In court this week, Facebook got the best of Paul Ceglia, the New Yorker who claims to have a contract giving him half-ownership of the social networking giant.
Facebook says the contract Ceglia filed in court is doctored and that the original contract from 2003 was limited to then-Harvard freshman Mark Zuckerberg doing minor freelance programming work for Ceglia's startup, StreetFax.
Facebook says it discovered an original copy of the contract -- in an e-mail Ceglia sent to his then-lawyers. With the judge's permission, they filed it with the court - showing what it had mysteriously labeled the "smoking gun." Ceglia retorts that the image was planted by Facebook's lawyers.
But on Wednesday, Facebook told the federal court judge overseeing the case that Ceglia's original law firm, Sidley Austin, has a copy of the e-mail, and won the right to subpoena the document.
Facebook also charges that Ceglia has been withholding electronic devices and asked magistrate judge Leslie Foschio to force Ceglia to turn them over.
In a Thursday order, Judge Foschio agreed, giving Ceglia until August 29 to turn over the devices, as well as to explain in detail how he has lost or misplaced 6 storage devices identified by forensic examination of his computers.
Facebook additionally won the right to see all of Ceglia's online email accounts and take more forensic samples from the purported contract, over the objections of Ceglia's lawyers.
Ceglia, by contrast, was arguing that it was time for Mark Zuckerberg to hand over his e-mails from his Harvard days and provide handwriting samples from that era to be used to verify the contract.
The judge declined to order that production immediately. Instead, Zuckerberg can wait to turn over his e-mails until five days after Ceglia produces his electronic material.
The judge also refused to reconsider his decision that the "smoking gun" contract, found in the e-mail from Ceglia to his lawyer, was not protected by attorney-client privilege.
Photo: Paul Ceglia in a picture dating to 2005.
See Also:- Exclusive: Facebook’s Smoking Gun in the Ceglia Case? The Authentic Contract
- Facebook Files Evidence It Says Proves Half-Ownership Suit is a Sham
- Would-Be Facebook Heir Ceglia Ordered to Show ‘Confidential’ Docs to Judge
- Paul Ceglia, Purported Half-Owner of Facebook, Savaged by Local Paper
- E-Mails Prove Zuck Stole 50 Percent of Facebook from Investor, Suit Claims
- Judge Says Facebook Can Get ‘Smoking Gun’ Contract
