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Winklevi Won't Give Up; Appealing The Ruling That They Have To Accept 'Just' $160 Million

from the drop-it,-guys dept

Tue, Apr 12th 2011 3:54am — Mike Masnick

Incredible. After being told to shut up and take their $160 million from Facebook, the Winklevoss twins are apparently still planning to appeal the ruling from the 9th Circuit. They're filing for an en banc hearing (basically asking all of the judges on the court to rehear the case, rather than the typical panel of three). On issues where there is some disagreement among the judges you'll see en banc hearings. Frankly, I'd be pretty surprised if the 9th Circuit is willing to rehear this case. And, at that point, their only resort will be to appeal to the Supreme Court, who I really doubt would find this a pressing matter of Constitutional importance. What's amazing to me is how much these guys seem to be hurting their own reputations here. Seriously, take the $160 million or so and move on.

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Filed Under: appeal, ideas, winklevoss
Companies: connectu, facebook

18 Comments

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Javataur, 12 Apr 2011 @ 4:38am

Hmmmm, don't suppose if they keep this up they can lose the money? Be kinda fair, don't you think?
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Richard (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 4:39am

The did
They took the 160 million and moved on. Unfortunately their hobby (financed by the 160 million) is lawsuits.
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Planespotter (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 5:00am

Dear Winklies,

You had a business that failed, you sued a competitor claiming he stole your business idea, rather than take it all the way in court you accepted a cash/share payoff. You cannot go back and say you want more money. Please take the millions you didn't warn through hard work and go spend it on whatever it is that floats your collective boats.

Lot of love,

The Internet xxx
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Jay (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 5:12am

Winklevi Lawsuit method
Patent pending...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2011 @ 5:34am

I loled when I read the initial article on cnn and the only included a picture of one of the Winklevi.
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mike allen (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 5:48am

160 million for nothing?????????????
someone tell me who their lawyer is (sarc)
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sumquy (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 6:11am

why should they just "take the $160 million or so and move on"?
facebook was their idea before zuckerburg came along and stole it. they spent hours coming up with and perfecting the perfect model for a social networking service, only to see zuckerburg come along and open a real website and service, without any kind of payment or license to them. the evidence clearly shows that they were talking about starting some kind of social networking service at some point in the future, or they could have sold that idea to a venture capitalist firm, or just held on to it until a more opportune moment. zuckerburgs' actions clearly devalued the market for their idea, and as such they should receive all the moneys earned from facebook, and not just whatever crumbs that idea thief chooses to give them.
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The eejit (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 6:20am

Re:
My sarcasm detector is broken. Just like Facebook.
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NullOp, 12 Apr 2011 @ 6:38am

fBook
There is a really big gap between an idea and execution of the idea. If ideas were real property then everyone would be documenting their ideas and waiting to spring a lawsuit on whoever has the same idea and executes it successfully a.k.a. the Trapdoor Spider theory.

The fact is Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss Twins, WT, were on a collision course with their ideas. Even if the WT hadn't approached Zuckerberg this suit may very well have happened anyway. The WT should take their 160M and do something constructive rather than beat this dead-horse any longer.
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Greg G (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 6:40am

Re:
the evidence clearly shows that they were talking about starting some kind of social networking service at some point in the future...

Umm.. in your own words, they were only talking about it. I can talk about doing something all day/week/month/year/decade/century/millenium/eon/epoch/you get the idea long. If I never DO it, then I have no right to go sue someone that actually does something to make it happen.

If you only talk about doing something, and I come along and actually do it, and then you come trying to take MY earnings.. well, good luck.

Apparently 'actions speak louder than words' is no longer true.
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H, 12 Apr 2011 @ 7:02am

Re:
I'd like to get royalties of every sketch of an idea I come up with too. Marty McFly will be rich when someone actually builds a hover board.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 7:17am

Re: Re:
Too late:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/197371/hoverboard_project_takes_flightand_actually_hovers.ht ml
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ChrisB (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 8:09am

Re:
That stupid movie did more to reverse any strides sensible copyright proponents had made than anything else. What did those twins say when they found Zuckerberg had created TheFaceBook?

"He stole our idea!"

This is probably the shortest statement in existence with the most misconceptions.
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bjupton, 12 Apr 2011 @ 9:11am

Re: fBook
Do something constructive? For all I care, they can take their money and spend it all on cocaine and high priced hookers.

Just be quiet about it. :)
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 9:16am

Re: Re: Re:
DH,I'm so disappointed in your link!

My daughters step sister built one of these (see link below) for her science fair project with a leaf blower and you can move people with it!

http://www.hovercrafterz.com/howtobuildahovercraft.html
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BearGriz72 (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 12:17pm

Re: Re:
"He stole our idea!"

This is probably the shortest statement in existence with the most misconceptions.
Agreed!
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Tom Landry (profile), 12 Apr 2011 @ 6:44pm

These are petulant little rich boys who never have, nor ever will want for anything in their gilded lives. The money means nothing to them, they want the glory of having people think that THEY are the creators of Facebook. Nothing less will do.
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TN, 13 Apr 2011 @ 8:46am

"Seriously, take the $160 million or so and move on."

I'm fantasising about a situation where someone would have to say this to me.

*sigh*
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