After close to a year of connecting students across campus and across the country, thefacebook.com is under siege from its chief competitor, ConnectU.com, whose founders filed a lawsuit against thefacebook in September claiming that its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, stole their ideas and information to create a rival website.
ConnectU creators Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, all recent Harvard alumni, allege that Zuckerberg stole ideas and programming codes from ConnectU in late 2003, when he was programming the site.
According to Tyler, Zuckerberg became a partner with ConnectU in Nov. 2003, when previous programmer and Harvard alumnus Victor Gao could not finish the site. Gao reportedly gave Zuckerberg all of the access codes in order to complete programming for the ConnectU site.
The Winklevosses and Narendra then met with Zuckerberg three times for an hour each between Nov., 2003, and Feb., 2004, during which they discussed new ideas and marketing strategies and the progress Zuckerberg was making.
Their last meeting was Jan. 14, 2004, a meeting which Tyler described as normal. What ConnectU did not know at the time was that Zuckerberg had allegedly registered the thefacebook's domain name three days earlier. Nothing was mentioned about thefacebook during the meeting and ConnectU did not find out about the site until Feb. 8, 2004, when they read about the website's launch in The Harvard Crimson.
"From day one, [Zuckerberg] knew what he was doing, and he knew he was going to cut us out," Tyler Winklevoss said.
After seeing the similarities between thefacebook and ConnectU, the Winklevosses and Narendra went to Harvard's Administration Board to protest the alleged theft under a clause in the student handbook requiring Harvard students to be "honest and forthcoming with fellow students." They were told that the board did not want to take the case. The students then met with Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who advised them to go to court. ConnectU followed the advice and filed suit.
Among the many complaints from ConnectU, Tyler claimed that Zuckerberg kept holding up progress of the site and making excuses for why he was not finishing, presumably while progressing on programming for thefacebook. He said that over the course of the time Zuckerberg worked for ConnectU, he did only about two hours of work.
"Essentially he did nothing for 66 days," Tyler said, but "he never led us to believe he was doing nothing."
Disagreements arise between the parties regarding the nature of the relationship between Zuckerberg and ConnectU. Chris Hughes, press representative for thefacebook and a Harvard senior, characterized the relationship as informal.
"He was never paid, nor did he have a contract with them," Hughes said.
ConnectU challenged thefacebook's contention that the relationship was informal. There was an oral agreement between the parties, Tyler said, adding "oral contracts are as sacred in the court of law as are written ones."
Monetary compensation is not a prerequisite to formalize a relationship, Tyler said, adding that none of the partners have been compensated. Tyler also said that Zuckerberg had the choice between being contracted and paid for his work or being a partner and sharing the profits when they were made. He allegedly chose the latter.
Thefacebook also claims that ConnectU, which was previously harvardconnection.com, was a very different site with a greater focus on dating just for Harvard students, whereas thefacebook is "an online database with social networking," Hughes said.
But Tyler does not accept this explanation. He said the intention of harvardconnection and ConnectU was from the beginning a social connections site and not a dating one.
Thefacebook has filed a countersuit "claiming that [ConnectU is] abusing the legal system for their own ends," Hughes said. Hughes estimated the lawsuit will cost thefacebook approximately $200,000 to defend.
ConnectU's response saying thefacebook's claims are unfounded will be filed in early February, and the case will proceed from there with a discovery period to determine what exactly happened, Tyler said.
Both sides feel confident about the outcome. Hughes mentioned the number of student facebook users who have commented on the lawsuit.
"[They] tend to see the lawsuit for what it is, a desperate attempt to gain mention in the press while hurting us financially," Hughes said.
Tyler is equally convinced that ConnectU will prevail.
"We're going to be [Zuckerberg's] worst nightmare. We are it," he said.
