With lawsuit pending, Facebook could shut down

Imagine a life without Facebook – and think quick, because the owners of ConnectU, a rival social networking site, are seeking to shut down Facebook after alleging that its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, stole their ideas.\nThe founders of ConnectU said Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and founder, agreed to help finish a computer code for their Web site but stalled and eventually launched Facebook. The lawsuit against him includes fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. ConnectU’s founders are asking the court to shutdown Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to them. \nConnectU originally filed a suit in 2004, but it was dismissed on a technicality and immediately re-filed. The owners of ConnectU, brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narenda, claim that in 2002 they began working on a social networking site for the Harvard community called the Harvard Connection.\nIn 2003, the founders of ConnectU asked Zuckerberg to complete software and database work on the site. After being asked repeatedly to finish, Zuckerberg assured them he was working hard to complete it, the lawsuit said.\n“Such statements were false and Zuckerberg never intended to provide the code and instead intended to breach his promise ... and intended to steal the idea for the Harvard Connection and in fact he did so,” the suit claims. \nFacebook launched in February 2004 and currently has 31 million users. ConnectU launched three months after Facebook and only has approximately 70,000 users. \nAccording to court filings, Facebook’s attorneys said ConnectU has no evidence against Zuckerberg and deny he stole the ideas from his \nfellow classmates.\n“Each of them had different interests and activities,” Zuckerberg’s attorneys wrote. “Only one of them had an idea significant enough to build a great company. That one person was \nMark Zuckerberg.”\nZuckerberg, the Winklevosses and Narenda could not be contacted before press time. \nIU doctoral student Wayne Buente, who teaches a class focusing on the benefits of social networking, said the allegations made by ConnectU seem to be serious.\n“As for Facebook shutting down, I don’t see that happening, as it is a major player in Web 2.0,” he said. “Its ‘market share’ in online social networking is just too great.” \nBuente said he suspects a settlement between the ConnectU founders and Zuckerberg will be reached before Facebook can be shut down.\nIncoming freshman Alexis Parker said she uses Facebook every day to check messages and to take up time. She said she doesn’t even write people back and finds it mostly useless.\n“Obviously I don’t care,” she said in regard to Facebook shutting down. “Facebook is so boring. It really wouldn’t matter to most people. It’s just a dummy-down version \nof MySpace.”\nParker said she has watched her roommate click between a class paper and Facebook multiple times. She said if students didn’t have Facebook, they would focus more on \ntheir studies. \nSenior Keely Malayter said Facebook shutting down would be difficult at first, but students lived without Facebook long before its invention, and it wouldn’t ultimately make a difference. \n“So goes life,” she said.\nMalayter uses Facebook a couple of times a day and feels indifferent to the lawsuit. She said she does not feel shutting Facebook down would help students focus more on their studies.\n“There are plenty of other distractions,” she said. “It won’t make a big difference if Facebook is there or not.” \n– The Associated Press contributed to this story.