Cyber Law Case Analysis

Running head: CYBER LAW
CYBER LAW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CYBER LAW
Question 1
Fact
In this question the case of Facebook, Inc. v. Connectu LLC, NO. C 07-01389 (RS)
(N.D. Cal. Jun. 13, 2007), is to be reviewed. In this case ConnectU filed a lawsuit against
Facebook and the executives of the Facebook for the commission of infringement of copyright,
implied contract’s breach, trade secret’s misappropriation, breach of the fiduciary duty, unfair
practices of business, unjust enrichment, intentional interference with the advantage of
prospective business, breach of duty of fair dealing and good faith, breach of confidence and
fraud.
There are several parties in this case. ConnectU was the plaintiff of this case and the
defendants were Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin,
Christopher Hughes and Thefacebook LLC.
A lawsuit was filed by the ConnectU against the Facebook which alleged that an oral
contract was breached by the creator of the Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg for using the idea and
source code of the ConnectU team and creating TheFacebook.com using that idea and source
code. The plaintiff was motivated to take legal action as they believed that Mark Zuckerberg
copied their idea and used the same to form up a competing networking site name Facebook
(Gonçalves, 2018).
The following are some of the major facts of the case: Mark Zuckerberg was approached
on November 2003 by Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss and DivyaNarendra to join the
HarvardConnection team. On 25th November, 2003 a meeting was held between the

2CYBER LAW
aforementioned persons, where an oral contract was alleged to be entered by Zuckerberg.On 11th
January 2004, the domain named thefacebook.com was registered by Zuckerberg. On 12thJanuary
2004, an e-mail was sent by Zuckerberg to Eduardo Saverin stating that the completion of
thefacebook.com was almost done and marketing strategies need to be discussed. On 6th
February, 2004 Narendra and Winklevoss came to know about thefacebook.com from a
newspaper article named The Harvard Crimson. On 10th February, 2004 a cease and desist letter
was sent to Zuckerberg by Narendra and the Winklevoss. After these incidents a lawsuit was
filed against Facebook for the braech of oral contract and using idea and source code for creating
thefacebook.com (Hatten, 2015).
Issue
Whether Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg would be liable for the commission of oral
contract breach and infringement of copyright.
Whether any public policy is being violated by the Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.
Whether there is presence of any values in conflict and which value is to be considered as
more important.
Whether the plaintiff has the option of going to the court of law to claim relief or
compensation.
Arguments
It was argued by the ConnectU team that Mark Zuckerberg has made a breach of contract
and also used the idea and source code of the ConnectU for the creation of Facebook. It was
alleged in the suit that their idea has been copied and the source code has been illegally used by