Ayyadurai v. Floor64, Inc. et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against All Defendants Filing fee: $ 400, receipt number 0101-6439091 (Fee Status: Filing Fee paid), filed by Shiva Ayyadurai. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet, # 2 Exhibit, # 3 Exhibit, # 4 Exhibit, # 5 Exhibit, # 6 Exhibit, # 7 Exhibit, # 8 Exhibit, # 9 Exhibit, # 10 Exhibit, # 11 Exhibit, # 12 Exhibit, # 13 Exhibit, # 14 Exhibit, # 15 Exhibit, # 16 Exhibit, # 17 Exhibit, # 18 Exhibit, # 19 Exhibit, # 20 Exhibit, # 21 Exhibit)(Cornell, Timothy)

EXHIBIT I

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Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its
A

Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked 'History Of Email

A v

Series

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from the destroying-all-journalistic-integrity dept

CHALLENGE US

Failures

by Mike Mas nick
Thu, Sep 4th 2014
9:20am

Filed Under:
email, huffpo live,
inventor of email,
journalistic
integrity, larry

weber, sh" a
i
ayyadurai, v. a.
shiva ayyadurai

Over the past couple of (Jays we've beer writing about an incredibly questionable series of articles

TO PROVIDE YOU

at Huffington Post, pretending to be about the "history of email" even though they're not, They're

A BETTER

actually a completely bogus rewriting of well-documented history to falsely pretend that a guy

RATE

named V,A. Shiva Ayyadurai invented email as a 14-year-old boy. He did not. Not only do Ayyadurai

and some of his friends totally misrepresent reality, they fraudulently make claims that are easily

COMPARE & SAVE, YOU COULD SAVE A IN AVG. OF

debunked. As we've discussed, their two biggest claims are [1) that the "US government officially

*402

recognized Ayyaudurai as the inventor of email" in 1932 and (2) that a leading analysis of
is 'impossible," Both of these claims are absolutely false.

*418

OVER

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OVER

electronic messaging in 1977, by Dave Crocker at RAND, claims that a full interoffice email system

OVER

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Companies:
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Short link.

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As we've explained, the first one relies on blatantly misleading people about what a copyright is

and what Ayyadurai copyrighted. Copyright does not cover 'Inventions," It only covers creative

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expression. What Ayyadurai got a copyright on is a specific computer program called "email," That

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does not mean he invented email. Just as Microsoft holds a copyright on "Windows" but did not
invent windowed user interfaces, Ayyadurai did not invent email, The copyright does not mean
that he did invent email, and the fact that he and his friends continue to pretend that a copyright
is something it is not is farcical. They are relying on the ignorance of reporters and the public

Essential Reading

Hot Topics

about what a copyright is. The second issue is even more damaging. Ayyadurai and his friends

5.4 | If You're Worried About What President

claim that Crocker's paper is the "smoking gun" that proves that no one else was working on a full

Trump Can Do To The Press, Blame

email system at the time. And yet, as we noted, they never actually link to the paper. We did. Yt>u

President Obama

can read it here, and you see that not only does it say the exact opposite of what they claim

5.2

(debunking Ayyadurai's claims), they deliberately misrepresent what Crocker said by taking two

The FCC Suggests Some Wishy Washy,
Highly Unlikely Solutions To The

separate sentences, from different pages in the report, removing the context around them, and

Poorly-Secured Internet Of Things

mashing them together to pretend they say something they do not. lbs shameless.

5.2

Judge Tosses Charges Against

In our first post, we claimed that perhaps it's true that Ayyadurai was the first person to shorten

Backpage Execs, Tells Kamala Harris

"electronic mail" (which was in widespread use at the time) to "email" - but now even that has

To Take It Up With Congress

been called into question. Computer historian Thomas Haigh has been tracking Ayyadurai's lies
and misrepresentations for years, and alerts us to the fact that Ayyadurai's story has notably
changed over the years, revealing additional misrepresentations and attempts to change history,

New To Techdirt?
Explore some core concepts:

This includes, among other things, him changing his story about when he completed his work If Intellectual Property Is Neither

and when his program "email" was named. Here's Haigh's analysis:

Intellectual, Nor Property, What Is It?
"Electronic mail" was widely discussed in the 1970s, but was usually shortened

The Grand Unified Theory On The

simply to "MAIL" when naming commands. However, the Oxford English Dictionary

Economics Of Free

(3rd edition online) gives a June 1979 usage ("Postal Service pushes ahead with £How Being More Open, Human And

mail") so Ayyadurai was not the first to use this contraction in piint.

