Gawker Media LLC founder Nick Denton faces personal bankruptcy after a U.S. judge refused on Tuesday to extend protections shielding him from liabilities resulting from a lawsuit over the invasion of privacy of former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.
This story completely ruined Denton.
Schadenfreude!
If this was part of a larger trend making CEOs pay personally for the crimes their companies commit, I’d think this was a really wonderful thing.
But Jamie Dimon and Tony Hayward are still walking around with their fortunes and freedom intact after they committed far, far graver offenses against humanity than insulting an asshole libertarian TechBro billionaire.
Because Thiel’s revenge what this was all about, not Hulk Hogan’s sex tape…
Let this be a warning to any future Gawker wannabes.
Well, I think technically the story that truly ruined denton was about that facebook guy being gay which caused him to fund all these other lawsuits.
bad precedent for free speech in this country.
Last I checked, Rupert Murdoch was still at large, too.
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nope. free speech is not free from accountability in this country — the court found, correctly, that Gawker victimized Hulk Hogan, and is reponsible for that. it doesnt matter that Hogan’s lawyers were paid for by this millionaire or that…the facts of his case and judgement remain the same.
theres a reason it’s Gawker in hot water and not CBS — older, wiser publishers understand the law; Gawker did not. theyre responsible for that decision and must now pay the price ordered by the court system.
just has been served, even if the tech-blogosphere thinks the guy writing the lawyer checks is an asshole. but thats irrelevant.
perhaps, but the results were obtained by the check writing. People without the deep pockets might not get justice.
gawker had deeper pockets than ordinary people. it invaded privacy of ordinary people too. also, money is not the only power, being a popular website is power too. thiel despite all his power could not prevent gawker from outing him. by definition gawker was more powerful than thiel in this respect.
People without deep pockets don’t get justice. That’s the problem; Hulk Hogan should not need to be financed so that he could be vindicated.
Because “things the speaker doesn’t like” and “crimes” are actually – fortunately – different things, at least in places where there’s still rule of law.
(Per the original court complaint, Denton personally helped write the narration for the video.
That is presumably why he is personally liable rather than being shielded.)
So the solution is to … not have justice for anyone?
How’s that work?
(Banning “paying for other people’s lawsuits” stops the ACLU from being able to sue on someone’s behalf, so that doesn’t seem right…)
no that’s a bad idea, but if Thiel had a case for his grievances against Gawker he should had taken them on directly. Funding Hogan’s case smells of vendetta, not justice.