Lawsuit Alleges Facebook's Founder Built The Site With Stolen Code and Ideas

from the we-want-some-money dept

ScaredOfTheMan wrote in with the news that a lawsuit alleging Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the original code for the site is coming to a head. Zuckerberg worked as a programmer for another social-networking site, now called ConnectU, while a student at Harvard, and the sites founders allege that during that time, Zuckerberg took ConnectU's design, source code and business plan, and turned them into Facebook. If he actually did steal the business plan, you sort of have to wonder why Facebook is now being mentioned as a billion-dollar buyout target, while ConnectU remains pretty much anonymous. While this dispute originally began back in 2004, it's taken on added urgency as Facebook has become more popular, and those high-dollar buyout and IPO rumors build -- particularly as the ConnectU founders want full control of Facebook turned over to them. A judge will rule on July 25 on Facebook's motion to dismiss the case, but it's hard to believe that will be the end of the matter. As long as huge amounts of money continue to swirl around the social-networking space, so too will the lawsuits.

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