Awesome Can Save Anyone Worried About

The program name "EMAIL" is not mentioned in the 1980 newspaper article on

Making Money In Entertainment

Ayyadurai but does appear in his 1981 Westinghouse competition submission. By

read all »

that year the name EMAIL was in use by CompuServe. Compuserve had offered
timeshaiing computer access and eiectnonic mail to businesses for years. In 1979 it
Techdirt Deals

launched a new service , aiming to sell otherwise wasted evening computer time to
consumers for the bargain price of $5 an hour: A trademark application (later
abandoned) that CompuServe made for "EMAIL" listed 1981/04/01 as its first use by
the company, which fits with this May 198 1 message mentioning CompuServe's
"EMAIL program. " By January 1983 "Email™" (for trademark) was part of

"a

CompuServe's advertising campaign.

Go

For years CompuServe users could type "GO EMAIL" to read their messages.
Whether Ayyadurai or CompuServe was the first to adopt "EMAIL" as a program
name it is clear that CompuServe popularized it.

K

Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked 'History Of Email' Series || Techdirt
Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked 'History Of Email' Series Techdirt
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140903/18514728409/huffington-post-finally-responds-stands-its-completely-bogus-totally-debunked-history-email-…
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Page 1 of 24

suui fLJ f^u u

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consumer for the bargain price of 55 an hour. A trademark application (later

abandoned) that CompuServe made for "EMAIL" listed 1981/04/01 us its first use by
rr

the company, which fits with this May 1981 message mentioning CompuServe's
"EMAIL program. " By January 1983 "Email"" (for trademark) was parr of
CompuServe's advertising campaign.

JV,

For years CompuSeive useis could type "GO EMAIL" to read their messages.
Whether Ayyadurai or CompuSeive was the first to adopt "EMAIL" as a program

rame ft is clear that CompuSeive popuiarized it.

Furthermore, Haigh details how Ayyadurai has conveniently tried to rewrite his own history to
counter the debunkings. For example, in 2011, he originally claimed that while he was

s

"challenged" to create an electronic interoffice messaging system in 1 973, he didn't actually get it

s

to work until 1980, But, of course, by then email was much more widespread. So, Ayyadurai

VPN Unlimited & To Do

changed the story and pretended that he was both challenged and wrote his "50,000 lines of code"
and got it all working in 1978, Furthermore, as we noted in our second post, Ayyadurai and his

Checklist: Lifetime

friends are now trying to rev/rite history to ignore all those other previous email systems by tightfy

Subscription Bundle

defining what an email system is such that only his qualifies. But, as we noted, most of the

features he listed are arbitrary and unrelated to the basics of email, All of the core elements of
email were widely used before Ayyadurai wrote his system, Haigh details how Ayyadurai has taken
Report this at)

this to absolutely ridiculous extremes, claiming that it's not email unless it has 87 specific features

(up from 32, which was ratcheted up from an original 6 -- as he continues to revise history):

\

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Techdirt Insider Chat

T

One of the five main tabs on Ayyadurai's new si'te is "Definition of email. " This

http:finn.theregi5ter.co. ukf2016J12/08fwinter_is_c< "

presents a short version ("email is the electronic version of the interoffice, inter-

time for the touches and pitchforks. I think.

organizational paper-based email system") and two lengthy checklists. The first

Dark Helmet: Touches and pitchforks is my
new favorite typo win

checklist presents 32 distinct features of the traditional mail system, all of which he
claims were necessaiy ("if any one component was taken away...you no longer had a
functioning interoffice mail system. ") The second checklist repeats these, with some

additional items added, and places a check mark by each one to indicate that
Ayyadurai's system had that capability There are 87 of these check marks. // /

Jeffrey Nonken: hah
Wfell. mobile interface. That's my excuse.

