If you’ve seen “The Social Network”, then you’ll be aware of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (a.k.a. “the Winklevii”), who, in 2004 sued Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea. Well their great battle against Zuckerberg may finally be over.

The outcome is a sad one for the two jock-types, as a federal appeals judge decided that the two cannot undo a settlement they made with Zuckerberg in 2008.

The two brothers and a third student, Divya Narendra, filed suit in 2004, alleging that Zuckerburg stole their idea for Facebook. Then Zuckerburg got involved and counter-sued the two, and their social networking site, ConnectU, saying they’d hacked into Facebook to steal data and spam users.

The saga continued for years, until, in 2008 the brothers and Narendra settled for the poultry sum of $65 million, partly in cash and partly in Facebook stock.

But then the trio said they weren’t happy with the deal anymore and pulled out saying that Facebook had misrepresented the value of its stock.

Judge Alex Kozinski now says that the whole mess has to come to an end and the fact that Facebook’s stock has gone straight through the roof, should leave the three quite happy in fact

Kozinski is quoted as saying:

The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace.

They made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity.

[Source : KTLA]