When you're suing the founder of Facebook for stealing your idea, as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are, isn't it a little ironic to be an active member of the site?
CNN's Piers Morgan posed the question on Tuesday night to the Winklevoss twins, or the "Winklevii" as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls them (video below).
"Not as ironic as if we weren't on it," said one of the twins (Tyler and Cameron, identical twins, make no effort to distinguish one from the other). "The guys who started the original idea…you think they'd be able to take part in it. Technically we're using our idea."
Cameron had 1,823 friends at press time, not including Mark Zuckerberg (a friend request you can't deny), while Tyler's profile was unfortunately closed to the public.
The Winklevoss twins' years-long legal battle with Zuckerberg was featured in Aaron Sorkin's critically acclaimed movie "The Social Network." Appearing every bit as suave and proper in the CNN interview as in the movie, the two claim the idea for Facebook is theirs because Zuckerberg allegedly developed the product with their seed money. Napster founder Sean Parker, who was featured in "The Social Network" as a manipulative, greedy trainwreck, recently denounced his Hollywood portrayal as pure fiction.
After initially settling with Zuckerberg for $65 million in 2008, the twins attempted to re-open the case in January, asking for more money.