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Court Rejects Winklevoss Twins' Facebook Appeal
angry tapir writes "A US federal appeals court has denied a request by the Winklevoss twins to release them from their settlement with Facebook over their allegations that Mark Zuckerberg improperly appropriated their idea for the social networking site. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, along with another Harvard classmate, agreed to the settlement in 2008 but the twins later asked a district court to let them back out, saying they were misled by Facebook about the value of the company's shares they received as part of the deal. On Monday, a three-judge appeals court panel sided with the lower court, noting that the Winklevoss twins have actually fared quite well since the settlement was hammered out because the value of Facebook, pegged recently at around $50 billion, means that their shares have more than tripled in value."
A social media post without replies? Irony.
If you look up "greed" in the dictionary you'll see a picture of the Winklevoss twins
It's like the mind going AWOL, it's there somewhere
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ITT: Commenters who have seen The Social Network and, accordingly, are now experts on the matter.
and thats probably the first and only time i'll get to say that
Yeah 2 dudes who lost out. "Big time! Bro!"
And they are hereby officially nominated for biggest douche of the year award!
""The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace."
I wish judiciary was that clear and just in other cases, but this comment made my day.
Winklevi
You know, they accepted the settlement. They could have held out if they wanted to gamble. They chose to pull their money off black when they were ahead and leave the casino. I'm afraid I feel no unhappiness for them at all. Greedy bastards, and I don't believe that's a term I've ever used before here on /. Doesn't mean I haven't thought it though :)
Speaking of greed, the way that Zuckerberg is reputed to have treated Eduardo, his partner, and the one who put up all the initial investment money for Facebook is worse than the situation with the W twins.
He is reputed to have taken Eduardo's 30-some percent share down to 0 or so by issuing new stock to venture capitalists while keeping his and Sean Parker's percentages stable.
One phrase for dealing with startups: "non-dilutable shares"
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
It's WinkelVII people - Winklevii
Get your social networking terminology straight
Winklevoss twins area a bunch of hacks who could never have come close to making anything close to Facebook. They wanted to make a local online Harvard directory, but couldn't do it themselves so they wanted to use Zuckerberg to make it for em. Zucks thought of something better called Facebook and kept them out of the loop. Well played Zucks, the jocks can suck it!
Full opinion, from the 9th Circuit, here: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/04/11/08-16745.pdf.
No statement is true, not even this one.
On Monday, a three-judge appeals court panel sided with the lower court, noting that the Winklevoss twins have actually fared quite well since the settlement was hammered out
How they made out ought to be irrelevant. Either they got cheated or they didn't. If they did, they would have made out even better.
The court's statement is like saying, "sure, someone stole your money. but you have lots of other money, so it's ok".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
for people that didn't actually do any of the actual *work*. The Winklevi are like the ultimate PHBs, but worse.
The illusion that the company is "worth $50 billion" would evaporate rapidly if an actual effort were made to liquidate it.
...and quite yer whining you rich wankers!
Could the Winklevii *please* go away? Please?
Pardon me, good sir, you should have typed "their", not "there".
How in hell the Winkelvii ever got more than a dime is amazing. "Oh, I had an idea, I had an idea...". So? There are a million idiots with grand ideas. Little 5 year old kids spread out their arms and pretend they can fly like a bird, and have been doing so for *THOUSANDS* of years. Just wishin' and having an idea doesn't make it happen though. A little bit of science (or quite a bit of science), tenacity and hard work will get you there. Building a killer site isn't quite as hard as designing an entirely new technology (like human flight), but it still takes work. That the Windelvii taught themselves fscking HTML by age 15!?!?! How in the hell is that impressive? I was writing artificial intelligence software by that time (and I taught myself how to do it too). No dimes coming my way for doing so though. Basically the Winkelvii got money because they happened to know Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg tossed them a very generous bone. No one will give them another dime and they can't build a site by themselves. Keep rowing boys. Spend that money very very carefully.
From the Opinion:
The parties agreed that Facebook would swallow up Con- nectU, the Winklevosses would get cash and a small piece of Facebook, and both sides would stop fighting and get on with their lives.
