Hello SIGCIS, Here's your April update on email invention. After the filing of motions to dismiss and objections to those motions, lawyers for Techdirt and Ayyadurai recently swapped arguments before a judge. Full report at https://www.law360.com/articles/915722/libel-suit-by-email-inventor-belongs- in-trash-blog-says from a law blogger, Brian Amarai. According to the report the judge asked only one question: Judge Saylor, in his only comments from the bench, almost immediately questioned Ayyadurai's attorney: "To say he invented email requires we define email. How do we do that?" The judge continued: "If reasonable people could disagree about what is email, even assuming they agree he invented some piece of it, how is that a question of provable fact? If he didn't invent the @ symbol, a lot of people would say that is a big component of it. If he didn't invent sending texts from one computer to another, how can you say he invented email?" Mirell responded that they'd set out in their legal papers what their position was on what email is, and who its inventor was: Ayyadurai. "Isn't that an opinion? You say that's what constitutes email," Judge Saylor said. "Your honor," Mirell responded, "the question is ultimately a question for the jury." Like other reporters on the case, the blogger notes the importance of the issue of whether Ayyadurai is a "public figure." A public figure who wants to bring a libel claim - Ayyadurai calls himself a "world-renowned" inventor in the second sentence of his complaint but hasn't acknowledged that he's a public figure - has to show that the speaker acted with knowledge that something was wrong or with a reckless disregard for the truth, called actual malice. According to another blog post earlier this month, http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2017/04/18/techdirts-lawsuit-is-finding-support- in-d-c-politicos-and-techies/, Techdirt is picking up some support in DC as the Glen Echo Group hosted a fundraiser organized by "Facebook's Brooke Oberwetter, former Facebook employee Tim Sparapani, former Sen. Ron Wyden staffer Josh Lamel and PR pro Beau Phillips." Finally, Techdirt posted a story earlier this month which embeds its most recent legal filing, a reply to Ayyadurai's opposition to the dismissal of the case. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170413/13372937145/latest-filings-our-fi rst-amendment-fight-please-help-keep-true-independent-journalism-being-silen ced.shtml . One exhibit is a tweet from Ayyadruai, saying that "#FakeNewsMedia like TechShit need to be shutdown for their FAKE NEWS." It would be interesting if, as with Trump's executive orders on immigration, a judge uses tweets as evidence for motivations. Best wishes, Tom