Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFacebook faces litigation over design concept
By David Hale
Posted: 10/6/04, 1:49 AM EST Section: News
Before filing the lawsuit, the group attempted to have the Harvard University administration resolve the issue, claiming Zuckerberg had broken the school's code of conduct. Although Zuckerberg had run into problems at Harvard in the past for using copyrighted pictures on another of his Web sites, school President Lawrence Summers decided the ConnectU case was outside the university's jurisdiction, forcing Winklevoss and his partners to pursue the lawsuit.
"That is really the most disappointing thing in this whole saga," Winklevoss said. "Harvard just doesn't care and this is nothing new for Harvard."
The ConnectU founders think their site will give students a greater ability to network, pointing to several key differences between their site and TheFacebook.com, including blogs, forums and a book exchange. The ConnectU site also offers users the ability to obtain profile information and interact with students at other colleges, an option not available on Zuckerberg's site.
"It's far more interactive and less static," Winklevoss said. "That's the whole idea. It's supposed to break down the walls."
While TheFacebook.com has enjoyed popularity at Syracuse, sophomore geography major Nicole Cofrin said she enjoys using the site but understands why the lawsuit was filed.
"If (Zuckerberg) did rip off someone else's idea, I'd be in favor of shutting the site down," she said.
Freshman marketing major Greg Ackerman, another TheFacebook.com user, thinks the whole lawsuit is much ado about nothing.
"It shouldn't matter, everyone's just trying to make friends," he said. "They're just trying to help kids out."
Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, Winklevoss intends to make ConnectU a success, even if that means sharing the customer base with Zuckerberg.
"We're moving on," he said. "We'll spend as little time on the lawsuit as we can. The product will continue to grow and that's what we want to focus most of our energy on."
Zuckerberg and TheFacebook.com staff did not return interview requests for this story, but told the Boston Globe in September that they planned to file a countersuit against ConnectU for defamation of character.
"That is really the most disappointing thing in this whole saga," Winklevoss said. "Harvard just doesn't care and this is nothing new for Harvard."
The ConnectU founders think their site will give students a greater ability to network, pointing to several key differences between their site and TheFacebook.com, including blogs, forums and a book exchange. The ConnectU site also offers users the ability to obtain profile information and interact with students at other colleges, an option not available on Zuckerberg's site.
"It's far more interactive and less static," Winklevoss said. "That's the whole idea. It's supposed to break down the walls."
While TheFacebook.com has enjoyed popularity at Syracuse, sophomore geography major Nicole Cofrin said she enjoys using the site but understands why the lawsuit was filed.
"If (Zuckerberg) did rip off someone else's idea, I'd be in favor of shutting the site down," she said.
Freshman marketing major Greg Ackerman, another TheFacebook.com user, thinks the whole lawsuit is much ado about nothing.
"It shouldn't matter, everyone's just trying to make friends," he said. "They're just trying to help kids out."
Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, Winklevoss intends to make ConnectU a success, even if that means sharing the customer base with Zuckerberg.
"We're moving on," he said. "We'll spend as little time on the lawsuit as we can. The product will continue to grow and that's what we want to focus most of our energy on."
Zuckerberg and TheFacebook.com staff did not return interview requests for this story, but told the Boston Globe in September that they planned to file a countersuit against ConnectU for defamation of character.
