# Why are we ok with what Mark Zuckerberg did? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 25, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552 "2011-09-25T14:29:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/41 "2011-09-28T15:24:19Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > :: cough :: > > I’m a real person, and I view intellectual property theft as, well, theft. I’m just not sure that what MZ did rises to that level, as I don’t trust any Hollywood movie to relate the truth of any matter other than the color of the sky. :: proffers handkerchief :: I’ve never met anyone who would absolutely equate movie piracy to stealing a dvd from Blockbuster. The lack of a physical medium does make a difference to the vast majority of people. There isn’t a perception of wrongness as strong or universal with bit/byte-duplication as there is with physically depriving someone of a three-dimensional object. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/42 "2011-09-28T15:30:44Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Plus, whether they were important or not, its pretty obvious that MZ thought the two months were important, since he bothered to snowball the Twins instead of just telling them to go find someone else. Personally, I think he was just hedging his bets. I think he started working on the project in earnest, then at some point decided that he was going to make a go of it alone. If he had jettisoned the twins whenever he made that decision, then he’d be stuck going it alone, even if it proved to be a bad decision. By stringing them a long, he had the option of having some clout in his back pocket just in case, up until the point where he was sure it was pointless to have them on board. I have no evidence for this, it’s just a hunch. Given that the market was already saturated with social networking sites, I find it hard to believe that he was all that concerned about being “first.” In the off chance that HarvardConnection launched first, he could always launch TheFacebook at MIT or Cornell or some other university and try and get off the ground that way. There was nothing special about the appetite for social networking at Harvard that made it the must-have launching ground for Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/43 "2011-09-28T15:37:29Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I have no evidence for this, it’s just a hunch. Given that the market was already saturated with social networking sites, I find it hard to believe that he was all that concerned about being “first.” Right. MySpace existed for six months before thefacebook launched and Friendster was around for almost two years. Facebook was always “last” in that sense. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/44 "2011-09-28T15:56:00Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > :: proffers handkerchief :: Thanks, but I always have at least two hankies with me. I was a Boy Scout. > [@](#): > > I’ve never met anyone who would absolutely equate movie piracy to stealing a dvd from Blockbuster. C’est moi, c’est moi! > [@](#): > > The lack of a physical medium does make a difference to the vast majority of people. There isn’t a perception of wrongness as strong or universal with bit/byte-duplication as there is with physically depriving someone of a three-dimensional object. Oh, that’s true enough. My absurdly Xtian older sister doesn’t blink at trafficking in bootleg DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/45 "2011-09-28T15:58:24Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Right. MySpace existed for six months before thefacebook launched and Friendster was around for almost two years. Facebook was always “last” in that sense. The thing about MySpace, though, is that they shot themselves in the foot through bad formatting (as Facebook may well be doing now, in a different way, over privacy issues). MySpace pages got so busy that they were actively annoying, and newbies would be put off. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/46 "2011-09-28T16:37:53Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Given that the market was already saturated with social networking sites, I find it hard to believe that he was all that concerned about being “first.” Facebook was the first to be exclusive to a certain community though. Its hard to remember now, since they’ve since ditched the “networks” model, but it was originally one of the reasons Facebook stole a lot of users from Myspace, and it was the idea the twins accused MZ of stealing. > [@](#): > > In the off chance that HarvardConnection launched first, he could always launch TheFacebook at MIT or Cornell or some other university and try and get off the ground that way. There was nothing special about the appetite for social networking at Harvard that made it the must-have launching ground for Facebook. MZ wasn’t at any of those other schools though. He had an in at Harvard. I’m sure he could have hooked up with someone at one of those other schools to help him make connections to convince people to sign up to Facebook, but it would’ve taken time, and ConnectU and possibly other sites would’ve been growing while he spent more time trying to get off the ground at another school. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/47 "2011-09-28T17:48:06Z")
So, being at Harvard and being an asshole are not mutually exclusive characteristics? Imagine my surprise. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/48 "2011-09-28T18:15:43Z")
I cant’ speak for everybody else, but while I think Zuckerberg was kind of a dick in what happened, I don’t think he is a huge dick and once the Winklevos’ got their settlement I pretty much stopped having an opinion on from Mark Zuckerberg’s character. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/49 "2011-09-28T18:29:05Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I cant’ speak for everybody else, but while I think Zuckerberg was kind of a dick in what happened, I don’t think he is a huge dick and once the Winklevos’ got their settlement I pretty much stopped having an opinion on from Mark Zuckerberg’s character. Wasn’t what he did to Eduardo much worse than what he did to the twins? Of course, I’m just going off the movie, so feel free to tell me that this part was all made up. But the way that Eduardo was cut out of the company seemed not only morally and ethically suspect, but also entirely unnecessary. Purely vindictive. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552/50 "2011-09-28T18:38:13Z")
Supposedly Eduardo ended up with a five-percent stake in Facebook, so he’s gotten a lot more money than the twins. But I wonder if what annoys them more than the money is seeing how famous Zuckerberg is (Time Man of the Year, meets with the president and other state leaders, etc.). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-ok-with-what-mark-zuckerberg-did/597552.md?page=2)