ConnectU Wants Out Of Its Settlement With Facebook; Wants To Sue Again
from the oh-come-on dept
Earlier this year, we were disappointed to see Facebook agree to settle with ConnectU. ConnectU was another wannabe social network that Mark Zuckerberg worked for briefly before going off to found Facebook. The brothers behind ConnectU were unsuccessful in doing much with ConnectU, but it wasn't because Zuckerberg "stole their idea." It was because he executed much better. The "idea" itself was hardly novel at the time, as there were already a number of social networks out there. While it may have made economic sense in the short term for Facebook to settle with ConnectU (just to get the lawsuit hassle out of the way), that sort of settlement leads to more people claiming credit for something they have no real rights over.Yet, if you thought the case was now over, you'd be wrong. Apparently the brothers behind ConnectU suddenly claim that they've come up with a "smoking gun" and they want to cancel the settlement and get back to the lawsuit. This is clearly a pure moneygrab at this point. Even if the brothers could prove that every bit of Facebook is based on code that Zuckerberg directly copied from ConnectU, it wouldn't change the reality of the situation -- which was that Zuckerberg created a service people wanted to use, and the ConnectU guys did not. They're basically demanding money to pay for their own failure to execute well. In this society, we want to reward the winners in the marketplace, not the losers.
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Filed Under: harvard, ideas, lawsuits, social networks
Companies: connectu, facebook
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url was broken for me, so
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Always about Money
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
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There are other issues...
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Question of Ethic or Execution?
I'm curious as to whether or not this theft actually took place. Sure, the owners of ConnectU want money, but that doesn't concern me. An unethical CEO, is also one who is likely to sell my data to the lowest bidder, and do otherwise unethical things to its users as well when it makes sense. As a person who has a lot of good ideas, and a person who has had others claim credit for them, I can also understand the frustration of someone who gets bested by sitting down with a person who they thought would be their partner.
This world is loosing touch with what's right and wrong, ethics aren't really the same anymore. People only care if what they are doing is legal, and if it's illegal, whether they would get caught. (I'm not trying to say I'm perfect either but I think the story should be told in full)
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Umm...
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Re: Umm...
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Correct me if I'm wrong...
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Re:
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Stealing?
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Rewarding winners?
I live in the USA, in 2008 - we don't do that here. I'd like to know where that society is, so I can move there.
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But a more serious question is this-- How many companies have been able to leverage Web 2.0 concepts to create multiple revenue streams outside of "just" ad revenue? Outside of iTunes (Which arguably isn't Web 2.0) Very few, I imagine.
Just a thought.
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Double Jeopardy
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Re: Question of Ethic or Execution?
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