The Winklevosses’ defeat! In “The Social Network”, directed by David Fincher, Jesse Eisenberg plays the role of the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. This film depicts all the successes and conflicts that Zuckerberg had to go through in order to make Facebook the most successful social networking site in the world. After launching a website called “facemash” Zuckerberg became so popular that he was confronted by the Winklevoss twins. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss asked Zuckerberg to create a website for college students at Harvard but Zuckerberg eventually veered off into a different direction hence the creation the of Facebook.
The Winklevoss twins are now angered by the fact that Zuckerberg apparently “stole” their idea, and take him to court. After numerous meetings the Winklevosses’ were given a settlement of 65 million dollars that was not deserved. The Winklevosses’ should not have received a penny of Zuckerberg’s money simply because they did not physically create Facebook, Zuckerberg did not use any of their “codes” to make the site, and the Winklevoss twins did not fund during the creation of Facebook. In the beginning of “The Social Network”, Zuckerberg agrees to help the Winklevoss twins create their website.
After a few weeks Zuckerberg makes little contact with Cameron and Tyler. At this point Zuckerberg is doing all the work with his partner Edward Saverin. The twins never actually did any physical work that goes into creating a website. All they did was give orders and sit and wait for Mark Zuckerberg to finish their website so they could take all the credit. After a month or two Zuckerberg finally hinted that the website would not be possible to complete at the rate he was working. The Winklevoss twins had no physical involvement in making any website whatsoever.
They should not have won any type of settlement just because they asked someone to complete a task and that someone decided not to do it. They should have just fired him like it was any other job. Another reason why the Winklevoss twins should not have received any type of settlement is because Zuckerberg and his team did not use any of the twins “networking codes” when creating the Facebook. I agree that they had similar ideas but saying something and actually doing it are very different things. These codes are formatting platforms that make a website.
Zuckerberg did not use any codes that resemble Cameron’s and Tyler’s website they initially wanted to construct. It’s like Google versus Bing. They are very similar, but one is more popular. They both have the same general idea but are not the same. Anybody should be able to create a website similar to another and not be sued for copyright issues. Money was also a big issue in this lawsuit. The Winklevoss twins agreed to pay Zuckerberg for his services and for any supplies needed during the process. Zuckerberg did not accept anything because he was working with Edward Saverin whom was providing all of the funding.
Saverin set aside thousands and thousands of dollars to help start what is now Facebook. As for the twins, they did not officially give any funding to Zuckerberg or his partner. This lawsuit would have been different if Zuckerberg would have accepted money to create his own website and not what the Winklevosses’ wanted. That would definitely be a problem because they paid for a service and nothing was given in return. Since none of the Winklevosses’ money was used to create Facebook there should not be any problems.
In conclusion, the lawsuit between Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Mark Zuckerberg should not have ended the way it did. No money should have been given to the twins especially not 65 million dollars. Zuckerberg probably did not want to pay them anything either but wanted to get them off his back since he had billions of dollars to be made in Facebook. I don’t think the Winklevoss twins deserved one cent just because they had a general idea. Any one individual can have an idea but if no work is went into it than there is no point in crying about it.
Zuckerberg was able to prove that none of the codes were used when making Facebook so no copyright lawsuits should have been filed. You cannot expect Zuckerberg to just give up and hand over a billion dollar company when the twins did not even give them money to help keep the website running. Think about it, why should Zuckerberg give Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss any rights to the company when they just sat there and did nothing. They did not put any effort except emailing Zuckerberg about his progress. The Winklevoss twins were in the wrong 100 percent and should not have gained anything for something they did not contribute to.
