Guy Who Sued Huffington Post For Not Paying Bloggers, Doesn't Pay Bloggers Who Contribute To His Site
from the not-getting-it dept
Incredible. Jonathan Tasini, the guy who filed that ridiculous lawsuit against the Huffington Post for not paying the bloggers who volunteered to write for free, apparently has a blog where he seeks out contributions from writers... and then, no, he doesn't pay them. John Cook at Gawker called him up to ask about this, leading to the following, absolutely hilarious, exchange:"It hasn't had any ads in several years, but there were a couple unions that did buy some advertising," he said. "They wanted to support the work I was doing." So how much of that did he kick back to commenters and readers whose e-mails he ran? "There was never a thought that we would do that," he said. "Oh, I see what you're doing. Are you comparing my little blog to the Huffington Post? That's absurd."Except, it's not absurd. As far as I can tell, his argument is that the Huffington Post is different because it's "successful," whereas his blog is a failure, so it's okay. Interesting legal theory, though I can't see how it holds up in court.
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Filed Under: blogging, jonathan tasini, slavery, unjust enrichment
Companies: huffington post
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Poor dumb bastard.
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Re:
http://ca.gawker.com/5792078/guy-suing-huffpo-for-not-paying-bloggers-doesnt-pay-blogger s
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Anyone who contributed to his blog could make the same claim. He may have only made a small amount of money, but their claim to a share of it would be no more absurd (to use his word) than his claim to a share of the Huffington Post's profits.
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Perhaps instead of simply stating nonsensical rhetorical questions you could explain your point of view.
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Hmmm.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absurd
Tasini must be using an unknown definition of absurd.
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Re: Hmmm.
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Ah, the glimmerings of self-awareness. Being able to see what someone is doing is rare these days in businesspeople.
Now, if he can just look a little bit closer, think a little bit harder, and have just a tiny bit of empathy, then he'll have the revelation that he and Arianna Huffington are the same: that her justification for not paying contributors is the same as his.
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Note to Mr. Tasini - please extend your lawsuit to include TechDirt - and don't forget to distribute proceeds to all of us on this post.
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Who would read his piece of crap anyway?
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He's NOT a hypocrite!
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Re: He's NOT a hypocrite!
And if there was no money, then why would he say there is, and then deny those on his blog a share? That makes no sense, unless Tasini's being a raging bloody douche.
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Re: He's NOT a hypocrite!
and many companies that sell tech and other items have discussion boards that allow people to ask for help and that allow anyone who signs up to answer. Those companies that sell tech items are for profit and they can benefit from these discussion boards too. Should an anonymous person who voluntarily answers a question for free about a product by posting a comment on a discussion board later be allowed to get paid minimum wage too?
I also think one significant difference is that people who post on Huffington post can post when they like from anywhere they like (as long as they have Internet access). Most hard labor jobs require you to be at place X every day (or whatever) from time x to time y (more or less) and they must work at least z hours a day/week or else they may lose their jobs. People who post to the Huffington post set the rules and they can post during their leisure time as part of their leisure, the Huffinton post is not telling them you must make at least x amount of posts per week or you must contribute y amount of your time per week, it's more of a post as you like scenario.
(and if you don't think that these governmental actions could curtail free speech, just look at how much the government has curtailed free speech outside the Internet. IP in this country is absolutely absurd yet any criticism about it would never make it over public airwaves or on cableco infrastructure thanks to the fact that the government grants monopoly power over public airwave and cableco infrastructure use. Yet the government started slowly eroding free speech over public airwaves with the claim that it will ensure there is enough media competition for free speech to continue, but today that's far from true. They were wrong then and they don't care enough to even make a single effort to fix the problem, why should I believe that they're right now when it comes to Internet regulation? Why should I believe that their airwave and Internet regulations aren't intended to hinder free speech? Their regulations hinder free speech and they don't care because that's what they want).
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Re: Re: He's NOT a hypocrite!
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And I'm NOT an "anonymous coward".
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Tasini suit
I say that there should be a fee and a tax charged for every blog posting. Let's say $10 + $10.
A tax on stupidity would provide an endless an infinite source of revenue.
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respect
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Re: respect
How would she even begin to distribute cash disbursments? By the word? By the pageview? By one potato, two potato?
Maybe they should pay her back for the free service and exposure she provided.
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hypocrite
"Except, it's not absurd. As far as I can tell, his argument is that the Huffington Post is different because it's "successful," whereas his blog is a failure, so it's okay. "
When all else fails.... sue!
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hypocrite
"Except, it's not absurd. As far as I can tell, his argument is that the Huffington Post is different because it's "successful," whereas his blog is a failure, so it's okay. "
When all else fails.... sue!
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Pay Me
I feel this has made Techdirt very popular due directly to my own efforts and I think that Mike owes me a huge check for all the bushels of money he is bringing in by incorporating my talents to drive his readership up.
Ok Mike, I'm waiting *tapping foot*
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