LAGRISOLA, Ivy

ITHETHIC

The Social Network

                The controversial movie on how  a social networking site begun, The Social Network,  gave a lot of room for discussions and debates.  The main subject of these discussions would probably be whether Mark Zuckerberg stole the entire idea or not. It was an issue of claiming one's intellectual property. Prior to my viewing of the said movie, I had a vague perspective regarding the issue concerning the birth and origin of a well-known social networking site more popularly known as Facebook.

                In the movie, it was clearly shown that the idea of such social networking site came not from Mark Zuckerberg, but from a different party. Having said that, viewers may have the tendency to jump right away into conclusions that would oppose to Mark Zuckerberg.  But considering the bigger picture, there are a lot more factors that need to be considered in order to come up with a more objective stand regarding the said issue. Viewers should also consider on how the other party took responsibility of their plans and ideas , the ones claiming that they should have credit as creators of Facebook.  They should have been responsible enough to protect their ideas, considering that those were their own as they claim it, from people that could possibly take advantage of it.  They should have been more careful not to disclose any detailed information regarding their ideas and plans to anyone without an assurance, probably a written juridical contract, that it would be confidential and commitments were to be official between the involved parties. In that way, problems such as what was present before would have been avoided or at least minimized. Issues would have been addressed and given remedy easier than it was handled.  

                As per my opinion, Wether Mark Zuckerberg stole the initial idea or not, he was just smart enough to know his and the other party's capabilities to foresee that he could claim the entire idea of Facebook as his own. He was able to defend his actions and have full credit of being Facebook's creator.