Gawker Pays $750,000 To That Guy Who Didn't Invent Email (gizmodo.com) 121
Shiva Ayyadurai still claims he invented email -- rather than the late ARPANET pioneer Ray Tomlinson. Now Gizmodo reports that Ayyadurai "will receive a $750,000 settlement from Gawker Media, the bankrupt publisher that he sued for defamation earlier this year."
As part of the settlement, Gawker Media has agreed to delete three stories from the archive of Gawker.com, including one about Ayyadurai. Univision, which purchased most of Gawker Media's assets [including Gizmodo] out of bankruptcy in September, deleted two Gizmodo posts concerning Ayyadurai -- over the objections of the editorial staff -- immediately after closing the transaction... The offending Gizmodo articles made the case that "a lot of people don't believe that Ayyadurai invented email," and that "networked communication actually predates [his] computer program by a few years." As Tomlinson told Gizmodo in one of the stories Ayyadurai succeeded in getting unpublished, the email formats that are so familiar today -- to:, from:, etc. -- were in use years before Ayyadurai "invented" them.
The third post was titled, "If Fran Drescher Read Gizmodo She Would Not Have Married This Fraud."
The third post was titled, "If Fran Drescher Read Gizmodo She Would Not Have Married This Fraud."
Where's my $750K (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't invent email either.
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Email? I didn't invent a lot of things that are a lot more impressive than email!
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Hillary wishes nobody invented email.
Maybe she can borrow that time machine Obama allegedly used to change his birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper.
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Don't be silly. We used it to kill that terrible man Aaabassir.
Never heard of him? That's right... we killed him long ago. Ha.
The side effect was we had this last election where everybody didn't want either of them.
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/me too
where do I sign up?
If every US citizen that didn't invent email gets $750,000 the economy would be booming.
And if we all paid tax on it, that would make up for Trump not paying taxes for the last umpteen years
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And if we all paid tax on it, that would make up for Trump not paying taxes for the last umpteen years
Or it would make up for a single day of taxes not paid by Apple.
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And if we all paid tax on it, that would make up for Trump not paying taxes for the last umpteen years
And if we all were smart and used the tax laws correctly, none of us would be paying more in taxes than Donald did, either.
Unless you have actual evidence of fraudulent tax returns (and don't you think IRS would be all over this by now if there were?) then your beef is with the law, not the people who obey the law and wind up not paying what you think they should in taxes.
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I didn't invent email either.
No, I did.
No, I did.
No, I did.
Re:i dont know (Score:5, Interesting)
The case is pretty simple. The RFCs that created the Arpanet email infrastructure that modern Internet email is built in were developed years before this fraud.
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> The RFCs that created the Arpanet email infrastructure that modern Internet email is built in were developed years before this fraud.
I'd say 'described' rather than 'created'.
Depending on what you consider email [nethistory.info], it was going strong in the 70s and there were proto-email systems back in the 60s, whereas Postel's email RFC is from 1982 [ietf.org].
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The case is pretty simple. The RFCs that created the Arpanet email infrastructure that modern Internet email is built in were developed years before this fraud.
Proper vocal communication was developed centuries before Fran Drescher was born, but that certainly doesn't stop her from attempting to convert nails on a chalkboard into some form of language.
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Who let the bots out? This one needs a better bottish-to-english translator.
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Re:Gawker was garbage (Score:4, Funny)
Except bat boy has no tort, .
Hey, we don't need that sort of language here. Kids could be reading this page. At least use the medical term for batboy's body parts.
Re:Gawker was garbage (Score:5, Funny)
I don't get it. Who wants to see a sex tape of the guy who didn't invent email?
No wonder they went bankrupt.
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Not any more - they barely last two years together.
Re: Gawker was garbage (Score:1)
If she has a speaking role, I think I'd rather it only have the guy in it...
Re: Gawker was garbage (Score:1)
Don't most sex tapes feature people that didn't invent email? It's obviously a common fetish.
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Rule #34 definitely applies. If there is the category of "someone who didn't invent email", there is porn featuring that group of people.
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I've got all the Ray Tomlinson sex tapes as animated gifs.
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Pffft! I have them as ASCII art. A thousand frames to a file. Hold down the PageDown button, and watch the action. ;^)
A sample. https://vice-images.vice.com/i... [vice.com]
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In 2012, an enterprising young Gizmodo blogger published the story of Shiva Ayyadurai, an MIT lecturer and renowned liar who pretends he invented email. Today, he adds another achievement to the resume, marrying Fran Drescher. Fran, you fucked up
What is falsifiable here exactly? Let's go through it :
The enterprising-ness is just a matter of opinion. It's true that they published something about Ayyadurai, perhaps not the whole of his story (I guess it didn't describe his birth for example, or how he sits on the shitter) but an interesting part of it; this is a reasonable use of the term "story".
