Before You Threaten To Sue Someone Over Their Website, You Might Want To Understand The Web

from the a-little-suggestion dept

We get to see ridiculous legal threats all the time. Sometimes we get such legal threats directly (my favorite was the big name analyst firm that once threatened to sue us because we linked to their own press release), but more often we hear about the ridiculous legal threats made to others. However, in all the bizarre and ridiculous legal threats, it would appear that Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch may have just won the award for both the most ridiculous and the most persistently wrong threatener. Arrington shares on his site how he received an email demanding $150,000 for a photo of the actor Ashton Kutcher that TechCrunch was using "to generate traffic and revenue." The guy sending the email claimed to represent the interests of the photographer of the photograph -- and said that if Arrington didn't pay up quickly (and quietly), he would file a suit for $1.5 million. It's hard to start on what's wrong with the lawsuit, but the obvious place is the simple fact that TechCrunch never hosted the picture in question. Instead, someone in the comments once linked to a website that hosted the picture, and if you did a search in Google for Kutcher's name, the photo showed up connected to TechCrunch because of that link.

Even ignoring the ridiculous amount being asked for and the clear confusion over how Google and the web work, what's even more bizarre about this is that when this was pointed out to the guy, rather than understanding what happened, he just became even more defensive. He somehow thought that it was TechCrunch's responsibility to get the photo taken off Google. He then started calling TechCrunch's advertisers and threatening them saying that they would be a part of the lawsuit that he was intending to file. Arrington wrote up a detailed explanation of this... and then the guy started posting a series of poorly spelled comments trying to defend his position -- insisting that the photographer was "robed" and that it was clear TechCrunch had something to do with it. Congratulations, Mike, you've won the award for the most bizarre and persistently ridiculous legal threat we've seen. And that's saying a lot.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: legal threats
Companies: google, techcrunch


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Todd, 11 Oct 2007 @ 10:22pm

    My heart goes out to TechCrunch

    I read the whole thread over on TechCrunch. What a headache. I wish there was a better protection for the victims, that is Arrington -- threating his advertisers could certainly merit damages in a countersuit, no? It's certainly less frivolous that the initial accusation by that Richard guy.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    charlie potatoes, 11 Oct 2007 @ 10:48pm

    my heart

    well... i got robed once.. it was not fun. so i feal for the pore batsard.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2007 @ 10:51pm

    Robed?

    The guy is right. No fun in getting robed. Now getting disrobed, that can be interesting.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Buck Naked, 11 Oct 2007 @ 11:31pm

    Robed

    I got robed once to grajuate. I had to ware a motorboard hat too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    darkbhudda, 11 Oct 2007 @ 11:32pm

    Not long ago someone sent legal letters to a website in Oz because of comments in one of the forums about the shoddy service of the company. Hardly anyone had heard of this company before. Well the story made a huge number of websites and some of the papers. Instead of a couple people not liking their service, the company now has thousands of people who actively despise it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The i-Team, 12 Oct 2007 @ 1:38am

    Unbelievable

    This is all a joke right? I've just read the thread and can't believe someone could be so... wrong!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Fying Tiger, 12 Oct 2007 @ 3:42am

    I was Rob Roy'd once at a bar...is that the same thing?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Overcast, 12 Oct 2007 @ 5:48am

    Once again, Einstein proves he was right: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    PerroPerdido, 12 Oct 2007 @ 5:48am

    You Might Want To Understand The Web

    Before You Threaten To Sue Someone Over Their Website, You Might Want To Understand The Web,

    and english

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    PerroPerdido, 12 Oct 2007 @ 5:48am

    You Might Want To Understand The Web

    Before You Threaten To Sue Someone Over Their Website, You Might Want To Understand The Web,
    and english

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      PerroPerdido, 12 Oct 2007 @ 5:57am

      Re: You Might Want To Understand The Web

      ...or the language in which your suit is submitted. Apologies to those whose language english is their second or third or so on. I mean only to demean those who mangle english as their only language.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2007 @ 6:00am

        Re: Re: You Might Want To Understand The Web

        sorry. I mean to demean only those ...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave Barnes, 12 Oct 2007 @ 6:21am

    Photos of Ashton

    Many photos of Ashton available at IMDB.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    me, 12 Oct 2007 @ 9:01am

    sue back

    well, if he did cause any damage to the relationship with advertisers he could be sued for slander and for interference with contractual relations

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    John (profile), 12 Oct 2007 @ 3:31pm

    What lawsuit?

    I didn't read the entire linked article, but from the information that's posted, I don't think there's even a real lawsuit here. (Not counting the fact that the guy is suing the wrong people.)

    I would be willing to bet that this guy is simply taking a "shotgun" approach and threatening to sue anyone he can, just to get some money out of some people.

    I mean really, if you're going to sue someone, why send them an e-mail asking for a smaller amount as an agreement not to sue? Obviously, even the guy suing knows he doesn't have a case.

    By the way, isn't this called "extortion"? If TechCrunch is considering a counter-suit, how about a criminal charge as well? Yes, TechCrunch would obviously win the lawsuit, but how much would they have to spend on court fees to fight it?

    Second, even if the guy had a case, wouldn't his lawyer tell him to NOT talk about the case to anyone... and especially NOT to argue with the defendant on his own message board?!?

    The real title of this article should be "Before You Threaten to Sue Someone Over Their Website, You Might Want to Understand the Law".

    Oh, wait, this was all about getting money from a threat to sue and not about actually filing a real law suit. My mistake. ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Willton, 13 Oct 2007 @ 1:29pm

    I hope the guy does sue

    In fact, I dare the guy to sue TechCrunch. We'll see how litigious he wants to be when Rule 11 sactions are levied on his ass.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Search* Engines Web, 13 Oct 2007 @ 7:27pm

    OMG - Talk about Publicity!!!!!!!

    LOL:


    That guy in the photo got more than he bargained for - alot more.

    That Techcrunch piece made the homepages or both Digg and Reddit at the same time. As well as being featured on dozens of blogs.

    So in essence, that model in the photo got tens of thousands in free viral publicity that will last for months - also the startup in question got just as much free publicity.

    All it cost them was ONE LETTER that just happen to get reviewed on one of the most popular blogs in existence on a slow news day

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    mobiGeek, 15 Oct 2007 @ 6:34am

    Sadly, I must add

    Congratulations, Mike, you've won the award for the most bizarre and persistently ridiculous legal threat we've seen...

    ...yet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.