TechCrunch Sues Facebook for $25M (updated with Paul's admission of idiocy)

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DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER. YOUR OPINION OF ME WILL BE SEVERELY LOWERED!   

Okay, maybe I should have looked at the date. April Fool's Day on me. Fuck! At least I caught it before it actually got to be April 1. At least I have that going for me.

With that, I am officially suing Techcrunch for defamation of character. 50 million dollars. Pay up now, bitches.

Anyway, on with nonsense...

Facebook Beacon + Triple Soy Latte = Lawsuit

Facebooksue1 Seems TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has gotten fed up with the Beacon platform using his likeness to shill for Blockbuster, along with various advertisers signed up in the program. It'll be interesting to see if this thing actually gets all the way to court. Arrington & co. claim they are due $150 million dollars under California law, but are willing to settle out of court for the equivalent of $25 million in Facebook stock.

From TechCrunch:

"So we’ve been increasingly concerned about developments at Facebook over the last few months that allow advertisers to post ads using my picture and name to endorse their products without my explicit permission. I’ve received literally dozens of emails from readers asking me if I’m associated with Blockbuster’s Movie Clique application, or the new Jackass movie (no to both)."

"I am sad that this had to blow up to the point where we are publicly suing Facebook over the matter. We’ll be filing the lawsuit tomorrow along with a related civil case for assault and battery. In a round of negotiations over the lawsuit with Facebook led by Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, things got out of hand. When our team of lawyers offered to settle for a mere $50 million, Kelly told me Facebook would “bury you and bury your crappy blog” if we filed the suit. He then threw his steaming hot triple soy latte espresso at me, which caused extensive second degree burns over the top half of my body. Later on, he also unfriended me."

We'll see how this all plays out. If Arrington gets his pay day, I'd be willing to bet we'd see some big changes happening fairly quickly. Even if the lawsuit is a bit of a reach, I would say that Chris Kelly's actions are pretty shocking. That said, Arrington is no butterfly, so I'd like to hear how things got to that point in the first place. Though not much would justify that reaction. Especially the de-friending. That seems especially brutal.