Do facts carry no weight anymore?

The most offensive part to me is: "There is no reasonable dispute that Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email." If the president-to-be can say any crazy thing and mock those who observe its falsehood, then so can lawyers. Or is history now decided by who has the nastiest lawyer? Remember, John Mauchly "did derive" ENIAC from Atanasoff's unfinished electromechanical calculator... I can understand such a decision back then, when the non-technical public knew next to nothing about computing. But in 2016? All it should have taken for Gawker to win is anyone on this list taking the stand to show a timeline of (ahem) email. The greenest small-town law school graduate could have won that case. It is baffling how Gawker lost.

Hello SIGCIS, It's disturbing news, but there are circa 500 people on the list now so we should probably wait for some new information or analysis to surface before doing any more mass venting. Don't want to spam people's email. In response to the last few posts, please remember that there are no "adjudicators" here and no jury. Nobody ruled on the merits of his case. It never got to a courtroom, or as far as I can see made any real progress towards trial. Read Masnick's posts on the settlement: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161102/10054035947/ridiculous-nick-dento n-settles-remaining-charles-harder-lawsuits-agrees-to-delete-perfectly-true- stories.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161103/11502935958/heres-truth-shiva-ayy adurai-didnt-invent-email.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161104/17341635970/actual-creators-email -not-all-happy-fake-creator-email-got-paid-his-bogus-claim.shtml Also this Gizmodo post on the settlement, which quotes me: http://gizmodo.com/internet-pioneers-slam-750-000-settlement-for-the-man-178 8503950. According to these, and many other reports, Ayyadurai's case was caught up with the much bigger Hogan lawsuit. An initial judgement for Hogan in that case had led to the sale of Gawker, but its founder Nick Denton couldn't collect on the proceeds without a settlement. I recall reading a report suggesting that everything had to be wrapped up before the end of the year to avoid tax problems, creating an incentive to tie up the loose ends rapidly. Anyway there's been a huge amount written on the Gawker settlement. Not just by tech bloggers -- even the New York Times was covering it. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/business/media/gawker-hulk-hogan-settlemen t.html?_r=0 The other thing to remember is that it's routine to settle lawsuits when going to trial would cost more than is being demanded to make the case go away. Patent trolls with weak cases exploit this all the time. In this case Ayyadurai was asking for damages of IIRC $35 million and settled for $0.75 million. That's just over 2 cents on the dollar. Best wishes, Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 11:16 PM To: Evan Koblentz <evan@snarc.net>; Sigcis <members@sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] The new thing: Ayyadurai claims to be suing Techdirt This is most depressing, akin to Trump's election. Both can be argued as cases where fake news, the power of nastiness and bluster have won the argument. I agree with Evan that the most distressing is the statement: There is no reasonable dispute that Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email." I cannot believe that the adjudicators did not consider the disputes that have been in the press and in forums such as these...Gawker would have been well served to contact forums such as these, but it looks like it has been outmaneuvered by Ayyadurai's legal team! I wonder if SIGCIS members should consider filing amicus briefs in cases such as these in the future. -Ramesh --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=233 45 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm ________________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Evan Koblentz <evan@snarc.net> Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2017 10:32 PM To: Sigcis Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] The new thing: Ayyadurai claims to be suing Techdirt

Do facts carry no weight anymore?

The most offensive part to me is: "There is no reasonable dispute that Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email." If the president-to-be can say any crazy thing and mock those who observe its falsehood, then so can lawyers. Or is history now decided by who has the nastiest lawyer? Remember, John Mauchly "did derive" ENIAC from Atanasoff's unfinished electromechanical calculator... I can understand such a decision back then, when the non-technical public knew next to nothing about computing. But in 2016? All it should have taken for Gawker to win is anyone on this list taking the stand to show a timeline of (ahem) email. The greenest small-town law school graduate could have won that case. It is baffling how Gawker lost. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL2xpc3RzLn NpZ2Npcy5vcmcvcGlwZXJtYWlsL21lbWJlcnMtc2lnY2lzLm9yZy8%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1l ZHU%3D&_s=cnN1YnJhbWFuaWFu and you can change your subscription options at https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL2xpc3RzLn NpZ2Npcy5vcmcvbGlzdGluZm8uY2dpL21lbWJlcnMtc2lnY2lzLm9yZw%3D%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcG lhYy1lZHU%3D&_s=cnN1YnJhbWFuaWFu _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org