Dark Side of Facebook & Mark Zuckerberg

Ongoing Lawsuits Plague Facebook

Harvard's 02138 magazine just published an in depth article about would be alum and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. I always suspected there was a dark cloud hanging over Facebook and whether the idea for the social networking site was hijacked from somebody else at the University.  Was someone else at Harvard conceiving the idea?  Did Mark run off with a project commissioned by three fellow classmates?  Who is making these claims? What other lawsuits are pending?  Is this why neither Google nor Microsoft could buy the company outright two years ago?

The media have mostly glossed over ConnectU Inc. v. Facebook Inc., now unfolding in a Boston courthouse. Most articles depict the case as either a cash grab or a blip on Facebook’s march to global domination. But interviews with people familiar with the lawsuit, and a close examination of court records, suggest that, at the least, the case raises troubling questions about the ethics of this new billionaire.

The plaintiffs are three Harvard grads: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin rowers currently training for the Beijing Olympics, and Divya Narendra, who since graduation has worked in finance in New York and  Boston. In 2002, the three friends dreamed up an online social network called Harvard Connection (subsequently renamed ConnectU), later asking Zuckerberg to finish programming it. Instead of fulfilling his end of the bargain, the plaintiffs say, Zuckerberg stole their ideas and source code to build his own competing social network. “We got royally screwed,” Narendra says in a deposition. More >

Aaron Greenspan, shown here in 2001: "I don't know if [Zuckerberg] copied things intentionally or it's just the most amazing coincidence of all time, but I know he's dishonest."

So, who is telling the truth?  Cameron, Tyler, and Divya or the guy with "I'm CEO…bitch" on his business card.

Kameran Ahari

Comments

[Kameran Ahari]

Since O'Brien's Poking Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg article in 02138, Facebook filed legal motion to have a number of associated documents removed.

Posting some related links:

Facebook Loses Court FightIn Its New Privacy Case
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2007/11/30/facebook-loses-court-fight-in-its-new-privacy-case

Boston Court Rules In Favor of 02138
http://www.02138mag.com/editorial/shots_in_the_dark/1975.html

Court Documents ConnectU vs. Facebook
http://www.02138mag.com/magazine/article/1764.html

Kameran

[Amy Lozano]

It's not so funny how things go round and round...

In the early 1990s, there was an effort to get a Harvard facebook on the internet. At the time, many us of working in technology at Harvard had serious reservations about this plan due to PRIVACY CONCERNS.

I also find it strange that the current commercial Facebook claims a litigious history only back to Zuckerberg's time at Harvard - what about those involved in similar efforts over a decade earlier? Maybe they also deserve a piece of the Facebook pie.

Back in the 1990s the issues were simply about not wanting to have student phone numbers and actual addresses, that were at the time published in the print versions of the freshman facebooks, available to the public. What if a predator used it track down and harm or harass a student?

There were those us who worried about such mundane things which are now biting Mark Zuckerberg himself in the proverbial 02138.

[Kameran Ahari]

FYI – Mark Zuckerberg is going to be interviewed on CBS 60 Minutes on January 13, 2008.

I am sure the ultimate question about where the Facebook idea came from will be posed to him. I am curious what his body language reveals about ConnectU and various lawsuits.

Based on the short video clip promo of the upcoming show, I think we are going to see a very revealing side of a young so called Web 2.0 social networking entrepreneur.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3700924n

Tune in and let me know if you think he is telling the truth or hiding something.