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)

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Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing

Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn't Journalism

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Over the Last week, weVe beer debunking a bizarre "series" of stories over at Huffington Post,
Journalism
by Mike Mas nick

FriL, Sep 5th 2014
12:31pm

which is claiming to be about "the history of email" but is not. It's about a guy, Shiva Ayyadurai,
who may have written an implementation of email in the Late 1970s, but which was clearly well

after email was in widespread use, Ayyadurai's actual program (and as far as I can tell, he has not
released any screenshots of what the program actually looked like) may have worked well for the

Filed Under:
email, integrity,

inventor of email,
journalism, shiva
ayyadurai, v. a.

shiva ayyadurai
Companies:

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (IIMDNJ) where he wrote it as a 14-year-old,
but it contributed nothing to the future of email. Beyond email existing in various forms long
before that, nothing that happened later in the email space appears to have happened because of

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Send, receive and store faxes
online,fromanydevice.

W—i

Ayyadurai's program, Each of the advancements in email came from elsewhere, with no indication
that anyone anywhere was even aware of what Ayyadurai had done in New Jersey.

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aol, huffington post

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Ayyadurai has waged an incredibly bizarre public relations campaign, and the more you look at it,
Permalink.
Short link.

Corporate'

the more bizarre it becomes. However, anyone who looks over any of the primary documentation

A

A

(much of which we've linked to in our previous posts) can only conclude that while Ayyadurai may
have independentfy come up with some ideas, he most certainly did not invent email, It was

widely in use. The key arguments in his claim are obviously false, and prey on (1) a

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misunderstanding or misrepresetation of copyright Law and (2) an almost fraudulent misquoting of
Dave Crocker, a guy who really was heavily involved in early email efforts, Again, all of that is

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discussed in the earlier posts.

5.3

The FCC Suggests Some Wishy Washy,

What I still cannot fathom is how the Huffington Post can stand behind this "reporting," I've now

Highly Unlikely Solutions To The

heard from three different HuffRost reporters on the news side who all say that they're horrified

Poorly-Secured Internet Of Things

that no one at the company has done anything about this. The only official response I got stood by

5.3 1 If You're Worried About What President

the stories, but actual reporters at the company recognize that their own credibility has been

Trump Can Do To The Press, Blame

absolutely destroyed by this. It's been pointed out that the five part series is on HuffPo's "blogging"

Resident Obama

side -- which gives a platform to PR folks with no editorial oversight.
5.3

But, because HuffPo does little to separate out its "news" division from those open "blogs," the
blogs get filed with all sorts of clearly bogus crap, Much of it gets totally ignored, but some

Iran The Latest Country To Use 'Fake
News' As An Excuse For Widespread
Censorship

[apparently including PR "guru" Larry Weber and his business partner Shiva Ayyadurai) are willing
to exploit the fact that no one recognizes the blogging platform has no editorial review, to

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pretend that a "reputable source" has "confirmed" the story. Ayyadurai himself keeps pointing to

Explore some core concepts:

the HuffPo stories as some sort of "vindication" (while hilarious suggesting that I'm being paid off

The Grand Unified Theory On The

by Raytheon..,). He leaves out that these are all blog posts by his friends and partners, put up on

Economics Of Free

the site with no editorial review. Again: every serious look into the history has found that he is not
the inventor of email,

Step One To Embracing A Lack Of Scarcity:
Recognize What Market You're Really In

And that's why it's so damaging to the good reporting that some actual HuffPo reporters dk>, to find

Perhaps It's Not The Entertainment

out that the company wont retract and renounce this series as a PR campaign for a series of

Industry's Business Model That's Outdated

blatantly fraudulent claims -- obvious to anyone who looks at the documentation. Even worse,
read all »

however, is the fact that part of the HuffPo journalism side — HuffPo Live — picked up on the

completely bogus campaign and did a whole fawning interview with Ayyadurai, never once

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presenting the evidence that he's fraudulently misrepresenting basic facts. And, contrary to the
claims from Huffington Post's PR people, the HuffPo Live articles, written by Emily Tess Katz, do
not have any "clarification" -- bogus or not,

|Ve row asked the author of the HuffPo live stories, Emily Tess Katz, multiple times if she still
stands by this story, and she has refused to respond. Journalistic integrity! According to one

report, she had said she stood by it, and then deleted the tweet.

