In the cold light of day, Mark has done nothing more than anyone else would, there are sharks everywhere 1) waiting to steal your idea 2) to claim you stole their idea. What counts is ideas first then a whole lot of other skills and elements but in the end, what happens in the market is the only law there is. The moral of the story is, if you have the idea and the skills to make it happen, do it. Don't for one second rely on legal tenets to protect you after the fact. They don't work and never have. This is the cold sober fact. If you have what it takes prove it.

Mark did nothing wrong here. There was nothing really novel about FB, it was clean and doing what others do. FB does not claim Ning and everyone else are coping them... The only thing that is wrong is the assumptions that others made about how the real world works and that they are now sour grapes is absolutely no surprise. It won't be the first nor the last case where someone strikes gold and the rest of the world claim they helped hold the torch and then want a cut.

This comes from someone who has had millions in ideas 'directly' (drawings off the desk) stolen from him...

I don't cry about that, I play by the rules of the world, it's tough out there and to play you do so by the real ruthless rules of survival of the fittest or you will be a looser in a court claiming your owed a living.

Sure I had loads of ideas stolen, but I'm also a realist and know that I also borrow from others whom I stand upon their shoulders when I make my way in my ventures.

Next time if you have a good idea, don't talk about it do it....