Facebook in hot water over IP theft allegations

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 26th July 2007

Facebook could end up being shut down if the allegations are true.

The owner of Facebook, the popular social networking site, is facing allegations of stealing the idea from his fellow classmates at Harvard University.

The allegations come from rival social networking site, ConnectU, whose founders say that Zuckerberg stole the idea while he was contracted to develop part of ConnectU.

Cameron Winklevoss, one of ConnectU’s founders, says he has a record of 52 email exchanges and three meetings with his team and Facebook founder Zuckerberg.

Winklevoss and his team have complained to a federal court, ordering Facebook to be shut down. They want the court to assign control of the site and its profits to them.

Zuckerberg, on the other hand, has denied the allegations, saying that he had voluntarily agreed to work on the ConnectU site for six hours and didn’t know that it was going to be a social networking site. He and his co-defendants have asked the court to dismiss the case.

Facebook currently has more than 30 million users worldwide and is believed to be worth in the region of $10 billion USD.

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