On of the interesting quirks of the story of Facebook (now Meta), as described in the movie "The Social Network", is the accusation brought against Mark Zuckeberg by the Winklevoss twins, that he had stolen the idea for The Facebook from them ("Harvard Connect").
Ownership of ideas is a complex topic that is understood differently by different jurisdictions and courts thus generating "legal uncertainty". However for a lawsuit to have merit there needs to be a fraudulent element involved, with the defendant party allegedly acting in bad faith.
I spent some of my free time a few years ago participating in the "ideation" phase of a project dubbed "Landlord", which, to the best of my knowledge, died of disinterest from the involved parties (cost of opportunity, risk versus reward assessment)
I had learned about the initial "Landlord" idea from a friend, Ervin Zalevic, but after the ebb of the "Landlord" enthusiasm I didn't have many opportunities to meet Ervin again. We remained connected through the ... social networks, of all things
Recently, I got into contact with people interested in exploring some of the ideas which we developed together in the ideation phase of "Landlord". So I naturally contacted Ervin to see if he's still interested or not.
As he failed to answer my inquiry, I chose to "timestamp" my message sent to him in good faith, by publishing it here. So if, by any chance the projects ends up being successful, he cannot claim that I "stole the ideas" from him.
Here are my LinkedIn messages from March 24, 2024:
Hi Ervin, good after-noon
What happened with the Landlord project, have you guys put it in the freezer ? Are you still interested in such projects or are you now fully focused on your corporate career ?
KR
Sorin
And from today, May 1st, 2024
Hi Ervin,
I found some people who are interested in the ideas we developed together during the "Landlord" aborted project. Absent an answer on your part, I consider that you have no interest in those ideas any more and have renounced all claims to those ideas. Thank you very much in advance
Best regards
Sorin
Let's see if he answers to this last message or not. If he doesn't, I hope this "timestamped" document might serve as proof that I acted in good faith.