Harvard rivals claim smoking gun in Facebook 'code theft' case

The founders of ConnectU, an also-ran social network that emerged from Harvard University around the same time as Facebook, are renewing their charge that Mark Zuckerberg stole their ideas, amid claims of new "smoking gun" instant messenger evidence. ConnectU was founded by twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, contemporaries of …

[Tom Turck]

Move on Tiler and Tailor

Its very heart warming to me that these silver spoon rowers are able to re-distribute their family's wealth among the Boston area legal community.

I wonder how long it will take them to realize that if they spend too much on the lawyers that their Crew lifestyle and future of leather easy chairs, brandy and cigars may be threatened.

Paris, because she s all about spreading the wealth and reaching out to the commoners and little people....

[Andy Worth]

Go on judge......

....let them carry on, sue the bollocks off Facebook and hopefully close the shithole down.

[The BigYin]

Oh....

...who gives a frickin' flying monkeys?

[Greg]

Hang on...

..had they patented the idea or something? Unless he actually nicked their code, what exactly is their argument?

I thought of a really great idea for a small product about a month ago. After some hunting on the net, I found that another person has made the same thing. I'm not too bothered though - I'll simply make a better one. This has happened to me several times in my life with various things. Can I sue them for getting there before me?

Someone having the same idea as you is not illegal, even if you inspired them.

[Frank]

Old IM logs?

Whenever I copy someone else's ideas and lift their code, then after I've modified the code and made a backup, I nuke my hard drives and rebuild from scratch :)

[Anonymous Coward]

So, let's get this straight...

They agreed to settle (meaning both sides concede that there might be some cause of action but neither side are sure so they cut their losses), then change their mind because they think they can win?

Is this not having your cake and eating it too?

Go Boston Legal

[lxt]

Pot, Kettle...

Facebook's countersuit is pretty funny - because in order to populate the site enough so that it was vaguely useful to the users at Harvard (this is back in 2004 when the site was only open to Harvard undergrads), Zuckerberg took photos from the Harvard student directory without students' permission (and got hauled up in front of the University administrative board for it). They may have stolen some of his data, but he did exactly the same thing to a different directory...

[Anonymous Coward]

muppets

who by being so whiny and making themselves look worse and worse... even worse than their pal who set up facebook. lol

[Anonymous Coward]

"warring rich Ivy League white guys"

Er, what has their race got to do with anything?

[Dan]

More muppets

Oh right, the ConnectU guys are twins, that explains a lot.