(facebook.com)

Facebook has been digging up fantastic dirt related to the case of Paul Ceglia, an upstate wood pellet salesman whose fascinating career included hiring Mark Zuckerberg in 2003. First, the social network revealed that Mr. Ceglia had been arrested for felony possession of mushrooms--hardly relevant, but fun!--then it was made known that one of Mr. Ceglia's attorneys, Jeffrey Lake of San Diego, specializes in medical marijuana cases.

But now that Mr. Lake is attempting to withdraw from the case, an Ohio lawyer will take over. That means another three weeks for the lawsuit which has already gone on for a year-and-a-half and burned through so many legal teams that the media is starting to lose track. (AllThingsD's Liz Gannes counts Edelson McGuire, which was talking to Mr. Ceglia but never filed anything in court; PaidContent counts Mr. Lake as no. 6. By our count, Mr. Lake was no. 4, not counting Mr. Ceglia's long-time counsel Paul Argentieri who has represented him from the beginning, making the new hire no. 5.)

And this time, the smear is ... kiddie porn!

The L.A. Times reports that in the course of testifying as an expert witness in a child pornography case, Mr. Boland created images of children in order to demonstrate the technology and how images could be manipulated. He used photos of children from the internet. The parents of the children sued him:

This week a federal court handed the plaintiffs a $300,000 summary judgment. Boland said he would appeal the decision but declined to discuss the case.

From experience, we'd bet the LAT owes a hat tip to Facebook and/or its background investigators, the "corporate spies" of Kroll Associates.

Mr. Ceglia. (facebook.com)

Because $40 billion dollars just isn't as cool as a national media circus. Paul Ceglia, the upstate New Yorker who is suing Facebook claiming a 50 percent ownership based on a 2003 contract with Mark Zuckerberg for programming work, is holed up in Ireland and, for the most part, keeping his mouth shut. But one of his lawyers, San Diego attorney Jeffrey Lake, is giving statements--and he says despite his client isn't just looking for a payday. Despite the fact that Mr. Ceglia's side motioned to move the case to arbitration, which would be the first step toward settling out of court, Mr. Lake says his client wants his day in court. "He wants his case heard on the merits," Mr. Lake told San Diego's KGTV.

"$40 billion?" asked 10News reporter Mitch Blacher.

"--Is nothing," said Lake.

"Drop in the bucket?" asked Blacher.

"Right," Lake replied.

The case is at an impasse right now as the court has ordered Mr. Ceglia to produce remote storage devices (on top of the order, already executed, to allow Facebook to examine his personal computers and webmail accounts) before it will order Mr. Zuckerberg to turn over his emails from the relevant period.

Facebook is not commenting on the case and may move for a dismissal soon as Mr. Ceglia does not seem likely to produce the devices as ordered and has not been showing up to court. Facebook has said in documents filed with the court that Mr. Ceglia's case is so weak that it constitutes a fraud on the court. If the judge agrees, Mr. Ceglia could be on the hook for Facebook's legal fees as well as a penalty for wasting the court's time, which would be a huge burden for the working class entrepreneur, whose most recent business, Allegany Pellets, is prevented from doing business by a restraining order issued by the Attorney General, which has initiated a case against the company for defrauding customers to the tune of $200,000.

Of course, we media acrobats are hoping the dispute goes to trial.

Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Mr. Ceglia and Dan Primack's Twitter avatar?

Oh Ceglia, we hardly knew thee. Yesterday, Betabeat got an email from Streetfax.com, the website at the center of a legal dispute between Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Ceglia, the man suing for half of Facebook, telling us we were the "1st to hear" that the domain was up for sale.

As it turns out, the high-powered lawyers who filed the Facebook suit were also trying to unload no-longer-wanted property yesterday: Mr. Ceglia himself. DLA Piper confirmed their withdrawal from the case in federal court in Buffalo yesterday and the fact that the firm had dropped Mr. Ceglia as a client.

DLA Piper's name lent an imprimatur to allegations that a 2003 contract he had with Mr. Zuckerberg to work on Streetfax.com entitled him to half of "The Facebook." Business Insider's Henry Blodget declared the evidence "breathtaking" and concluded that, "In short, to us at least, the emails don't read 'fake.'"

Mr. Ceglia has not yet turned over original copies of the contract or emails with Zuck to the court and Facebook maintains that it's all a forgery from a "career scam artist."

San Diego-based lawyer Jeffrey Lake, possibly the same Mr. Jeffrey Lake that the San Diego CityBeat called "the F. Lee Bailey of San Diego's medical marijuana drama" has agreed to step in as Ceglia's new counsel.

The Streetfax domain is being hawked as a chance to own "a piece of Internet history – history of a website, brand and possibly the largest court dispute in history!" It's registered to eNOM Inc., a domain name reseller. But whether it's Mr. Ceglia working through a proxy or not, they're going to have to come up with a better sales pitch. There have been exactly zero bids for the $5,000 auction with eight days left to go, and the nostaglia value is depreciating. Fast.