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Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

nytimes.com

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Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#111

Post by zorpner »

eudox wrote: post #106
zorpner wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it will be because a plutocrat decided to fund a lawsuit unrelated to his reason for disliking them (and apparently influenced the process of that lawsuit with the aim of destroying Gawker to the detriment of Bollea), and abused the inherent bias of our courts towards parties with disproportionate resources. Bollea may well have had a valid case against Gawker, but we'll never know. The idea that a case with a si…

Dude, my dude, Thiel just paid for part of Hogan's legal fees. That money's not gonna conjure up evidence from the luminiferous aether.

People with more resources win more lawsuits. Do you believe that this is because they are more frequently wronged?

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#112

Post by FireBeyond »

partiallypro wrote: post #100
nikcub wrote: post #76

Thiel is also apparently financing Shiva Ayyadurai's lawsuit against Gawker. He is the guy who claims to have invented email as a 14 year old. Both Techdirt[1] and Gawker[2] wrote about his nonsense claims, but Shiva and Thiel are suing Gawker. The sex tape is a little more black and white as a moral argument, but i'd love to hear justifications for defending a man who is clearly so full of shit in a case that with T…

Probably because Theil wants Gawker dead after they were the outlet that outed him as homosexual. I wouldn't necessarily blame him. Just tying the publication up in court and legal fees could sink it.

Which is the very definition of a chilling effect, however shitty Gawker's original activities were.

Best hope we don't piss off a m/billionaire who seeks to see us destroyed.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#114

Post by FireBeyond »

tardos wrote: post #86
darawk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a poorly thought out argument. He isn't doing anything under-handed or illegal to destroy Gawker. He isn't fabricating evidence against them or paying off cops. He's simply financing a non-spurious lawsuit, which the courts have decided was legitimate. This is exactly what I want the billionaires in our society doing. He may be acting in his own self-interest, but it also happened to align with the public int…

He is very much doing something under-handed to destroy Gawker. Gawker owns insurance to decouple financial harm from existential harm in the case of lawsuits like these. The civil system expects that victims who are harmed will try to maximize expected payout in case of a suit. If Hulk's legal case is indeed robust, he should have included every possible harm in the suit to maximize his payout. The decision to struc…

Right, exactly - question is how aware of this was Hogan? If he was aware, it's still not great. If he wasn't, that raises significant questions about SLAPP from Thiel, if not malpractice from his lawyers (whose direction are they fallowing, their apparent client, or his financier?).

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#115

Post by eudox »

FireBeyond wrote: post #110
eudox wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, my dude, Thiel just paid for part of Hogan's legal fees. That money's not gonna conjure up evidence from the luminiferous aether.

The issue is that Bollea dropped a part of the lawsuit that would have allowed the award to be paid out by the insurer - that reduces both the likelihood and amount of money that Bollea will receive, on the face of it, acting in a manner contrary to his own best interest, and in Thiel, lawsuit financier's, stated interests.

>acting in a manner contrary to his own best interest

Hogan is a famous, well-liked millionaire[0] already. And he almost certainly doesn't like Gawker.

So maybe he thought, "I can give up some of these millions and these parasites will not publish another damned lie again". In return, he also gets the eternal gratitude of people who hate Gawker (all decent human beings).

Seems like his actions align quite well with his interests.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan#Finances

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#117

Post by Jugurtha »

Beyond good and evil and morals, I think Thiel is being really gentlemanly about this. How hard would it have been to get very good looking people to seduce the people responsible (or their spouses, offsprings, parents), have some wild stuff going on, get that on video, and publish that online...

Would Gawker still feel as strongly about freedom of expression when their significant other's or their daughters'/sons'/parents' legs are spread all over the internet? If that video was sent to them, would they publish something like "Watch the sextape of the people who pulblished Hogan's sextape",

I can think of many, many ways Thiel could have harmed them. He's a very smart man and I'm sure he could think of many more, but he held back going at it in a civilized manner only legally backing a law-suit.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#118

Post by ikeboy »

nikcub wrote: post #76

Thiel is also apparently financing Shiva Ayyadurai's lawsuit against Gawker. He is the guy who claims to have invented email as a 14 year old. Both Techdirt[1] and Gawker[2] wrote about his nonsense claims, but Shiva and Thiel are suing Gawker. The sex tape is a little more black and white as a moral argument, but i'd love to hear justifications for defending a man who is clearly so full of shit in a case that with T…

Source?

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/25/media/peter-thiel-gawker-hul...

'Ayyadurai told CNNMoney that Thiel has "zero involvement in my case."'

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#119

Post by eudox »

zorpner wrote: post #111
eudox wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, my dude, Thiel just paid for part of Hogan's legal fees. That money's not gonna conjure up evidence from the luminiferous aether.

People with more resources win more lawsuits. Do you believe that this is because they are more frequently wronged?

Gawker didn't lose this trial because they ran out of money to pay their lawyers, they lost because a jury of their peers found they were guilty as sin.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#120

Post by leroy_masochist »

djrobstep wrote: post #95
darawk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what is unethical about his conduct here? I really don't understand what problem anyone has with this.

A libertarian using the power of government to crush free speech is pretty hypocritical if not unethical.

Being able to use the courts to sue for defamation is pretty widely accepted as legit by most if not all strains of libertarianism. It's actually a clear example of a valid case in which governmental authority is necessary.
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