Facebook Steps Up Attack on Man Who Claims Ownership

By MIGUEL HELFT
NYT

Paul Ceglia, who claims he owns half of Facebook, at his home. (John Anderson/Wellsville Daily Reporter

4:59 p.m. | Updated to add comment from Paul Ceglia’s lawyer.

Facebook on Thursday sharpened its attack on Paul Ceglia, a New York man who says that a 2003 work-for-hire contract with Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, entitles him to half of Mr. Zuckerberg’s stake in the social media giant.

In a legal motion filed in federal court in Buffalo, Facebook provided details and expert testimony to support its claims that the contract at the center of Mr. Ceglia’s lawsuit was doctored and that a series of purported e-mails between the two men was fabricated. In addition, Facebook said Mr. Zuckerberg has sworn under oath that he neither signed the contract put forward by Mr. Ceglia, nor sent or received the purported e-mails that Mr. Ceglia has presented as evidence.

In 2003, while Mr. Zuckerberg was a freshman at Harvard, he agreed to do programming work for Mr. Ceglia’s business, StreetFax.

Mr. Ceglia has not yet produced the original version of the contract that is supposed to show that their agreement also covered Mr. Zuckerberg’s project, then called The Facebook.

(More here.)