Thefacebook.com, a social networking Web site for college students, faces a lawsuit from the creators of a similar Web site, ConnectU.com.
The three Harvard University graduates who created ConnectU contend that thefacebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, stole their idea when he worked for ConnectU.
ConnectU's creators, Divya Narendra, Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, were taken by surprise when they read last February about thefacebook's opening in Harvard's student newspaper, The Crimson. Zuckerberg had been writing code for ConnectU for months without mentioning that he was also working on his own site.
"People have to see that he did something wrong," Tyler Winklevoss said. "More will come to light with the lawsuit. It's certainly not a stretch to come to a conclusion based on the facts, but a lot of people maybe aren't even aware [of the origins of thefacebook]."
The suit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court Sept. 2, asks courts to shut down thefacebook.com and force it to turn over its profits.
According to The Crimson, ConnectU accused thefacebook.com of "breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets ... intentional interference with prospective business advantage, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing ... and usurpation of business opportunity."
Thefacebook.com spokesperson Chris Hughes said these allegations are false.
"Mark did six hours of work for a site that was much different than the current ConnectU," Hughes said in an e-mail. "Mark's relationship with the creators of ConnectU was informal, in the sense that he was never paid, nor did he have a contract with them."
Winklevoss said that Zuckerberg worked for ConnectU from November 2003 to February 2004. They exchanged 52 e-mails over four months and met several times to discuss the site.
Zuckerberg stalled the opening of ConnectU, its creators said, by dragging out his programming work while he made his own site. Last February, when thefacebook.com was launched, ConnectU's site was months behind completion.
"He basically took an unfair advantage in a race," Winklevoss said. "He knew that it would be helpful to get out of the gates first. He led us on, stalling us and giving himself an unfair advantage."
While thefacebook.com has 2,049 members from AU as of Sept. 28, ConnectU has about 20.
"I think users of thefacebook understand that the claims of ConnectU are unfounded. Our site usage is higher than it's ever been before," Hughes said, adding that the site gets about 6,000 new members each day.
Some AU students don't think the lawsuit will have any effect on which site they choose to use.
"I had never heard of ConnectU before, which means the guy who sabotaged it must have done a really good job," said Kenan Fikri, a freshman in the School of International Service. "I think people will use what they're used to, and if there are more people from AU on thefacebook, then it makes more sense to use that."
Melanie Rivera, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, thinks that users might consider thefacebook.com's origins when deciding whether to use the service.
"I think that whenever you use anything, we have a responsibility as consumers to be aware," Rivera said. "As long as you know, you can choose. You should at least be aware of it."
Winklevoss said he hopes students will take history into account when choosing a social networking site.
"Obviously we would love for the court of public opinion to see our side and embrace our site and get all the facts, but that's very idealistic," he said. "If they have a service that's good, they usually don't try to figure out who's behind it.
"Ideally people would sign up to our site and choose to use our service because of the history," he continued. "It's like casting a vote, in some sense, about what happened. I think that would be powerful for students to send that message"