Vidiot: WaPo article on copyright fight gets it
wrong, of course... A5CAP and MPAA seen as
the Office's only constituents. How about U5

understand his argument correctly then this signifies that a system must possess 87

citizens instead?

specific features to properly be called email.

Iittps :/fwww.was hin gto n p o st. co m.'n ewsia its
andentertainmentiwpJ2016J12f09fcongres5ional-

Has this definition been widely accepted since 1978, as Ayyadurai claims? No it has
not. Indeed, Ayyadurai's own website did not include these definitions of email until
recently. The old site (prior to June 2012) offered a quite different six point

panel-calls-for-iiidependent-copyright-otfi ce
Mike Masnick: well, they do quote new head of

definition of "an E-Mail System. " These six points were: User-Friendly Inteiface ; A

the ALA too, and he's good

Rich Set of Features; Network Wide; Security and Login; Enterprise Management;

4

?

Database and Archival. The definition was originally presented as the work of one
Matthew J. Labrador. Labrador claims to have "met Shiva in 1981 in a computer

Join the Insider Chat

science class" and to have been impressed by his modesty He recently been
motivated by inaccurate reports on email origins to "do my own research... to provide
readers with a more comprehensive and holistic history " Ayyudari's resume lists

Labrador as a student whose bacheior's thesis he supervised in 1990. Labrador, whose
prose style closely resembles Ayyadurai's own, expressed awe at Ayyadurai's
accomplishments ("in writing this History I was amazed at the vision that Dr. V.A.

*

Shiva Ayyadurai had even as a 13 year old, in developing that first E-Mail system"),
acknowledged his graciousness in providing materials, and proceeded to show that
Ayyadurai's system met this unorthodox six point definition.

Either way, given the abundant evidence that Ayyadurai's claim is complete bullshit, we were still
left amazed that Huffington Rest has allowed this to remain on its site,

gut

IS

Late yesterday a PR person from Huffington Post finally got back to me, claiming they did not get
my original email, Huffington Post not only stupidly stands by the completely false story, it claims
No.3 - Don't be late to Golden Gate

that the matter is okay because they've "updated each piece with a clarification."' The clarification

is not a "clarification" and it's not an apology for publishing a totally bullshit series. It's merely a
repeating of Ayyadurai's lies. Incredibly, they repeat his exact language, suggesting the

Report thfs ad

\

Hide Techdirt ads

"clarification" is either front hint directly or taken from the claims in the bogus articles.
'Clarification about the series: Electronic messaging predates email. To paraphrase

Noam Chomsky in 2012, email, spelled uppercase or lowercase, as defined in 1978,
was a computer program which was the first full-scale electronic version of the

Monday
1 3:09 Two Former Senators Call On Obama To Save The
Full ClATbiture ReporF From Being Bulled (5)

interoffice mail system (Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Fofrfers, Attachments, etc.),

containing the integrated features of what we experience today in "email" programs.
However tin's is not to imply tiiat prior to the invention of email in 1978, simpie

1 1 :52 The FCC Suggests Some Wiishy Washy Highly
Unlikely Solutions "lb The Poorly- Secured Internet
Off Things (13)

methods of computer-to-computer or device-to-device electronic messaging did not
10:40 Iran The Latest Country "lb Use "Fake News As An

exist. In fact such methods of sending text messages electronically - text messaging

Excuse For Widespread Censorship (1 1 )

- could be said to date back to the Morse code telegraph of the mid-1800s; or the
19.19 Worlds Fnir where IBM sent n message of conernfulotions from 5nn Francisco to

10:38 Daily Deal: DashCam Hi-Res Car Video Camera And

Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked &#39;History Of Email&#39; Series || Techdirt
Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked &#39;History Of Email&#39; Series Techdirt
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Page 2 of 24

'Clarification about the series: Electronic messaging predates email. To paraphrase

Noam Chomsky in Z01Z, email, spelled uppercase or lowercase, as defined in 1978,
was a computer program which was the first full-scale electronic version of the

Monday
1 3:09 Two Former Senators Call Qn Qbama To Save The
Full CIA Torture Report' From Being Bulled (5)

interoffice mait system (Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Folders, Attachments, etc.),

containing the integrated features of what we experience today in "email" programs.

