ConnectU Seeks to Shutdown Facebook

sergio  ||   24 July 2007

The owners of ConnectU, a social networking Web site, are trying to shut down Facebook.com, by suing Facebook.com in a federal lawsuit alleging that Facebook's founder stole their ideas while they were students at Harvard.

The three founders of ConnectU say Mark Zuckerberg agreed to finish computer code for their site, but repeatedly stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas.

The lawsuit's allegations against Zuckerberg include fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The lawsuit asks the court to shut down Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to ConnectU's founders.

Facebook has responded by asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.