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NY District Judge Dismisses Blogger Suit Against Huffington Post
The Chicago Tribute reports on a ruling announced Friday that the Huffington Post violated no law in profiting enormously from the unpaid contributions of bloggers who wrote much of the content that has spurred the site's success. Says the article: "John E. Koeltel, a district court judge in New York, dismissed a class action sought brought against the Huffington Post by unpaid bloggers seeking $105 million from AOL and Arianna Huffington's media empire. The bloggers argued that though they initially agreed to do the work for free, the Huffington Post was 'unjustly enriched as a result of this practice,' violating New York state law. Koeltel disagreed. 'There is no question that the plaintiffs submitted their materials to The Huffington Post with no expectation of monetary compensation and that they got what they paid for -- exposure in The Huffington Post,' Koeltel wrote."
wait so let me get this straight...
They wrote for free. KNOWING it was for free. Then decided 'hey you guys are making money off our stuff' and now they are mad?
Had a neighbor once pissed off someone was building on the land behind him. He came over yelling and screaming that he paid extra to have the lot he had because of the trees. I asked "do you own the deed?" "no" "well then you are fairly screwed and they got extra money out of you for no work on their part call it a life lesson to the tune of 5k". He wanted me to get mad for his sake because he did something stupid.
Basically the moral? If you dont get it in writing and the assumption up front was you get basically nothing then that is exactly what you are going to get. In the case of my neighbor he bought something from someone with no clear title to it.