Facebook under fire

For the last week, Facebook has been in court over one of the biggest intellectual property scandals this year. The founders of rival social networking site “ConnectU” claim that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, stole their ideas and trade secrets.

Their story goes like this:

- While ConnectU's founders Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevosss and Divya Narendra where attending Harvard, they began working on Harvard Connection, a social networking site (later renamed ConnectU).

- The plaintiffs claim to have hired Zuckerberg (at that time sophomore at Harvard) to work on the computer program software and database definitions for Harvard Connection, and even gave him access to the source code for their site.

- The plaintiffs claim that on Jan. 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered the domain name “TheFaceBook.com” and launched Facebook on Feb. 4, 2004, using information gleaned from them.

- Zuckerberg allegedly never gave them the promised code, and never completed work on Havard Connection.

- The three then filed a lawsuit accusing Zuckerberg of copyright infringement, fraud, and misappropriation of trade secrets. The plaintiffs hope to get the hugely popular site shut down, and want all assets transferred to ConnectU.

Although Facebook’s attorneys claim that the allegations are are unsubstantiated with evidence, if it’s found that Zuckerberg did steal ConnectU’s intellectual property the results will be momentus. Facebook, valued at about 4 billion dollars (though this is arguable) and with 30 million active members, has a lot to lose.

As a user of facebook, I’m hoping that the allegations against Zuckerberg are false, and that Facebook wins the case.

So is this a case of dishonest disgruntled ex-colleagues with stars in their eyes, hungering over a piece of the Facebook pie? Or do the claims have something to them?

Only tomorrow’s ruling will tell.