Couldn't agree more
-We think in generalities but live in details.
kekeke America nuke me for spamming.
Loser dude, who can't meet chicks on his own, steals idea of social network, fucks over his partners, gets rich, gets laid, still is a loser.
Did i get it all?
Be seeing you...
GP has been here for a very long time. Hell, he probably is actually a grand parent. He has years, decades even, more experience about not RTFAing than the rest of us.
Sorry. If I put up funds for X amount of the company when it starts, I damn well am going to own X amount when it is flourishing. Inactivity? My activity was providing money, money you didn't have and needed. That's the price one pays for borrowing my money.
WTF? If there's one place NOT to spamvertise Swarovski Crystals... they just found it.
No sig today...
"The Winklevii".
Best movie line I've heard in years. Had me rolling in my seat.
Also, the only good thing about these guys, as near as I can tell (yes, based on more than The Social Network). They fed meat to a shark and then complained when they had no dinner. Better luck next time.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
What, don't you think such high quality crystals would be useful in some kind of focussed energy experiment, like, say, if you were trying to create sharks with frickin' laser beams on them?
In fact, I bet there's a Swarovski shark that you could make reflect lasers off in all sorts of directions!
While it may be that they were massively screwed (I honestly couldn't say), they are wealthy.
They will live in comfort for the rest of their lives, they are now famous, and their kids futures are secure.
Can't really feel too sorry for them.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
This is why if you come up with an idea, you don't hire anyone without an NDA with a noncompete clause (and you incorporate in a legally friendly state). Why the hell would you want the programmer you hire to just flip you the bird and start the same project under a new name, knowing that you have nobody else to replace them immediately?
I often hear people call Mark Z a loser. Why? Well, let's assume that his little stunt backfired, and the Winklevoss twins found another programmer and ran ahead full speed instead of sitting on their asses. And let's suppose that using their connections, they beat Mark to market? Who wins? The rich Winklevoss twins, or Mark "who-the-fuck-are-you" Zuckerberg? Would mark every get hired by any other startup if Facebook were owned by the Winklevoss twins, and they let it be known that some little creep almost stole their business on day 1?
Hell no, he'd be flipping burgers. It wasn't that he was THAT good of a programmer or THAT good of an entrepreneur. It wasn't like he had another idea to fall back on. He's no Kevin Rose or Steve Jobs. He took a chance at the right place at the right time, and got VERY lucky.
So why is he a loser? Cause if you are a college kid thinking of pulling this little stunt, you're not going to be a billionaire, you're going to be working help desk until you're 80. Come up with your own ideas, or find a good one someone else has, and be smart and get an ironclad stock option agreement.
I8-D
I beg to differ. An initial idea is worth almost nothing. The initial ideas for social network sites were already out there. People have great ideas all the time that they just don't do anything with. I started my career right before the Internet took off and lived in Silicon Valley hanging out with people from Apple, Netscape, Exodus, Sun, etc. Whenever the next big idea hit like Ebay, some acquaintance would say, "Damn, I had that idea 2 years ago."
Yeah, well, ideas are barely worth shit.
Discrimination of which ideas to pursue and how to refine them as well as the willpower and ability to execute upon them are vastly more important. Some funding is nice, too.
Guys like Zuckerberg who go after it, not letting anything stop him will succeed time and time again.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Here here! Finally the voice of reason. I'm sick of the jealous people here "he stole this" "he fucked them" blah blah. They just can't make their cool ideas a reality, and they hate anyone who succeeds at doing it.
I had some cool ideas, got some funding, and spent years learning how hard it is to make it succeed. I've tried my hardest, and still haven't gotten lucky yet or had a big break. But I don't give up, and I have more respect now for the Page/Gates/Jobs/Zuckerberg types. They ALL borrowed ideas. And they all worked hard.
...nor should they be. Get over it.
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Problem is the 'W' twins didn't have that idea. They wanted to make a HARVARD social network -- because, like most arrogant Harvard assholes, they believed that Harvard men were a product that women all wanted. And THEIR idea of a social network was to connect Harvard guys with shallow women.
Zuck had a vision that was light years ahead of the whiner twins.