Winklevoss twins lose again

PROVING THAT you can't keep two twins that want to argue that they own a lot of a social network down, the Winklevoss twins are still pushing ahead with their 'We own Facebook' legal actions, and still not doing very well at it.

The twins allege that Facebook was their idea and that Mark Zuckerberg stole it from them. Whether this is true remains to be seen, but so far it hasn't worked out for the rowing twins.

On Friday their target firm, Facebook, won a dismissal of the twins' second lawsuit that was looking to increase the $65m settlement they had already received.

Reuters reports that US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock dismissed the litigation, just three months after a federal appeals court in San Francisco had batted down a previous lawsuit.

The two complaints differed, in some ways at least. Having decided not to appeal the earlier appellate decision, the twins went after Facebook from a different angle and argued that it had withheld data from the courts.

Facebook argued that the parties had already been through this debate and the court agreed with it.

If this is starting to give you a sense of deja vu, it sounds like there's more to come. Speaking after the ruling in an interview, Winklevoss lawyer and perennial optimist Michael Schrag said, "We expected that the court would enter a judgment," and, in a nod towards further action, he added, "The next step is a post-judgment motion under Rule 60(b)." µ