DISQUS

Reggie · 2 years ago

Huh? These guys think they were the first to come up with the idea to use the internet as an online school directory with a variety of direct communication features....in 2003!?!?!?!? There were hundreds of people with various things like this ten years earlier (I was one and have the webpages and domain names to prove it.) Maybe this was new at Harvard, but I highly doubt even that...

Tamar Weinberg · 2 years ago

I still have a copy of my Columbia University Facebook from 1999. The concept wasn't foreign to me then, and it certainly wasn't foreign to me when I joined Zuckerberg's creation in 2004. The only innovation that Mark Zuckerberg introduced was that he brought it to the web and did so in a way that not only attracted visitors; it turned them into addicts. Kudos for Zuckerberg for making a platform that was desirable to students.

There were many Facebook-clones back in the day, but only one had a clean interface that allowed users to interact with each other with ease. That was the one that succeeded.

You can't fault anyone else for trying, but Zuckerberg's success was not driven by simply an idea. It was driven by the execution of that idea.

rico · 2 years ago

Hmmm...Classmates.com anyone? This is comical...

Bob Jones · 2 years ago

Completely agree... let's assume that the idea was completely novel starting with this Aaron guy... who cares... execution was done by another and the fruit of that labor is what we see today... glad at least the ConnectU idiots' case will be weaker now

anonymous · 2 years ago

All the beltway insiders know that Al Gore invented Facebook.

Jitendra · 2 years ago

I tend to agree with Bob Jones...Its all about the execution.

DMACK · 2 years ago

Social Networking is so boring once you hit 33.

Ruther44 · 2 years ago

I agree. Ideas are 1% of a new business.
Zuckerberg got the idea from Greenspan. Greenspan got the idea from Abraham. Abrahams got the idea from Adrian Scott (ryze.com). The issue is did ConnectU pay Zuckerberg to write code which he took to facebook. That is what really matters. And that is what the case should be judged on. btw, who has finished Aaron's 306 page ebook yet??

Rex Agbulos · 2 years ago

Ha? What is a Facebook? What is a ConnectU? I know about Myspace. And who is Mark or Aaron? I've never heard of them. I know Tom.

Jon De Marion · 2 years ago

What if Zuckerberg paid Greenspan for 2 reasons, 1st to weakening of the lawsuit filed by Tyler and 2nd to get more media attention. For that, he deserves even more credit, smart move, I wonder who is his PR advisor who also deserves a lot of credit.

Mo · 2 years ago

I signed onto facebook to get my application into their app platform and got to play with it quite a bit. I just don't find anything patentable there. I just don't see how those guys can sue facebook. I think their "Invite Friends to Join" feature is basically an electronic implementation of chained letters, that is why facebook spreads like a cancer.

Alex Lavidge · 2 years ago

From what I remember, back in 2001 there was Club Nexus at Stanford. It was a savvy website that resembled facebook.com in a lot of ways. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/adamic/

The public needs to understand is that 1) social networking, and the kind of features facebook was built on, and all the ideas, have all been around for a while, before even facebook or ConnectU, and that 2) ideas are cheap (unless you have legal protection) and that creating value comes from execution, barriers to entry, putting the right teams together, and just a ton of other factors.

leilah · 1 year ago

Mr. Zuckerberg is such a self ish man..i min its ridiculous to copy someone's work.

Jim Ackley · 1 year ago

Realistically, for something as generic as Facebook, which has been made many times by many people for many schools, etc., whoever makes something like that isn't going to be the ONLY person in the world to think of it. There are approximately more than 6.7 billion people in the world, odds are one of them is thinking of the same thing you are at the same time. Many of them think of it but don't or can't put it into action. So sure they have "created" it before he did, but he's the man who made it go big time. It's their own fault for not releasing it for the public before he did.

Herb Gilliland · 1 year ago

I identify with Aaron, I had a similar problem occur with YouTube founder's Chad Hurley and Steve Chen just sort of going off and not responding with any compensation. I don't understand why people aren't "in the mood" to stand up for the originals -- the people who actually invent the brands or concepts -- in fact, I face more ridicule than sympathy by making the true statement, "I invented YouTube"