number of other networks.

#5 — They’ve made previous attempts to set this right or at least get the credit they rightfully deserve, long before Facebook was on the radars of most people in or outside of college.
oliver

October 11th, 2007 at 7:14 pm

I have translate this news into chinese. see it