Winklevii Trying Again: Suing Facebook Yet Again With A Different Argument

from the holy-crap:-give-up-already dept

Thu, Jun 23rd 2011 7:10pm — Mike Masnick

Yesterday, we had a story about how the Winklevoss twins had finally realized that they had no chance to get a Supreme Court appeal of their own attempt to back out of a "settlement deal" with Facebook that made them at least $160 million richer (probably more by now). Like most people who read that story, we assumed that the Winklevii and partner Divya Narendra, had simply decided to take their millions and sulk. Instead, it looks like they are simply trying again with a different legal strategy.

Yes, a day after admitting that they wouldn't file a Supreme Court appeal, they instead made a new filing in the district court in Boston, once again attacking the settlement agreement (which they had agreed to), asking the judge to investigate if Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence."

It is true that some instant messages that Zuckerberg wrote while he was supposed to be working with the Winklevii emerged after the settlement had been agreed to. The Winklevii didn't focus on those in their original attempt to back out of the settlement, instead claiming that Facebook had mislead them about the value of Facebook shares. However, now it appears they're starting again using the instant messages as evidence, and claiming that Facebook withheld the relevant evidence, and saying that they wouldn't have settled if they'd seen that evidence.

The thing is, while the evidence does make Mark Zuckerberg look like a jerk, I'm not sure it actually helps the Winklevii's overall argument. And, frankly, the whole thing remains totally pointless. The Winklevii failed to build a serious competitor, but we're talking about what was effectively the first few months of both companies (Facebook and ConnectU). Nothing about that means that they should get any credit whatsoever for what Facebook became. The fact that they already got $160+ million out of this is more than enough for their own failure to build a successful company. They should drop this effort, and maybe spend some time -- and maybe some of their piles of money -- looking into ways to deflate their massive sense of entitlement for something they had nothing to do with.

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Filed Under: appeal, ideas, winklevoss
Companies: facebook

19 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 7:37pm

This seems like some very personal shit-slinging at this point. They are hellbent. Doesn't appear to be for the money or the precedent or the fame, it's all out being a pain in someone's ass. It's revenge that they have chosen to continue because they are drowning in money. There's a saying "the best revenge is living well". These lazy buffoons can do that and afford what come off as nuisance lawsuits as well.
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Jay (profile), 23 Jun 2011 @ 7:45pm

Re:
This is worse than the copyright wars.

Hell, it's right up there with Nathan Myrvold's patent trolling.

Someone should seriously sanction them.
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out_of_the_blue, 23 Jun 2011 @ 7:45pm

Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
Or is it without context?

"...deflate their massive sense of entitlement for something they had nothing to do with."

That'd cover the 5% percent or so (pick your own portion) of the populace whom I call The Rich, and who sheerly by strange social customs have "entitlement" that allows them to demand work-products from the rest of us, without trading anything except mysterious numbers from a computer somewhere.

I'll hope that sentence shows the dawn of your enlightenment as to actual economics.
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A monkey with Attitude, 23 Jun 2011 @ 7:58pm

Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
and you suggest what? As a company owner I resent your statement... you act like i won a lottery to own a company and owe the people that work for me something other than a fair wage (which in my company means a portion of the profit, but we all feast or starve together). YOU seem to miss I am the first in and last out daily (and missing time with my family), i skip vacations with the family, and provide jobs... I am by no means rich but you make it sound like a slave driver owning slaves... they produce a work-product, i have found a way to tie their products together to form a final product... we sell the final product and everyone gets a pay check.. so take your worker/rich envy and shovel it somewhere else... it smells like the manure the rest of the hacks and ideological idiots in government spew... people like you do not understand work or work ethic or anything else that makes the economy work and provides people with food, homes, clothes, tvs, and all the other things people need to live...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 8:28pm

Re:
MMMMmmm fantasy judge fines Winklevii 170 million dollars for wasting the courts time and costs. Fantasy life is better than real life.

Wow this must be how the MPAA and RIAA feel all the time.
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Eric, 23 Jun 2011 @ 8:36pm

This is funny
Just find this whole thing kind of funny because I came up with the idea of a college social networking site 5 years before the Winklevii. I will be launching my site this year.
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Pixelation, 23 Jun 2011 @ 8:42pm

"The fact that they already got $160+ million out of this is more than enough for their own failure"

Zuckerberg says... "and if the change in my pocket wasn't enough, well, connectU and connect her too..."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 9:11pm

You know if they arent that happy with the 160mil then let Facebook give me just 2 mil of that and ill be more than happy.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 11:00pm

Barratry
Aren't the Winklevii guilty of barratry? That is, the bringing of vexatious lawsuits. How about they be charged?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 11:23pm

How high is the bar to satisfy a finding of a being vexatious litigant? Pretty high I would think as I don't remember even Jack Thompson getting hit with that one.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2011 @ 11:58pm

Re: Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
Wow guy, he is not even bashing on the rich, he is being sarcastic. Maybe you need some time off your company eh?
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Matt (profile), 24 Jun 2011 @ 5:36am

Re: Re: Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
I guess I didn't read sarcasm in the original post. I may have missed it but I know people that truly believe what out_of_the_blue posted so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it was not sarcasm.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jun 2011 @ 6:00am

Re: Re: Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
There is no sarcasim in that post, he comes off as the typical liberal whiney ass that thinks the world owes him just because he was born. Perhaps your sarcasim meter is the one that is broken...
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AJBarnes, 24 Jun 2011 @ 6:41am

How about...
OK. I really had the idea for FaceBook first, so give me $160 million and I WILL GLADLY GO AWAY FOREVER!!
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Gene Cavanaugh (profile), 24 Jun 2011 @ 8:50am

Winklevii
It is really discouraging to see this post.
We don't really know all the facts, we have no idea if ConnectU would have been successful if not short-circuited by Facebook, we don't really know much of anything in depth, but since one of the antagonists has more money, "he right!".
Same thing happened with Carnegie. After having more than a hundred innocent people murdered to increase his fortune, he became the "great philanthropist". Why? The murdered people were poor, he was fabulously wealthy, so "he right!"
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dwg, 24 Jun 2011 @ 9:40am

Re: Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
Oh, shut it.
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dwg, 24 Jun 2011 @ 9:43am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Do you at all grasp the import of what you write?
The whole "the world doesn't owe you a living" line of argument is crap. If it weren't for certain predatory assholes standing in the way of the majority of humanity, everyone WOULD have a living without having to jump through hoops to get it--they could just get it. The world doesn't owe anyone power over anyone else is more like it. And just because you've bought into the master-slave power structure and maybe done okay with it doesn't make it divine law or even natural. Typical conservative boot-strapper.
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jenningsthecat (profile), 24 Jun 2011 @ 9:51am

This is just so silly
If I had that much money, I would be way too busy enjoying myself, helping out friends and family, and building new businesses, to even think of handing scads of it over to lawyers in a dubious and unlikely attempt to get more.

The Winklevoss brothers are in serious need of psychotherapy.
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dwg, 24 Jun 2011 @ 9:54am

Re: Winklevii
yep: zuckerberg is just as bad as a murderer. the takeaway is that enough money is enough, not that anything a rich guy does is okay.
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