Judge tosses man's claim of ownership of Facebook

A federal judge has officially closed the book on a New York man’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit claiming half-ownership of Facebook. Judge Richard Arcara has granted Facebook and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s motion to dismiss Paul Ceglia’s lawsuit.   Last week’s ruling affirms a magistrate judge’s recommendation from a year ago saying the lawsuit should be thrown out because the contract Ceglia based it on was faked. Ceglia claimed he and Zuckerberg signed a 2003 software development contract that included a provision entitling him to half-ownership of Facebook in exchange for startup money for the budding company.   Facebook lawyers say the two had a contract but references to Facebook were slipped in for the lawsuit. Ceglia awaits trial on related criminal fraud charges. He has pleaded not guilty.   US District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled that the minors gave their consent when they signed up for Facebook under a “statement of rights and responsibilities” that governs the site.   The lawsuit follows closely  another lawsuit against Facebook  that accused the world’s biggest social networking site for helping itself with digital properties such as images of its users.  The CMD et al v Facebook Inc, US District Court, Northern District of California, No 12-cv-1216 case was originally filed in Illinois in 2011.   Mark Zuckerberg owned Facebook has said that it only uses that information that is voluntarily shared by its users with their friends and families. The company also stated that it does put up an AD at times  while sharing the information that its users share.   Associated Press