Man suing for half of Facebook loses lawyer

Paul Ceglia, the man who claims he has a contract that entitles him to 50 percent ownership in Facebook, has lost his high-power legal representation at a critical juncture in the case.

Ceglia filed a notice of substitution of counsel today with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to replace the law firm of DLA Piper, a 4,200-attorney international law firm, with the San Diego-based Lake law firm, a firm of four lawyers that also represents 200 medical marijuana collectives.

DLA Piper's withdrawal comes on the day that Ceglia's latest filing was due and ahead of Thursday's scheduled hearing on expedited discovery.

A DLA Piper spokesman confirmed the law firm had withdrawn from the case but declined to comment further.

"We have withdrawn from the case and no longer represent Paul Ceglia," said DLA Piper spokesman Brian Kiefer. "Due to our attorney-client privilege obligations, there will be no further comment."

Facebook declined to comment on the filing and representatives for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the third time Ceglia has changed legal representation in the case. Former New York attorney general Dennis Vacco and Terrence Connors have also represented Ceglia in the matter.

DLA Piper began representing Ceglia in April when he filed a revised complaint against Facebook and its chief executive and co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg. In the filing, Ceglia cited more than a dozen e-mails purportedly between himself and Zuckerberg that detail discussions on design, development, business plans, and eventual contract disputes regarding The Face Book, as it was then called.

In a filing responding to Ceglia's revised lawsuit, Facebook and Zuckerberg called the e-mails forgeries. "The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the e-mails are complete fabrications, and this entire lawsuit is a fraud," Facebook said and requested it have the opportunity to inspect the original contract, e-mails in native form, and all computers in Ceglia's possession as well as those in his parents' house.

Read more

Internet IP addresses will run out 'in the next 24 hours'

Growth of Internet-enabled phones like the iPhone and web use in Asia has seen a rapid depletion of IP addresses, which are going to run out in the next 24 hours.

Every device, which connects to the Internet, is assigned a "number" but with millions of web enabled phones now online they are fast running out.

IP addresses act as "phone numbers" to ensure that surfers reach websites and e-mails find their destination.

The system, which had been set up in the 1980s, with a maximum of 4.1 billion addresses was supposed to never run out.

But it does not mean the Internet will come to a halt once the addresses have finished, as a system called Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6 has been created to replace version 4.

"It will just be 'business as usual' if everyone gets their job done," the Daily Mail quoted John Curran, Chief Executive of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, one of five regional groups that dole out such addresses, as saying.

Curran said only about 2 percent of websites support the new Internet Protocol version 6.

The "end game", the distribution of the last five blocks, was triggered by the distribution of two of the last seven blocks on February 1.

They went to the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, the regional registry for East Asia (including India), Australia and the Pacific islands.
For more