Before starting
Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg worked with Divya Narendra and Cameron
and Tyler Winklevoss on Harvard Connection, a website which later
became ConnectU. All four were Harvard students and the three
ConnectU founders hired Zuckerberg after hearing that he was a
talented web programmer.
The three men behind the suit say that 23 year old Zuckerberg
was hired in November 2003 to write computer code for the site for
delivery by June 2004. Facebook was launched in February 2004.
They claim that Zuckerberg "never intended to provide the code
and instead intended to breach his promise ... and intended to
steal the idea for the Harvard Connection website, and in fact he
did so".
Facebook is the latest online venture to attract the attention
of the mainstream media and potential investors.
Launched as a US university-only social networking site its
profile has rocketed in recent months as it has opened its doors to
anyone who wants to register. Its membership now stands at 31
million users.
In the wake of skyrocketing values and swirling hype surrounding
sites which have broken into the mainstream such as MySpace and
YouTube, Facebook has said that it would only sell itself for over
$10 billion and is talking now of a stock market flotation.
Zuckerberg and Facebook are among several parties accused by
ConnectU of copyright infringement, breach of actual or implied
contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary
duty, unjust enrichment, unfair business practices, intentional
interference with prospective business advantage, breach of duty of
good faith and fair dealing, fraud and breach of confidence.
CNET News.com reports that Massachusetts District Court
Judge Douglas Woodlock told ConnectU's founders that they need to
produce more evidence to back their claims, describing their case
as "gossamer thin on the question of contract." They have been
given until 8th August to file a revised complaint.
In the years since its founding, ConnectU has faltered. It has
just 70,000 members and its founders have admitted that they have
not actively worked on the site since 2005.
Zuckerberg's lawyers, who have asked for the case to be thrown
out of court, have argued that the allegations are "broad brush"
and not supported by the available evidence.
In separate proceedings, Facebook and Zuckerberg are suing
ConnectU and others, accusing them of "illicitly employing the user
IDs and passwords of friends who were registered members of the
Facebook website [...] to gain access to the site and to steal
information and data for commercial purposes, as well as to
advertise to and solicit members fo the Facebook website to join
www.connectu.com."
Facebook is the second biggest social networking site, behind
MySpace, and fuelled rumours of a sale or float this week by hiring
YouTube's chief financial officer, Gideon Yu.
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