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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.
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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
""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
On the other hand, as far as anyone can tell, they did come up with the idea, and they did have an agreement with Zuckerberg that he would implement it. Now, this business with trying to renegotiate their settlement is another matter, but I can certainly think of greedier people.
Palm trees and 8
And if you look up weasel, you'll see Zuckerberg. It's irrelevant if they're greedy. If they were lied to, and screwed that's still bad business. If they really don't have a case, as the appeals court suggests, then too bad so sad.
But being slimy, greedy, or even just a bad person doesn't make you wrong. Signing a bad agreement does.
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
How could he be a saint? ginger's have no soul's
It's like the mind going AWOL, it's there somewhere
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.
That's nonsense. I have an idea, I want to make a jet pack. I'm not intellectually or creatively capable of actually creating said jet pack myself, so I'm going to find a student at say MIT and see if he can do it for me. Dang it, the student thought the jet pack was a great idea too, but now he has his own vision for how he wants to build it. But we had a verbal agreement, he said he'd do it for me. A decade later, he's a billionaire, I thought of the jet pack idea and now everyone is flying around. I'm pissed. I know, this is America, I'm going to sue him for every penny he's earned for all of the work he put into actually making the idea, a reality.
"So.. we had an idea and an agreement was worked out with you. and we all got what we all agreed on. BUT.. you ended up making a LOT more money off the idea than we expected, so NOW we want a bigger cut.... ok?"
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The judge's point seems to be the following: you want to back out of the deal because you believe that the shares you were given as part of the settlement were not valued as highly as originally stated. However, those shares are worth a lot of money though, so things have worked out pretty peachy keen for you guys. Please stop wasting any more of the court's time.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
...and quite yer whining you rich wankers!
So this is the "I watched the Zuckerberg movie and lets comment on it as it really happened" thread?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
So this is the "I watched the Zuckerberg movie and lets comment on it as it really happened" thread?
The Winklevoss twins are real, not just two guys in a movie...
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
Aha Mark, nice try posting as AC, but we KNOW your writing style. You may not think that we are talented, but we actually are. You have been figured out by this dynamic duo. Yessir, yessiree. As Darth Vader once said, all too easy!
--The Winklevoss Twins
P.S.: You owe us a larger undisclosed amount of shares.
It's more like, you signed a deal that specifically excludes anything said during the negotiations from being admissible in court. So live with that part of the deal. Since the Winklevosses have no evidence, they can't prevail. The relative value of the shares then and now are irrelevant.
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
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.
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.
On the other hand, as far as anyone can tell, they did come up with the idea...
For social networking? No they didn't.
For Facebook? No they didn't, they had an idea which was much more restricted and close-minded.
Without Zuckerberg their idea would have died in six months, leaving them in debt. They've done zero work and they're multi-millionaires now.
If I had their money I'd be retired on an island somewhere. STFU already.
No sig today...
WTF? If there's one place NOT to spamvertise Swarovski Crystals... they just found it.
No sig today...
They didn't come up with the idea. They said themselves that friendster already existed at the time. Their angle was making it exclusive to Harvard.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Here's a more detailed story, including citations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConnectU
The movie isn't that far off when it comes to the communication between zuckerberg and the twins. Characters and drama are obviously embelished and I don't know about all the stuff unrelated to HarvardConnection, but atleast this part seems to be reasonably accurate.
Long story short; Zuckerberg agreed to do the project, didn't deliver and released a nearly identical project of his own.
Ofcourse, trying to get out of a settlement is a whole different matter; that's just sad. The idea of a settlement is to end a legal battle, not to provide fertile grounds for more lawsuits.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Strictly speaking, a verbal contract is also legally binding. Trouble, of course, is in proving what the verbal contract entailed.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
No, they didn't win, they came a close second though
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
"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.
If you look up "greed" in the dictionary you'll see a picture of the Winklevoss twins
Their faces will be behind many others.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
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?
Hey, yes we d......ok, yeah, you got me there.
...nor should they be. Get over it.
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