Facebook case data is set for study by experts

Forensic document experts from across the country will test the authenticity of an alleged contract that an Allegany County man contends is proof that he owns half of the social media giant Facebook.

Experts also will examine e-mails that a Facebook lawyer called "fantastical" and the other side suggested will verify their client's partnership with company cofounder Mark Zuckerberg.

The court-approved use of computer and document experts is the latest chapter in a lawsuit seeking $25 billion that is attracting national attention and that the judge overseeing the case called "very intriguing, to say the least."

"Obviously, this is a very important case," U. S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio said in a Buffalo courtroom Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed by Paul Ceglia of Wellsville, contends he and Zuckerberg signed a partnership contract in 2003 that entitles him to a 50 percent interest in Facebook.

Zuckerberg has countered by accusing Ceglia of waiting seven years to file his suit and then using "a fraudulent contract and fabricated e-mails" to make his case.

"He did sign a contract with this person in 2003," Facebook lawyer Orin Snyder said of Zuckerberg, but it was "before Facebook was even a figment of his imagination."

Snyder said their agreement, signed while Zuckerberg was an 18- year old freshman at Harvard University, dealt with a completely different website called Streetfax.

Ceglia's lawyer suggested in court Thursday that Zuckerberg improperly kept the coding and programming he created for Street-

fax.

"What else did he do with it?" asked attorney Jeffrey A. Lake. "He used it to build a plat-form for Facebook."

Zuckerberg and some of his Harvard classmates launched Facebook in 2004, and the company is now the world's most popular social networking site, with more than 500 million users.

Thursday, Foschio approved the use of forensic experts in the case and ordered Ceglia to provide the original 2003 agreement to Zuckerberg's lawyers for analysis.

Snyder said a preliminary examination by a Facebook expert has already concluded that Ceglia's version is a fake. Zuckerberg contends that he no longer has his copy.

"He concluded," Snyder said of the expert, "that this is an amateurish forgery."

The judge also ordered the two sides to provide copies of the e-mails Zuckerberg and Ceglia are relying on as part of the case.

The problem, according to Ceglia's lawyer, is what may be missing from the 176 Harvard e-mails that Zuckerberg says he sent to Ceglia.

"We have no idea what he's deleted," Lake said.

Foschio also ordered Zuckerberg to provide copies of his 2003 signature and initials and Ceglia to hand over his personal computer equipment for analysis.

The judge gave the two sides until Aug. 15 to conduct their tests and report back to the court.

The court's approval of forensic experts came just two days after Ceglia's previous lawyers resigned from the case. He is on his third legal team.