1 1 :52 The FCC Suggests Some Wtshy Washy Highly
Unlikely Solutions "lb The Poorly- Secured Internet

However, this is not to imply that prior to the invention of email in 1978, simple

Off Things (13)

methods of computer-to-computer or device bydevice electronic messaging did not
10:40 Iran The Latest Country "lb Use "Fake News? As An

exist. In fact such methods of sending text messages electionically -- text messaging

Excuse For Widespread Censorship (1 1 )

-- could be said to date back to the Morse code telegraph of the mid-1800s; or the
1939 World's Fair where IBM sent a message of congratulations from San Francisco to

10: 3S Daily Deal: DashCam Hi- Res Car Video Camera And
SGBMicroSD Card (1)

New York on an IBM radio-type, calling it a "high-speed substitute for mail service in
09:39 Georgia Secretary Off State Accuses DHS Of

the world of tomorrow." The original text message, electronic transfer of content or

Breaching His Office's Firewall (15)

images, ARPANET messaging, and even the familiar "@" sign were used in primitive
OS: 3 1 If ^feuTe Woriied About What President Trump Can

electronic computer-to-computer messaging systems. While the technology pioneers

Do lb The Press, Blame President Obama (41 )

who created these messaging systems shouid he heralded for their effoiis, and given

credit for their specific accomplishments and contributions, these early computer-to-

06:29 Judge "fosses Charges Against Backpage Execs,
Tells Kamala Harris To Take It Up With Congress

computer messaging programs were clearly not email, tite system of interconnected
paits intended to emulate the interoffice mail system. There is much credit to

(14)
03:25 More Prosecutors Refuse lb Accept Guilty Pleas

spread around to the vast community of academic, industrial and military researchers

Based On Faulty $2 Field Drug Tests (1 1 )

and engineers who eclipsed the industrial revolution with their contributions to
computer science and computer and network engineering. There is no intention to

Sunday

take credit where it is not due. However, email as we know and experience it today,

12:00 Funniest/ Most Insightful Comments Of The Week
At Tech dirt (5)

not electronic messaging, was fiist created in 1978 at UMDNJ.
Except, this, is equally misleading. The systems in place long before 197B absolutely were

Saturday

"electronic mail" and absolutely "emulated the interoffice mail system." "Email as we know it" was

12:00 This Week In Techdiit Hfrtory: 5QRV, China, Dajazl
a The Hypocrisy Of Copyright 12)

absolutely not first created at 1 978 at UMDNJ and any basic reading of the actual
documentation would prove that, I asked Huffington Post's PR people if they really wanted to
make this statement, pointing out that it would only make them look silly For reasons I cannot

More 5
Advertisement

fathom, they appear to be standing by it and have not yet replied.
OH Robert Half
TsEhroicgrf'

Furthermore, this completely misleading and factually bogus "clarification" has not, in fact, been

I

placed on all of the articles in this series, This HuffPost Live article by Emily Tess Katz does not

,'rl

include it at all, but rather repeats many long -disproved claims by Ayyadurai, Apparently Katz

I

tweeted that she stands behind the article, but later deleted that tweet, I asked her again last
night if she still stood by the article, but, par for the course, she has not replied.

Uuffington Post's PR people further told me that (1) it had not received any money for publishing

the series (i.e., it's not a sponsored post) and (2) that "the authors declared no financial interest,"
Oh really? As I've pointed out, Larry Weber is one of the biggest names in PR, He didn't just
magically decide to write an entire series of blatant falsehoods about the history of email, In fact,
it didnt take much sleuthing to discover that Ayyadurai and Weber are business partners in

TECHNOLOGY STAFFING
Find top technology professionals in the

Los Angeles area online 24/7

FIND TALENT

"EchoMaiL", the company that Ayyadurai also likes to insist was a major part of email's history (it
An EOE M/F/D/V

wasnt). Ayyadurai claims that EchoMail "grew to nearly $200 million in market valuation" but

