Chapter 164: Out-of-Court Settlement

Zach was born into a Jewish family in New York, but he claimed to be an atheist. Zach started writing programs in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 90s and then hired software developer Newman as his tutor. Newman once said Zuckerberg was a child prodigy.

When Zach was in high school, he was already in class at Mercy College near his home. He enjoys programming, especially communication tools and games. He also developed a software program called ZuckNet, which allowed his father to communicate with the dentist's office at home. This system can even be considered as the original version of the later AOL real-time communication software. According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, "Zach creates computer games for kids. ”

When Zach was in high school, he also created a music program called Synapse Media Player, and used artificial intelligence to learn users' music listening habits, and was posted on Slashdot, which was rated 3 out of 5 stars by PC Magazine. Microsoft and AOL wanted to recruit and train Zuckerberg, but Zuckerberg chose to enter Harvard University in September 2002.

During the Harvard era, Zach was hailed as a "programmer godman." He studied psychology and computational science with Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jew. In February 2004, Zach, a sophomore majoring in computer science and psychology at Harvard University, had the idea of building a website that would serve as a platform for Harvard students to communicate. It only took about a week for Zach to set up the site, called Facebook.

Unexpectedly, the site became a sensation when it first launched, and within a few weeks, more than half of Harvard's university students signed up to provide their most private personal data, such as names, addresses, hobbies, and photos. Students use this free platform to stay up-to-date with their friends, chat with them, and search for new friends.

Without the arrival of Jiang Hui and the establishment of the intranet three months earlier, Zack's open-minded experience would have continued, and he would have become the youngest richest person in the world, the top ten people on the world's richest list, and the youngest most influential person in the world.

However, there are no ifs in life. After Zack left the Scott Law Firm in despair, he sat for a long time in a nearby park, and his assistant Linda did not dare to talk to him, but stayed by his side silently.

It wasn't until nightfall that Zach and Linda returned.

"Linda, I can't just watch Facebook shut down, it's my heart's work, like my child, and I'm going to keep it alive by all means, at any cost," Zach said.

"Zach, I understand, I'll reach out to the lawyer and see what advice they have," Linda said.

"Please, I'm going to work, I can't give up on Facebook because of this, I can't let current users give up on it, I'm going to develop some unique new features to show everyone that I didn't start by copying others," Zach said.

"Go ahead, everything is with me, there will be good news, you wait for me", Linda said.

……

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Jiang Hui listened to Tang Wenwen's introduction to today's meeting, and his heart was also a little entangled. Not to mention whether Facebook can be slapped to death this time, how long can the U.S. government tolerate a network company like the school intranet, which has a large amount of users' personal information, as a wholly-owned enterprise of the Celestial Empire? Now there are not many users in the United States, if Facebook is really killed, and the intranet monopolizes the American market, it will not be long before various organizations come out to find trouble, and all kinds of media may start to shout that the Celestial Empire has violated the privacy of users, and the intranet will provide the information of users in the United States to the official Celestial Empire and other rumors.

But if you just let Facebook go and watch it sit big, then its threat to the school's intranet is too great. People are the most trafficked website in later generations, and the experience of entrepreneurs is very much in line with the propaganda of the American Dream, and it is difficult for the school intranet to be suppressed in the United States. It is best to take advantage of this opportunity to acquire or merge it, which not only solves the problem that the school intranet is a sole proprietorship of the Celestial Empire in the United States, but also removes the potential threat of Facebook.

Jiang Hui exchanged his thoughts with Tang Article, and Tang Article also recognized it. As a native of the Celestial Empire who has studied and lived in the United States for many years, he knows too well the virtues of the US government, and he shouts that he wants to be free and democratic, but behind his back is all kinds of filthy. If you don't have an American background, if you want to develop and grow in the United States, it's too difficult, and people have more than N ways to kill you.

……

The next day, Linda made an appointment with a full-time lawyer at her father's company to consult with the school's intranet lawsuit against Facebook.

"Uncle Anderson, it's just like I said, do you think we can win this case?" Linda said.

"Linda, to be honest, after you contacted me last night, I also went to check the situation on Facebook and the school intranet, and even asked my daughter to log in her account on these two websites for me to watch for more than half an hour. Now, purely from the perspective of the website's positioning, functions and page layout, it is difficult to prove that Facebook is really your original, of course, I don't believe you if it's not uncle, I'm just analyzing the situation objectively," Anderson said.

"Uncle Anderson, you're the best at fighting patent lawsuits, and you helped deal with my dad's patent dispute with a competitor last time, can you help us figure it out?" Linda said.

"What are the results you want? I want to know what you expect before I can figure out what to do," Anderson said.

"We hope that the court will invalidate the intranet claim and that Facebook will continue to operate as usual," Linda said.

"Linda, you have to recognize the reality, it is impossible for Facebook to come out unscathed, and all the evidence is against you. The bottom line is that your rival has more than 3 million users on the intranet when you set up Facebook, which is a successful website, and your website is almost identical to other people's, so the judge and the jury will not easily believe your defense," Anderson said.

"So what should we do? I don't want Facebook to just disappear," Linda said.

"Try to settle out of court, the court will be held in a few days, if you really go to court, there is a 99% chance that you will lose this lawsuit, and then not only will the website be ordered to close, but you will also need to pay a lot of compensation to the school intranet, and your reputation will be completely lost in the future, even if you start a business again, no investor will dare to invest in you easily, this loss is too great," Anderson said.

"Is there an out-of-court settlement?", Linda said.

……