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oilyfan · 05-27-2016, 08:00 PM

I don't know how many people are following the story of the lawsuit between Hulk Hogan and Gawker. It is an interesting tale, on the surface quite tawdry, and at the core I believe a free speech battle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollea_v._Gawker

The gist of it is that Hulk Hogan sued Gawker for publishing an excerpt of sex tape between him and (his ex good friend) Bubba the Love Sponge's wife Heather Clem. Apparently this was filmed surreptitiously by Bubba and Heather in Bubba's home He sued for invasion of privacy, infringement of personal rights and emotional distress.

After a court trial recently Hulk won a jury award judgement of $140MM (he was only asking for $100MM). The jury rejected the defence argument that Hulk should have expected this scrutiny because he is a public figure, and that Gawker is protected under freedom of the press. This judgement if upheld in appeal will most surely put Gawker (and its associated media properties like Gizmodo and Jalponik) out of business.

Now it gets interesting. This week it came out that Hulk's lawsuit was funded by Peter Thiel, the eccentric billionaire cofounder of PayPal. Peter motive seems to be revenge as a gawker publication outed Peter as gay a few years, even though apparently it was an open secret in Silicon Valley. Peter seems to be, because it's not proven, also funding other lawsuits with different plaintiffs against Gawker.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/bu...th-gawker.html (sorry it's NYT, behind a paywall)

Gawker founder Nick Denton published an open letter this Tuesday to Peter.
http://gawker.com/an-open-letter-to-...iel-1778991227

And now today Pierre Omidyar, through his organization First Look Media which is a media organization active in the free press arena has come out in support of Gawker and will file a friend of the court brief.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ded-hogan-suit

While I can see this from both sides my view is titled towards Gawker because I fear that this is chilling on press freedom. It is also a dangerous precedent where someone with deep pockets can pursue a personal vendetta in the legal a system.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ar-billionaire

05-27-2016, 08:00 PM	#1
oilyfan Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: SE Calgary Exp:	Hulk Hogan vs Gawker I don't know how many people are following the story of the lawsuit between Hulk Hogan and Gawker. It is an interesting tale, on the surface quite tawdry, and at the core I believe a free speech battle. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollea_v._Gawker The gist of it is that Hulk Hogan sued Gawker for publishing an excerpt of sex tape between him and (his ex good friend) Bubba the Love Sponge's wife Heather Clem. Apparently this was filmed surreptitiously by Bubba and Heather in Bubba's home He sued for invasion of privacy, infringement of personal rights and emotional distress. After a court trial recently Hulk won a jury award judgement of $140MM (he was only asking for $100MM). The jury rejected the defence argument that Hulk should have expected this scrutiny because he is a public figure, and that Gawker is protected under freedom of the press. This judgement if upheld in appeal will most surely put Gawker (and its associated media properties like Gizmodo and Jalponik) out of business. Now it gets interesting. This week it came out that Hulk's lawsuit was funded by Peter Thiel, the eccentric billionaire cofounder of PayPal. Peter motive seems to be revenge as a gawker publication outed Peter as gay a few years, even though apparently it was an open secret in Silicon Valley. Peter seems to be, because it's not proven, also funding other lawsuits with different plaintiffs against Gawker. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/bu...th-gawker.html (sorry it's NYT, behind a paywall) Gawker founder Nick Denton published an open letter this Tuesday to Peter. http://gawker.com/an-open-letter-to-...iel-1778991227 And now today Pierre Omidyar, through his organization First Look Media which is a media organization active in the free press arena has come out in support of Gawker and will file a friend of the court brief. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ded-hogan-suit While I can see this from both sides my view is titled towards Gawker because I fear that this is chilling on press freedom. It is also a dangerous precedent where someone with deep pockets can pursue a personal vendetta in the legal a system. http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ar-billionaire __________________ "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is" — Jan Van De Snepscheu Last edited by oilyfan; 05-27-2016 at 08:28 PM.