True
True. He certainly is a liar to make that claim, and he is renowned in that many people have heard that claim and know it as a lie. I already
YUGELY sad story and a few predictions (Score:1)
I say it's a YUGELY sad story because freedom of speech is a good thing. Yes, Gawker pushed the line, but we if we are going to make errors about the lines around freedom of speech, we ABSOLUTELY should err on the side of MORE speech. We absolutely should NOT allow rich bastards to abuse the system because they can afford to hire lots of lawyers and support lots of lawsuits. Now to the predictions...
I predict you think the notion of blind justice has become a sick joke. Regardless of where you are on the id
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Forgot one more prediction. I predict a serious lack of funny or insightful comments on Slashdot. Or does that even qualify as a prediction since it's just a description of the status quo?
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You couldn't be more wrong. First of all, the executive does not get to make new laws, unless you count the executive orders that go beyond the scope of existing law. They eventually wil
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I agree that they would be champing at the bit for that opportunity. Same as if it were any Republican President. The problem is that unless there are 67 votes in the Senate that would refuse to block such a nominee, it won't matter an iota. I cannot see the Democrats sitting on their hands over that one.
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A little bit confusing here, but I'm trying to separate out the parts from fuzznuts.
On one hand, I actually think we are in agreement on the theory of how the Constitution is supposed to work. On the other hand, I think your naivete is touching.
The theory and practice of government are always separated. There are so many examples I really don't know where to begin, but I think the best is probably Dubya's signing statements, even though they never achieved the infamy they deserved. As far as I know, none of
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I think I am the OP you [fuzznutz] are referring to based on the subject line, but mostly I feel like you are demonstrating Nicholas Carr's thesis in The Shallows . Stretching hard to fit your comments to my recent comments...
On the opening topic, it doesn't matter what you want to call it as long as the executive branch treats it as law and the courts and Congress fail to make it stop. I'm inclined to approach things from a historical perspective, but seems unlikely to apply based on anything you've writt
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Dude, you're way off. I remember Nixon and the endless televised hearings over ALL THREE channels on our black and white console TV. He engendered the type of universal dislike from both sides of the aisle that a President Trump will have. Trump wouldn't be able to fart without a Congressional investigation. Hillary may be the same though. I expect the animo
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Of course Hillary's success/failure will depend on the balance in Congress, which with its usual 95% reelection rate probably won't change much. But if by chance the dems reacquire a majority, there won't be much investigation of anything. Conversely same goes for Trump with a republican congress. (But he's not going to win anyway) Besides that, they have enough skeletons in their closets to keep them from doing real harm. Hillary's people can take them down too. Notice how they let Nixon off the hook for a
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You hit the nail on the head. During the primaries, only Chris Christie and Bernie Sanders ever bothered to answer the questions that were asked. Every other candidate would ramble off on some subject that only indirectly had anything to do with the issue at hand. Whether you like them or not, at
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It's utterly disgusting.
Regular machine politics that exploits natural animal cravings. I would like to think we'll evolve out of it, but it's so rewarding that it looks doubtful. It's a reminder that the cortex serves the brain stem.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
ZZ
Trolling out in public now? (Score:1)
To be expected
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^3
This guy is stalking me (Score:1)
I guess this is what trolls do
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^4
Help! I'm being stalked by a sex fiend! (Score:1)
I feel so helpless...
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^5
Oh my god! You're a creepy dude! (Score:1)
People, take note of this...
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^6
This guy is deeply disturbed (Score:1)
Somebody take his gun away
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^7
Confirmed once again (Score:1)
He's an 'expat' for a reason. Who's he running from?
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^8
That's okay, you have been nailed... (Score:1)
Good to see you finally hit the wall in the other thread [slashdot.org]...
I don't mind being your soft target. I want them to see the real you
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^9
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My apologies for apparently underestimating your [fuzznutz's] age, but you really do write in a remarkably naive way. Perhaps your memory works in a funny way, whereas perhaps I have studied too much history?
So let me pose a question in your new framing: Exactly how were Nixon or Reagan held to account for their criminal activities?
I would say Reagan not at all, and many people even revere him to this day, though I would be unable to point at a single positive accomplishment that he earned primary credit fo
RFC 733 and 561 (1977 and 1973) (Score:5, Informative)
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rf... [ietf.org]
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rf... [ietf.org]
These pretty much cover this...
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To be fair though, RFCs aren't software. If I write an RFC defining how software to teleport beer should work that is one thing, but actually writing the software and making it work is another matter.
I have no idea what this guys claim is/was; the summary implies though that he actually made some software. But there's a difference between having an idea and actually building something.
And knowing gawker was involved it's easy to imagine they're being dicks about it just for the sake of being dicks. I could
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The RFCs in question are proposals to formalise the protocols used in software that already existed at the time. The first ARPANET email was sent in 1971. Two years later, RFC 561 proposed that the set headers in use should be considered the "standard" so that people could communicate even if they were using different email clients. There were 3 more RFCs relating to the same protocol, until the final one, RFC 733 from 1977.
The software existed first, then the RFCs.
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The question becomes - was this the first full-fledged implementation of the RFCs and was it the first to be commonly referred to that way? It seems dubious, but this guy is not patent trolling. He's merely trying to make sure his place in history is noted.
