'Once The World Is Yours, Everyone Wants A Piece'. Last year, Paul Ceglia, a New York businessman filed a lawsuit claiming that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, had signed a contract in 2003 that awarded Paul Ceglia $1,000 and a 50-percent stake in the fledgeling social network. In return, Ceglia said that he worked as a designer and developer on Zuckerberg's site, while Zuckerberg worked as a coder for Ceglia's StreetFax.com. Many have wondered why Paul Ceglia had waited 7 years to come forward. In addition, Ceglia had been arrested in 2009 and charged with criminal fraud.
This year, he has refiled his case and has brought forward more than a dozen emails allegedly written by Zuckerberg in 2003 and 2004. The bottom is the lawsuit:
1)In September 2003, Zuckerberg emails Ceglia about the "Harvard site," sharing his thinking about a potential revenue model. He also notes that the "facebook.com" and "pagebook.com" domains are unavailable.
2)Ceglia responds quickly, with his own thoughts about the business model and name. He also proposes that they keep the site free and sell coffee mugs and t-shirts, etc. In November, the lawsuit says, Ceglia provided Zuckerberg with another $1,000.
3)And now it gets interesting... Enter, the Winklevoss Twins--"upperclassmen that are planning to launch a site very similar to ours." Mark says he has "stalled them." And he asks for another $1,000.
4)For the rest of the year, Ceglia and Zuckerberg continue to discuss the Face Book and the Winklevoss twins. Then Zuckerberg asks for more money and a waiver on the January 1 completion date.
5)Ceglia pushes back. And Mark says he'll get the site online as quickly as he can.
6)On January 5th, Ceglia emails Mark saying where is the site and threatening to call Mark's parents. Mark says that's uncalled for.
7)On February 2, 2004, Zuckerberg emails Ceglia saying he thinks the "1% per day" of additional interest accruing to Ceglia for the delay is unfair (and possibly illegal). Zuckerberg asks for a 50/50 split.
8)The next day, Ceglia writes back, agreeing to the 50/50. He also again suggests they sell mugs and t-shirts and so forth on the site.
9)On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launches "thefacebook.com". Mark emails Paul Ceglia and invites him to take a look.
10)Ceglia responds the same day, excited. He starts talking about expanding to other schools and cities.
11)Then, two days later, in a stinging email that appears to mark a sharp change in the relationship, Mark Zuckerberg tells Paul Ceglia that he's not going to sell "college junk" on the site. He also says that Ceglia hasn't paid him money he is owed for all the extra work he did.
12)The next day, Ceglia responds angrily. Then he again proposes ways to get some advertising on the site.
13)Two months later, Zuckerberg writes Ceglia an email telling him he's thinking of shutting down the Facebook site, because he's too busy to work on it and there's little interest in it among students. (This is while Facebook is growing like crazy). Ceglia gets really pissed off, and starts accusing Zuckerberg of pulling "criminal stunts".
14)The lawsuit then explains what Ceglia was referring to. It also explains how well thefacebook.com was doing.
15)Three months later, on July 22, from California, Zuckerberg writes to Ceglia, offering to pay him back the $2,000 Ceglia gave him. Zuckerberg mentions that he is "out in California working." He doesn't mention that he's working on an exploding new company called Facebook. And he wants to be relieved "of the obligation of having to answer to you"
16)The lawsuit says Zuckerberg did not send Ceglia the $2,000. A week later, Zuckerberg incorporated Facebook, Inc.
17)Ceglia says he never got any money from Zuckerberg, nor relinquished his ownership in the "face book" partnership.
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