We all use email but it seems finding the original creator is not going to be cheap.
TechDirt broke his silence on Wednesday about a $15 million lawsuit filed by the self-proclaimed “inventor of email,” Shiva Ayyadurai, who is suing the site for questioning his accomplishments.
Tech Dirt has noted that it stands by its claims that email existed long before Ayyadurai wrote an email-related software program, and said the site would fight the lawsuit as baseless.
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As you may have heard, last week we were sued for $15 million by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email. We have written, at great length, about his claims and our opinion — backed up by detailed and thorough evidence — that email existed long before Ayyadurai created any software. We believe the legal claims in the lawsuit are meritless, and we intend to fight them and to win.
There is a larger point here. Defamation claims like this can force independent media companies to capitulate and shut down due to mounting legal costs. Ayyadurai’s attorney, Charles Harder, has already shown that this model can lead to exactly that result. His efforts helped put a much larger and much more well-resourced company than Techdirt completely out of business.
Very interesting that someone can be offended that way to ask for $15 million.