Only Non-Lawyers Ever Think A Contract Is “Clear” On Its Face

That’s the take of Elie Mystal who analyzes the pending suit against Mark Zuckerberg filed by Paul Ceglia which suggests that Ceglia should now own 85 percent of Facebook. The proof? A contract from 2003 which suggests that Paul Ceglia took an ownership stake in a soon-to-be-developed project called “The Face Book”, as we covered over a week ago.

The Media Distrusts Mark Zuckerberg

After watching the media give their take on the situation for the past couple weeks, it appears that the media by default seems to distrust Mark Zuckerberg. Then again, if they didn’t trust Paul Ceglia by default, this would be a non-story for the most part. Any random person can file a suit claiming that they have ownership, however the Winkelvoss brothers also previously filed a suit against Mark Zuckerberg and it resulted in a settlement, suggesting that Zuckerberg is not always an innocent actor.

There Is Some Evidence

One point of evidence that Mark Zuckerberg could have signed this contract was that he was in college and actively pursuing contract work at the time. Business Insider posted an image of Zuckerberg’s profile on vWorker.com, where he was pursuing contract work. However anybody that knew how to program at the time was on vWorker or a similar site. It looked like an easy way to make some extra cash (or “beer money” as it’s called in College). I even had a profile on ODesk at the time, although was never able to find a contract as every “employer” on those sites is look for cheap labor, not talented developers.

That Mark Zuckerberg was looking for contract work at the time is really the only evidence that suggests this could possibly be a legitimate case.

The Truth Will Come Out

Ultimately the truth will come out and while both parties are holding strong, the media’s predisposition is that Mark Zuckerberg appears suspicious, or at the least, this claim would substantially alter the history of the founding of Facebook. There’s a lot of evidence against Paul Ceglia however, and right now, the odds are still stacked against him. It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out.