Dem Consultants Go Off on a 'Huff' in Lawsuit Against News Aggregator

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The guardian.co.uk Web site reports today on a 26-page complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York (Peter Daou & James Boyce  v. Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer & TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.) in which two Democratic politicos allege breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, idea misappropriation, unjust enrichment, quantum meruit, fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of implied contract against the co-founders of  The Huffington Post news aggregator.


According to their lawsuit, Daou & Boyce are being deprived of an ownership interest in HuffPost by the defendants, whom they accuse of stealing their idea for the influential Web site that launched in 2005. According to the Guardian account, Daou has pledged to donate any proceeds from the lawsuit to progressive political causes.


Huffington & Lerer released a statement to the Politico Web site denying the plaintiffs' accusations, and asserting that Daou & Boyce had no role in the creation, financing or operation of TheHuffingtonPost Web site. The defendants allege they rejected hiring or entering into a partnership with the plaintiffs six years ago.

The lawsuit is in its nascent stage as the defendants have yet to file an answer to the complaint. The defendants should have no problem mounting a defense with the money that they don't pay Web site contributors, but Arianna probably wishes she had the "bus money" she doled out to transport New Yorkers to the Stewart/Colbert Rally for Sanity in Washington, D.C. last month.

Wash. Court Sides with Filmmaker Moore in Anti-SLAPP Suit

Image by shannonkringen via FlickrControversial filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore, 56, stands to receive $10,000 and attorneys' fees after a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington tossed invasion of privacy and misappropriation of likeness claims against him.

Magistrate Judge Karen Strombom's 17-page decision in Ken Aronson v. Dog Eat Dog Films, Inc. (Case No. C10-5293) applied for the first time Washington's revised anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute in ruling against Aronson, whose voice and image appeared in a 71-second snippet of Moore's Oscar-nominated documentary Sicko, which focused on the U.S. health care system.


Aronson's 1997 London footage of his friend Eric Turnbow sustaining a shoulder injury after walking on his hands appeared in Sicko without Aronson's knowledge or consent, though Turnbow executed a waiver. Aronson is heard singing Oh England Here We Go in the footage.


Copyright claims remain unresolved between the parties.  Washington was in the vanguard of anti-SLAPP legislation, though 28 jurisdictions have enacted such bills, which are intended to derail meritless lawsuits that threaten the exercise of free speech.