Honestly I don't feel good about him getting a settl
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No, it was not the first full-fledged implementation of the RFCs. It was simply the first electronic mail system to use the specific term "Email". That's it. That's his entire claim.
The RFCs were a reflection of the programs in use, not the other way around.
Ayyandurai has a reasonable claim that he coined the term "Email" (even though there was a newsletter out by then that used the term "electronic mail"), and by creating an office email system at age 14, he also has a reasonable claim to being a pretty aw
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I look at RFCs kind of like patents. They formally describe methods, behaviors, research, or innovations of something related to the internet. They let everyone know of an idea so that everyone implementing that idea has a basis for things to work together. And they allow people to build upon those ideas in cre
But he did .... perhaps. (Score:3)
Read his claims carefully. If you consider use of a database critical to email then he did invent email.
Before anyone criticizes me, the above is humour. Yes, everyone outside of Microsoft realizes that use of a database is not necessary for email.
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But a database isn't critical to email. I was using unindexed mbox format mail systems into the mid-1990s, and because of those rules on header structure laid out in RFCs from early on, it isn't that hard to write a fairly fast in memory indexer for an mbox file.
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Re:But he did .... perhaps. (Score:5, Funny)
Did you hear that "whoosh" sound?
I don't think his mail program supports that.
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Yes, everyone outside of Microsoft realizes that use of a database is not necessary for email.
You forgot about Lotus Notes...
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Yes, everyone outside of Microsoft realizes that use of a database is not necessary for email.
You forgot about Lotus Notes...
We are *all* trying to forget about Lotus Notes :-)
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I didn't invent a lot of things (Score:2)
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I didn't invent a lot of things. Where's my $750,000?
Contact Ayyadurai and say you did not invent it before he did. He will be delighted to pass it over to the right person.
History of Email (Score:1)
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Yeah. But this is a clear case of taking some technology in the public domain and patenting it by appending "using the Internet".
I know. E-mail wasn't patented. But in this sense, Ayyadurai isn't even as bad as Apple with it's rounded corners. He's just practicing something akin to stolen valor. And in this case, a kid banging some code out isn't particularly heroic, even if it was novel at the time. He should have just built a digital clock in a pencil case if he wanted attention.
Symptom of a larger disease? (Score:2)
Was it a case of Gawker believing their own premise (and that of many other people in the media) that revisionist history is always right and reparations must be made?
Streisand effect... (Score:2)
Gawker Pays Guy Who Didn't Invent Email and (Score:2)
Married Fran Drescher.
When did Slashdot start using madlibs for headlines?
curso NR 10 (Score:1)
Re:It went beyond debunking (Score:5, Funny)
the site bullied people beyond what could be considered reasonable.
Because everyone knows we only want reasonable bullying.
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the site bullied people beyond what could be considered reasonable.
Because everyone knows we only want reasonable bullying.
Often, that is what 'news' businesses do.
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the site bullied people beyond what could be considered reasonable.
Because everyone knows we only want reasonable bullying.
Often, that is what 'news' businesses do.
Especially when they let out some truth. In this post-truth age, that is unforgiveable.
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I will be presenting evidence.
You need a newsletter, or at least regular guesting on any show Glen Beck runs.
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Why, is Beck one of those anti-Jewish nutjobs?
Oh, Mr Beck is shall we say, kind of entertaining. Crying, yelling, and willing to believe and promote some really strange stuff.
Used to have a show on Fox News. Eventually he got a little too crazy for them. Note - I don't think he is necessarily anti-jewish, but he is wayyyy out there.
Recommended biz plan (Score:2)
Here's a business plan you could use to keep your bank account full: have it translated into Arabic, Farsi, Turkish and Urdu, and have it distributed all over the Middle East. There is no shortage of Jew-hating fanatics who'll gladly lap it all up, hook, line & sinker. In fact, you would do even better to make it a newsletter and add to the number of things they did in 9/11 w/ each succeeding edition
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They harassed him and tried to ruin his life. Hence why there is no more Gawker, the site bullied people beyond what could be considered reasonable.
Exactly. Obviously people dislike the guy for falsely claiming to have invented email, but that isn't what Univision is paying for. They're paying for having published weasel words that added up to secret evidence. They might have just been attempting to be snarky, but when you're publishing insults and shit designed to damage the reputation of somebody, you have to make sure you follow very narrow rules to protect yourself. It doesn't matter if the general thrust of what you're saying is true if you heap o
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Obviously people dislike the guy for falsely claiming to have invented email
I think you'll find the 99.9% of people have a complete indifference of vast proportions. It's not as if he's levying a fee on every email. No one cares. When the history books a written they'll say, like the do for so many other inventions, that there are competing claims to being the inventor and they all built upon existing inventions. Which claim you believe makes very little difference to anything.
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They harassed him and tried to ruin his life. Hence why there is no more Gawker, the site bullied people...
Oh so it's bullying when its the truth that he doesn't want anyone to hear... but when it's a falsehood that he wants to spread, it's 'news'. Is that how it works??? This is Donald Trump isn't it? Come on... admit it. ;)
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