Who founded Facebook? A new claim emerges

The Web site has been fighting claims that its founder stole the idea. Now another man says he was the creator.
The New York Times

The story "Who founded Facebook? A new claim emerges" published September 1, 2007 at 11:58 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[digitalway]

Facebook,Myspace, etc..

I guess what is truly dismaying to me, this idea of "ownership" of some original thought.. Lest we all forget the BBS such as WildCat , etc.. or the days of the Well, and later came company's like KOZ the creators of advance applications to provide Communities to be born, which included photos, self-publishing, groups, private public, broadcast emails etc.. this all during the hey day of the Internet times.. or even older school systems such as MIT Athena .. what gives.. all the "social networks" of today are just evolutions of the previous technologies, the truth is simple the Facebook, Myspace , are just recreations of real world social interactions made digital. What is novel is the methods of making it happen.- NOT original, software programming is a language and just like language the words one uses cannot be unique it the method you express them give them substance. I am all for "copyrights" to give credit to who is due.. but come on, there are zillion ideas out, and it is about the person makes it work not the one who thought of it , unless it is one an the same. So the connectU peeps are upset that one of their acquaintances took an idea a made it happen, (any one remember zuniversity or about the Alumni applications used now across the United States.. or now "myyearbook" who isn't sueing them? they taking what myspace and facebook do and adding some highschool stuff, , the truth is this, what is the big deal, all 4 of these people need to get in a room and just be reasonable men about it, what do they want? is the money? is the glory , what? just get over it, move on, make something else.. I digress, I guess i am fed up with now seems "gossip" like news of technology , the last burning of the sexy hollywood propped of the go-go Internet days. But once you go digital it must continue to strive forward to keep things "new".. so facebook and myspace are the geo cities, and angelfire of not so long ago, an before that the well and all the great BBS systems prior.. in another couple of years some new college graduates will have some "killer" idea..which was done before in the "real world", the name facebook is from what colleges use for incoming freshman.. not so original it is a wonder Jostens has not sued them yet..
I use facebook and myspace, the operative word is USE , for my own needs.. the social network I have created is for me my creation, so while I vested in the tools the goes only as far as they serve my social networks needs.. because of this i will switch to something else if it meets my needs.. and for the creators who believe they are providing a greater good for all society need to remember this. So if all the "lawsuits" etc.. filing cause of bitterness come on.. that is just crank.. the digital divas should remember the lyrics from you wanna be a (ROCK) SuperStar from Cyprus Hill "Save your money man, that hit single wont last, there will be some cat coming out, , looking like me, sounding like me , next year, i know this, there will be flip side , spinning off something serious".

[fredmenace]

Agreed

All these claims of originality and our current IP mess overlook the fact that coming up with an idea is nothing. Anyone can do that, ideas are a dime a dozen, there are way more great ideas out there than could ever be implemented. In addition, ideas are essentially worthless until they are implemented. And coming up with the idea is less than 1% of the effort - implementing it takes at least 99% of the time, effort and, indeed, INGENUITY, to solve all the real-world problems that crop up along the way (each of which is itself a new innovation).

[jaspal.m]

myspace ..now facebook...

First myspace became popular,,now its facebook era...so 2-3 yrs from now..new site would become the leader,,,and it would keep moving on...
but i love facebook..and hate myspace..

[tchandara]

Facebook is here to stay...

Facebook is here to stay for a long time because just like MSN Messenger, all your friends are up there and use it daily (well, at least for British young adults). Friendster lack the functionality as they didnt innovate due to internal problems. MySpace is plain immature. Facebook has clear interface and fantastic functionalities, which the two guys who are suing facebook may never be able to innovate to this point. So they should back off. Facebook is not original (friendster's been there), but Zuck keep it clean and been innovating the last 2 years to make a success. He deserve the credit.

[gubbord]

By the time this gets settled

Facebook will be as worthless as Friendster

[WJeansonne]

I think Greenspan has Invalidated UConnect's Claims

Greenspan's e-mails and code will probably void any claims by virtue of prior art.

[mutualin4mation]

Who Cares?

Who cares who started facebook and who "invented" social networking? Social networking was invented thousands of years ago when thag's wife compared notes with grog's wife.

Who cares who invented the latest trivial internet nonsence? Does it matter that MTV ripped off Friday night videos when both are irrelevant today?

[inachu]

Prior art is proof.

Greenspan should win.

other people who should have won in court with prior art are the original creators of PRICELESS.
Whom mastercard stole the idea and used it for TV commercials and banned the guys from using their own PRICELESS on the web(which I consider illegal)

So either Greenspan will win in which I hope he does or Greenspan will not win even though he was the creator such as the PRICELESS picture guys were.

It will take some crafty evil lawyers to make Greenspan lose in court.