Man willing to deal, now only wants half of Facebook

BUFFALO, New York — A New York man who claims he struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 that entitles him to half of Facebook Inc. has included in a new court filing e-mails he said he exchanged with the Facebook founder.

In his federal court complaint, Paul Ceglia of Wellsville said the e-mails show, in part, how Zuckerberg tried to get him to abandon his interest in Facebook by souring their business relationship in 2004, while at the same time downplaying the popularity of the site following its launch at Harvard University, where Zuckerberg was a student.

Zuckerberg offered to take on Ceglia's project for $1,000 and then told Ceglia about a project of his own, a kind of online yearbook for Harvard students that he wanted to expand, according to Ceglia. He said he gave Zuckerberg another $1,000 to continue work on Zuckerberg's "The Face Book," with the condition that Ceglia would own a 50 percent interest in the software and business if it expanded.

At the center of Ceglia's claim is a two-page "work for hire" contract bearing the names of both men.

Ceglia's original complaint sought 84 percent of the business, based on a contract clause that he said added a percentage point for each day the project went past its Jan. 1, 2004, due date. The amended complaint drops the amount being sought to 50 percent and includes an e-mail in which Ceglia agrees to waive the late charge at Zuckerberg's request.

"I just won't even bother putting the site live if you are going to insist on such a large percentage," Zuckerberg wrote to Ceglia, according to the complaint. "I'd like to suggest that you drop the penalty completely and that we officially return to 50/50 ownership."

The e-mails, which progress from cordial to antagonistic, were not part of the original filing.

"The beauty of the e-mails is they represent a contemporaneous account," said Dennis Vacco, a Ceglia attorney, "not viewed from the prism of the present day 'man of the year,' but viewed from the eyes of a Harvard student at the time these events were actually occurring."

Zuckerberg was Time magazine's person of the year for 2010.