Ok, so there might be a snowball's chance in Hell that Mark Zuckerberg really isn't guilty as charged, but Facebook's actions make that seem impossible:

James Ware, a U.S. district court judge, barred reporters and the public from attending the June 23 hearing in San Jose, Calif. He also put many of the documents in the case under seal. CNET Networks filed an objection to Ware's decision last week.

On Wednesday, Ware said he would release a redacted copy of the transcript from the June 23 hearing and allow a magistrate judge to decide on whether some of the other sealed documents should be released. What was redacted is still unclear, according to CNET lawyers who were at Wednesday's hearing.

Facebook has agreed to pay ConnectU's founders cash and stock as part of the terms of the settlement, but the exact amounts have not been released.

It's pretty much a given that whenever a company  agrees to pay someone off in a settlement of this nature that there is some merit to the accusations brought against it. From what little I know about this case, Zuckerberg used to be associated with the guys who worked on ConnectU, so I don't think their case is outrageous in the least from what I've gathered about it so far.

The guys who rise to the top in this industry seem to have a habit of having an almost Macchiavellian view of dealing with others and their intellectual property rights. Microsoft under Bill Gates got dinged several times for taking others' code. Of course, you almost have to be like that in order to succeed in this industry, so I don't know that there is much that can be done about that.

Well, it looks like the guys at ConnectU will now no longer have any bitching rights. They'll be able to smoke antique Cuban cigars lit with $100 bills for the next twenty years when Facebook finally goes public.