Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

What is the ultimate danger of building on the Facebook platform? The real risk that ConnectU will succeed in shutting the purported Mark Zuckerberg “production” down.

While the blogosphere has been thanking the mighty tech heavens for enabling the infinite “social graph” wisdom of Mark Zuckerberg to shine upon the Web’s minions, Zuckerberg himself has been dogged by a Harvard legacy of finding his technology “inspiration” in the work of others.

Zuckerberg spin may be spinning the world into a would-be multi-billion dollar Facebook camp, but former Harvard classmates are unmasking the happy face Zuckerberg has put on what they claim is but a derivative work with business deceit at the core of its foundation.

Before Facebook, there was Facemash, a Zuckerberg attempt at a “hot or not” for students, which got him in hot water at Harvard. Zuckerberg was investigated by the University’s Administrative Board for “breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individuals’ privacy by using students’ online facebook photos without permission,” according to the The Harvard Crimson:

“I put Facemash up on a Sunday night and within four hours my Internet connection had been yanked,” Zuckerberg said.

The integrity of Zuckerberg was also called into question at Harvard when he later unleashed Thefacebook. Did Zuckerberg violate Harvard’s honor code, which prohibits theft and dishonesty, by piggybacking his site off of someone else’s property, as the students behind the present ConnectU–Divya Narendra, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss–alleged?

Fast forward to today: The Massachusetts District Court is set to weigh in on the true origins of Zuckerberg’s Facebook in the matter of “Connectu, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. et al.”

ConnectU is suing Facebook and its executives for 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. Facebook has instituted counterclaims against ConnectU.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook “legend” is that he “created and launched thefacebook.com website in one week,” according to Plaintiff ConnectU. ConnectU contends, however, that the Zuckerberg Facebook which the world has come to know and love is not a true Zuckerberg production, but a derivative work, an unauthorizd infringement of the “copyrighted subjectmatter of the Harvard Connection Code”:

Zuckerberg knowingly made false statement of intention when he agreed to create, complete, and/or provide source code to ConnectU’s predecessors for the Harvard Conection Website.

Among the remedies ConnectU seeks, an injunction enjoining Facebook Defendants:

From operating thefacebook.com website, or any variation of that Website under a different domain name or URL.

Why have purported billion dollar takeover offers for Facebook not come to pass? The true face of Facebook may be the reason, NOT Zuckerberg’s famed self over-valuation, as Mark Zuckerberg, Defendant, fights to keep his Facebook “production” alive.

ALSO: Hello Facebook, Goodbye Privacy: Zuckerberg ‘Social Graph’ NO Safe Haven and Facebook: The Web’s Golden Handcuffs

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN