Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gawker Pays $750,000 To That Guy Who Didn't Invent Email (gizmodo.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Hulk-Hogan's-lawyer dept.

Shiva Ayyadurai still claims he invented email -- rather than the late ARPANET pioneer Ray Tomlinson. Now Gizmodo reports that Ayyadurai "will receive a $750,000 settlement from Gawker Media, the bankrupt publisher that he sued for defamation earlier this year." As part of the settlement, Gawker Media has agreed to delete three stories from the archive of Gawker.com, including one about Ayyadurai. Univision, which purchased most of Gawker Media's assets [including Gizmodo] out of bankruptcy in September, deleted two Gizmodo posts concerning Ayyadurai -- over the objections of the editorial staff -- immediately after closing the transaction... The offending Gizmodo articles made the case that "a lot of people don't believe that Ayyadurai invented email," and that "networked communication actually predates [his] computer program by a few years." As Tomlinson told Gizmodo in one of the stories Ayyadurai succeeded in getting unpublished, the email formats that are so familiar today -- to:, from:, etc. -- were in use years before Ayyadurai "invented" them.
The third post was titled, "If Fran Drescher Read Gizmodo She Would Not Have Married This Fraud."

6 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It went beyond debunking by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Funny

    the site bullied people beyond what could be considered reasonable.

    Because everyone knows we only want reasonable bullying.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Where's my $750K by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't invent email either.

  3. Re:Gawker was garbage by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    They posted sex tapes and called out people's sexuality just for clicks.

    I don't get it. Who wants to see a sex tape of the guy who didn't invent email?

    No wonder they went bankrupt.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Re:i dont know by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The case is pretty simple. The RFCs that created the Arpanet email infrastructure that modern Internet email is built in were developed years before this fraud.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. RFC 733 and 561 (1977 and 1973) by TooTechy · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://tools.ietf.org/html/rf...

    https://tools.ietf.org/html/rf...

    These pretty much cover this...

  6. Re:But he did .... perhaps. by Shimbo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did you hear that "whoosh" sound?

    I don't think his mail program supports that.