The massive hole in Facebook's latest legal challenge
Posted by fp on Thursday, July 22, 2010 Under: facebook
By David Kirkpatrick, contributor
Following those discussions, Zuckerberg went back for his sophomore year at Harvard and created an increasingly sophisticated series of website experiments. They culminated in February 2004 with to the creation of what was then called "thefacebook.com." As I report in my book, Zuckerberg says he didn't get the idea for "thefacebook" until late in the fall semester of 2003, and did most of the programming in January 2004.
Zuckerberg concedes that he performed several software programming jobs for Ceglia. Zuckerberg had been advertising on Craigslist that he was available for such jobs, and Ceglia contacted him there -- as did others from whom Zuckerberg accepted work-for-hire jobs.
Ceglia's lawyer claims he has a document in which Zuckerberg signed over a 50% stake in the then-undeveloped TheFaceBook. The case has been taken seriously enough that it is now pending in federal court in Buffalo. But Facebook's lawyers have yet to see the document, despite repeated requests. A poorly reproduced copy was filed with the court.
If Ceglia has the document his lawyers claim, why did he wait seven years to pursue it? This was a period during which he was accused of defrauding customers for his wood fuel business to the tune of $200,000.
While he was the owner of at least half of a company that was worth billions? Really?
"Plaintiff's counsel approached us and offered to discuss ways to make this go away," says Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt. "We declined."
Ceglia's attorney, Terrence Connors, did not respond to a request for comment.
Kirkpatrick was for many years Fortune's senior editor for Internet and technology. His recent book is The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World.
Following those discussions, Zuckerberg went back for his sophomore year at Harvard and created an increasingly sophisticated series of website experiments. They culminated in February 2004 with to the creation of what was then called "thefacebook.com." As I report in my book, Zuckerberg says he didn't get the idea for "thefacebook" until late in the fall semester of 2003, and did most of the programming in January 2004.
Zuckerberg concedes that he performed several software programming jobs for Ceglia. Zuckerberg had been advertising on Craigslist that he was available for such jobs, and Ceglia contacted him there -- as did others from whom Zuckerberg accepted work-for-hire jobs.
Ceglia's lawyer claims he has a document in which Zuckerberg signed over a 50% stake in the then-undeveloped TheFaceBook. The case has been taken seriously enough that it is now pending in federal court in Buffalo. But Facebook's lawyers have yet to see the document, despite repeated requests. A poorly reproduced copy was filed with the court.
If Ceglia has the document his lawyers claim, why did he wait seven years to pursue it? This was a period during which he was accused of defrauding customers for his wood fuel business to the tune of $200,000.
While he was the owner of at least half of a company that was worth billions? Really?
"Plaintiff's counsel approached us and offered to discuss ways to make this go away," says Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt. "We declined."
Ceglia's attorney, Terrence Connors, did not respond to a request for comment.
Kirkpatrick was for many years Fortune's senior editor for Internet and technology. His recent book is The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World.
In : facebook