Report this ad

\

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provides no evidence for that. Was the company public? Where does this valuation come from? For
such an important company, you'd think there'd be a lot more information online about it, but
there's basically none, TheWikipedia page for it says that EchoMail is a "subsidiary of General
Interactive, but was initially developed under Information Cybernetics." The only "citation" to
support these claims is this page at General Interactive. However, General Interactive appears to

just be yet another (in an increasingly long list) of websites of questionable businesses that appear
to do nothing but promote,,, V,A. Shiva Ayyadurai,

For such a big company, you'd assume there'd be some press reports somewhere. So far, I can find
none, It's possible they exist, but they are not readily available. It's not hard, however, to find
news reports on other big companies of that generation. Either way, Echomail notes that
companies like American Express and IBM are customers. It somehow leaves out that the only
confirmation I can find of this is a fawsuit EchoMail filed against both companies in 2005, So, at

least they were customers, though it doesnt appear to have ended on friendly terms.

Basically no matter where you start to dig in, nearly everything about Ayyadurai's claims is
incredibly sketchy, or outright disproven and debunked widely. It s incredible that Huffington Post
has decided to stand by this and merely repeat debunked claims. Even if, as some have claimed,
the posts by Weber, Ayyadurai and their friends are on the "unedited" blogs section of HuffPo, the
HuffPo Live pieces are a part of the "news" business, and they are reporting blatantly false

information.

As per usual, Ayyadurai himself refuses to address any of this other than pointing back to the same
debunked claims. His Twitter feed is hilarious, just constantly repeating claims, in a foot stamping
manner, sometimes referring to himself in the third person.

Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked &#39;History Of Email&#39; Series || Techdirt
Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked &#39;History Of Email&#39; Series Techdirt
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140903/18514728409/huffington-post-finally-responds-stands-its-completely-bogus-totally-debunked-history-email-…
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140903/18514728409/huffington-post-finally-responds-stands-its-completely-bogus-totally-debunked-history-email-_
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Capture timestamp (UTC): Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:29:49 GMT
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of 24

incredibly sketchy, or outright disproven and debunked widely. Its incredible that Huttington Post

has decided to stand by this and merely repeat debunked claims. Even if, as some have claimed,
the posts by Weber, Ayyadurai and their friends are on the "unedited" blogs section of HuffRo, the
HuffPo Live pieces are a part of the "news" business, and they are reporting blatantly false
information.

As per usual, Ayyadurai himself refuses to address any of this other than pointing back to the same
debunked claims. His Twitter feed is hilarious, just constantly repeating claims, in a foot stamping

manner, sometimes referring to himself in the third person.

VA Shiva Ayyadurai @va shiva

4h

@MizuRytiu No ARPANET, Raython/BBN did not invent email. Shiva did.
The facts are BLACK and WHITE
«->

t_1

?

View conversation

Mo evidence, no support, And, of course, BBM doesn't claim to have "invented email,'1 Like pretty
much everyone else, BBN notes that it was among those who made significant contributions to a
large group effort that became email,

Oh, and there's also this amusing tweet in which Ayyadurai appears to be implying that we're paid
off by Raytheon for writing this.

VA Shiva Ayyadurai @va shiva

6h

©MizuRyuu Check out BBNs branding campaign and look into paid off

Tech_ DIRT! The earth is not the center of the solar system.
t?

*

View conversation

We're curious if Ayyadurai would like to try to present any evidence that a giant defense contractor

is paying us off to (1) explain basic copyright law and (2) point to the actual 1977 paper that
Ayyadurai himself totally misrepresents, Because we'd like to see him try,

In the meantime, the folks over at Huffington Post (the ones who still believe in journalistic
integrity) might want to take a closer look at what's going on over there.

- 1 » E9 V) £2 E9

107 Comments | Leave a Comment

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Reader Comments

u

0

A QUOTE THAT SUMS THIS UP
"Not everything oil the internet is true."
A !-»»«. 1

Document title: Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked &#39;History Of Email&#39; Series || Techdirt
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