Quit Suing Mark Zuckerberg
Someone else is suing Mark Zuckerberg! According to this article in Wired, some sketchy lawyer named Paul Ceglia thinks he owns half of Facebook because he funded $2,000 for the site. There is a whole colorful series of emails between the two of them that looks fairly real, although they could have easily been written by Aaron Sorkin or any other person who has seen “The Social Network” and has a flair for creative writing.
I think a few things are starting to become clear: When Zuckerberg was creating The Facebook (as it was originally called and I typed into my own URL bar for years), it was not his idea alone. Many people were wanting to create a new Friendster-type deal for Harvard. Big surprise. He collaborated with these people at first and then was like, “Screw you all, this is MINE. I did the work so $%#@ off.” I’m not a lawyer, but here is my layman’s opinion of the situation:
1. These people cannot prove that if they had retained some control over the direction of Facebook that it would have become as successful as it did. Ceglia apparently wanted it to sell Harvard mugs. Mark thought that was dumb and said no. Would we have spent more time on MySpace if Facebook was also an ivy league gift shop? Probably.
2. No one could have made Facebook except for Mark Zuckerberg. He’s a genius. He’s way smarter than the Winklevoss twins, Paul Ceglia and tons of other coders out there. Plus, he seems to not be socially inept. He gets the ways that people socialize and communicate. Moreover, he has integrity. He wanted to keep the site free and not monetize early. Those three things are a rare combo.
I think there is a certain Quality American Archetype in Mark Zuckerberg. Or maybe he’s a blend of archetypes. He’s a nerd-genius-savant. But he’s also kind of cool. I mean he made a Hot or Not site, he told a bunch of rich dudes to shove it, he broke rules. I think these courts ruling in his favor admire that in him. He had the balls to know what he was entitled to for the work he did. Plus, he wears cool Adidas sandals.
Paul Ceglia, you probably shall not acquire the 84% of a $65 billion dollar company that you think you deserve. Sorry.
Is suing Mark Zuckerberg the new get rich quick scheme?