We've talked in the past about the concept of "he said/she said" journalism -- what Journalism

Professor Jay Rosen likes to call "the view from nowhere" - in which journalists feel (incorrectly)
that "being objective" means giving "both sides equal weight and letting the reader decide," That's

Document title: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn't Journalism || Techdirt
Document title: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn't Journalism Techdirt
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140905/10463128432/huffington-post-view-bogustan-standing-behind-blatantly-false-claims-isnt-journalism.shtml
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140905/10463128432/huffington-post-view-bogustan-standing-behind-blatantly-false-claims-isnt-journalism.shtml
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Capture timestamp (UTC): Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:25:33 GMT
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claims from Huffington Post's PR people, the HuffPo Live articles, written by Emily Tess Katz, do
rot have any "clarification" -- bogus or not.

I've now asked the author of the HuffPo live stories, Emily Tess Katz, multiple times if she still

stands by this story, and she has refused to respond. Journalistic integrity! According to one

&

report, she had said she stood by it, and then deleted the tweet,

v r m

WeVe talked in the past about the concept of "he said/she said" journalism -- what Journalism

Professor Jay Rosen likes to call "the view from nowhere" - in which journalists feel (incorrectly)
that "being objective" means giving "both sides equal weight and letting the reader decide," That's

2

bad. Journalism should be about the search for truth.

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The thing that's truly baffling here isn't that HuffPo and HuffPo Live are doing "the view from

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nowhere," but that they're actually actively promoting a lie, It's the view from Bogustan, Rather
than promoting the truth or presenting false balance, Huffington Post is actively claiming that a

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clearly false story is true -- and when presented with reams of evidence on that front, it appears

that the company is simply throwing up its hands and hoping the whole story just blows over.

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Beyond the reporter, I've emailed Huffington Post PR people, and they too, are now refusing to
comment. Meanwhile, some of the company's very good reporters are hanging their heads in
shame,

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My suggestion: perhaps it's time to start looking for a publication to work for that actually takes
journalistic integrity seriously.

littto:J/m ,th e rB g i ste r. co . u k/2 0 1 6J1 2/0 8/wi n te r_i s_c<
time forthe touches and pitchforks, I think.

•* E3 VI C?

b6 Comments | Leave a Comment

Dark Helmet: Touches and pitchforks is my
newfavorite typo win
Jeffrey Nonken: hah.

GET

Well, mobile interface. That's my excuse.

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Vidiot: WaRo article on copyright fight gets it

wrong, of course... ASCAP and MPAA seen as
the Office's only constituents. How about us
citizens instead?

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Maybe Politico could write an article stating that Huffington Post has peaked.
Recent Stories

[ reply to this I link to this I view in chronology ]

Monday
|

Mike C. (profile), 6 Sep 2014

ts

10:11am

>i

1 3:09 Two Former Senators Call Qn Qbama To Save The
Full CIA Torture Report' From Being Bulled (4)

Re: Too late

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

Too late. The whole series has been removed and replaced with the following:

Off Things (13)
10:40 Iran The Latest Country "lb Use "Fake News? As An

Editor's Note

The post that previously appeared in this space

Excuse For Widespread Censorship (10)

part of a bio gger- gene rated series on the history of email

is

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

no loneer available. Readers and media commentators alerted us to factual and sourcins issues in the series and.

Document title: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn&#39;t Journalism || Techdirt
Document title: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn&#39;t Journalism Techdirt
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140905/10463128432/huffington-post-view-bogustan-standing-behind-blatantly-false-claims-isnt-journalism.shtml
Capture URL: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140905/10463128432/huffington-post-view-bogustan-standing-behind-blatantly-false-claims-isnt-journalism.shtml
Capture timestamp (UTC): Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:25:33 GMT
Capture timestamp (UTC): Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:25:33 GMT
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