Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction • Hacker News Board

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#221

Post by smt88 » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

cjahsh wrote: post #206

smt88 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Libel and slander have no place in a functioning democracy One man's libel/slander is another man's investigate journalism ("muckraking" in the US). In this particular case, Gawker wasn't guilty of either libel or slander because they didn't publish anything about Hogan that was false. > it shouldn't take a billionaire to sue and win judgement against slanderous publishers It's actually much harder to win a libel/s…

Ah yes, society should recognize the positive impacts of investigative journalism. I can hardly see a between the Pentagon Papers and a sex tape!

What if a conservative politician lobbies for adultery being illegal, and then a sex tape emerges of him cheating on his wife? That's important journalism.

What if the CEO of a company intimidates an employee into having sex with him and secretly films it, and that gets released? That's also important journalism.

There are lots of other ways sex tapes could be newsworthy: a famous person makes racist comments in it (the Hogan tape!), a Hollywood director asks for sex in exchange for a role, etc. etc.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#222

Post by viggity » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

olliej wrote: post #147

whack wrote: post #54

Libel and slander have no place in a functioning democracy. By building an entire business model around such practices, Gawker is not only spreading disinformation, it is also crowding out more reputable news sources that could have better helped inform the public. The only criticism I can give in this entire tale, is that it shouldn't take a billionaire to sue and win judgement against slanderous publishers. Such re…

And engadget and kotaku and most of the other tech related websites you probably read. Also its a good lesson to other sites to police content to ensure no one says anything bad about billionaires. Thank god for thiel protecting us from horrible things like censorship!

they didn't say anything bad about Thiel, the reason he went after them is because they outted him as gay.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#223

Post by Natsu » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

olliej wrote: post #122

GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Precedent this sets"? I think "Don't publish a illegally made video of people in a private moment or ignore court orders to take down the video." to be a rather positive precedent, don't you? That's the sort of chilling effect on media we should all be applauding. Thief merely funded a court battle that had merit (in this case, quite a lot of merit) that Bollea probably could have won on his own. I fail to see what…

It wasnt illegally made, it wasnt stolen, it was in the public interest (hogan is a very public figure, and has gone on at length about being faithful, not cheating, loose morals of young people). So... Reporting on that seems like actual information that should be public? Compare to the pamela anderson tape, which was with her husband, was literally /stolen from their home/, and was sold for profit. Judge ruled that…

Do you have a source on that? I understood that the film was stolen in addition to being taken without the knowledge or consent of Hogan.

FWIW, unless there's some real public interest beyond the prurient, I don't see why people should be able to publish anyone's private sex tapes without their consent. I would tend to say that the right to privacy should win in such cases.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#224

Post by ht85 » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

olliej wrote: post #122

GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Precedent this sets"? I think "Don't publish a illegally made video of people in a private moment or ignore court orders to take down the video." to be a rather positive precedent, don't you? That's the sort of chilling effect on media we should all be applauding. Thief merely funded a court battle that had merit (in this case, quite a lot of merit) that Bollea probably could have won on his own. I fail to see what…

It wasnt illegally made, it wasnt stolen, it was in the public interest (hogan is a very public figure, and has gone on at length about being faithful, not cheating, loose morals of young people). So... Reporting on that seems like actual information that should be public? Compare to the pamela anderson tape, which was with her husband, was literally /stolen from their home/, and was sold for profit. Judge ruled that…

Reporting on it isn't what got them taken down.

Posting the video got them in trouble (for obvious reasons), and refusing to take it down played a big role in the final sentence (aka death).

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#225

Post by antisthenes » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #47

cm2187 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your context, you forgot the step before those: - Gawker outs Pether Thiel

You forgot a step before that: - Peter Thiel is a hard-core activist for individual rights, including freedom of speech Thiel is pro-freedom when it suits him and anti-freedom when it doesn't. In my opinion, he has lobbied for a world where journalists can "out" people, and now he's taking revenge when it happens to harm him.

