Facebook pourrait disparaître du Web dans 7 jours !!!

With lawsuit pending, Facebook could shut down

Students react to possible closing of networking site

Imagine a life without Facebook – and think quick, because the owners of ConnectU, a rival social networking site, are seeking to shut down Facebook after alleging that its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, stole their ideas.

The founders of ConnectU said Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and founder, agreed to help finish a computer code for their Web site but stalled and eventually launched Facebook. The lawsuit against him includes fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. ConnectU’s founders are asking the court to shutdown Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to them.

ConnectU originally filed a suit in 2004, but it was dismissed on a technicality and immediately re-filed. The owners of ConnectU, brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narenda, claim that in 2002 they began working on a social networking site for the Harvard community called the Harvard Connection.

In 2003, the founders of ConnectU asked Zuckerberg to complete software and database work on the site. After being asked repeatedly to finish, Zuckerberg assured them he was working hard to complete it, the lawsuit said.

“Such statements were false and Zuckerberg never intended to provide the code and instead intended to breach his promise ... and intended to steal the idea for the Harvard Connection and in fact he did so,” the suit claims.

Facebook launched in February 2004 and currently has 71 million users. ConnectU launched three months after Facebook and only has approximately 70,000 users.

According to court filings, Facebook’s attorneys said ConnectU has no evidence against Zuckerberg and deny he stole the ideas from his

fellow classmates.

“Each of them had different interests and activities,” Zuckerberg’s attorneys wrote. “Only one of them had an idea significant enough to build a great company. That one person was

Mark Zuckerberg.”

Zuckerberg, the Winklevosses and Narenda could not be contacted before press time.

IU doctoral student Wayne Buente, who teaches a class focusing on the benefits of social networking, said the allegations made by ConnectU seem to be serious
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Plaintiffs: The Facebook, Inc. and Mark Zuckerberg

Defendants: ConnectU, LLC, Pacific Northwest Software, Inc., Winston Williams, Tyler Winklevoss, Divya Narendra, David Gucwa, Wayne Chang and Cameron Winklevoss

Case Number: 5:2007cv01389
Filed: March 9, 2007