So just like any typical self-proclaimed libertarian, who is completely unaware of all the government benefits and protections they are allowed to have because it exists?

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#226

Post by cookiecaper » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

qq66 wrote: post #139

whack wrote: post #54

Libel and slander have no place in a functioning democracy. By building an entire business model around such practices, Gawker is not only spreading disinformation, it is also crowding out more reputable news sources that could have better helped inform the public. The only criticism I can give in this entire tale, is that it shouldn't take a billionaire to sue and win judgement against slanderous publishers. Such re…

One possible solution is the constitutional right to an attorney in civil cases as well as in criminal, but I don't know how you'd protect that against abuse.

Yes, I believe our system should be amended to ensure that roughly equal resources are available to both parties. The court should require an accounting of all legal fees to be filed. In certain cases, the wealthier party to the litigation should be obliged to pay an amount of money equal to their own expenditures on legal fees into a trust run by the court, which would ensure the less-wealthy party gets equally-solid representation and would prevent a lot of the bullying-by-lawsuit that goes on. Far fewer ridiculous bluffs will come out of international firms like Skadden or MTO when their client knows that they're also going to need to forward that $1,000/hr to the party they're threatening.

Would Donald Trump have sued the journalist who published a piece estimating his true net worth if this was in place?

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#227

Post by cthor » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

keepper wrote: post #74

A racist billionaire[1], funding another racist millionaire[2], supporting another racist billionaire[3] But everyone seems to be ok with this, because of pseudo libertarianism? Libertarianism: "All the parts of government that benefit rich folks are legit/necessary/essential. All the parts that benefit poor folks are illegitimate/aggression/tyranny." Oh man... what is going on!?! [1] https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/…

There's some perverse doublethink going on when it's considered racist to suggest we stop discriminating on the basis of race.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#228

Post by throw10010110 » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

olliej wrote: post #122

GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Precedent this sets"? I think "Don't publish a illegally made video of people in a private moment or ignore court orders to take down the video." to be a rather positive precedent, don't you? That's the sort of chilling effect on media we should all be applauding. Thief merely funded a court battle that had merit (in this case, quite a lot of merit) that Bollea probably could have won on his own. I fail to see what…

It wasnt illegally made, it wasnt stolen, it was in the public interest (hogan is a very public figure, and has gone on at length about being faithful, not cheating, loose morals of young people). So... Reporting on that seems like actual information that should be public? Compare to the pamela anderson tape, which was with her husband, was literally /stolen from their home/, and was sold for profit. Judge ruled that…

I'm posting this on a throwaway account for obvious reasons, so this comment is showing up as dead. Would someone mind vouching it? Thanks!

It wasnt illegally made, it wasnt stolen, it was in the public interest (hogan is a very public figure, and has gone on at length about being faithful, not cheating, loose morals of young people).

This fetish is called wifesharing. It's not cheating, and it's not immoral. You may not personally like the idea, but calling someone's fetish immoral when all parties consent to the act is strange. Saying that it's in the public interest to know is offensive.

There are many sources that say this was a consensual act. I won't post these sordid articles here, but they are very easy to find.

This is equivalent to someone being gay, and someone else saying that it's in the public interest for their immoral acts to be made public.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#229

Post by kebolio » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

>kotaku

Hopefully Gawker's demise will wipe out Kotaku forever as well. Whatever your views on the GamerGate movement (I certainly don't like what it has turned into thanks to /pol/), the corruption and collusion of Kotaku "journalists" is disgusting and unacceptable.

Re: Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction

#230

Post by scruple » Fri, Jun 10, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #70

fullshark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the hope is that the courts wouldn't rule against an actual journalist for doing his/her job in a lawsuit. I get the "slippery slope" argument but posting a video of Hulk Hogan having sex (taken and posted without his consent) doesn't really qualify as journalism in any way and they really deserved to lose.

But they weren't the only ones and I don't think they were even the first ones to do so. (At work no way I am researching if I am right) I HATE GAWKER but it does seem strange that no one else was sued for this.

They defied a court order to remove the tape.