Hulk Hogan awarded $115 million in Gawker sex tape case

[hrugner]

A public figure acting like a huge racist is in the public's interest. You might not care, I might not care, but its silly to act like the public has no valid place in knowing.

- - - Updated - - -



If he runs around promoting it his claims of reasonable privacy are diminished. Additionally it damages his claim that the release of the tape harms him, as he was perfectly willing to acknowledge its existence without being asked before it being released.

The first bit can be news, you're right. Posting the sex video though wasn't, not even a little bit. They could easily have posted the audio of the racist rant. They could have made a super cut of racism and blanked out the sex. They did they opposite though.

Second point, he didn't "run around promoting it" he acted like he was cool with it when questioned about the topic while at the same time assisting the FBI with a blackmail investigation regarding the tape. The blackmail investigation makes up most of the non-public documents looked at during the case.

So, they could have run a news article, but they didn't. They ran part of some blackmail sex tape footage.

[Wells]

The first bit can be news, you're right. Posting the sex video though wasn't, not even a little bit. They could easily have posted the audio of the racist rant. They could have made a super cut of racism and blanked out the sex. They did they opposite though.

Courts rarely find it appropriate to tell the press how to report on items of public interest, and for good reason.

[SirPiken]

Gawker is a piece of shit company, so i'm glad they are getting this with this.

[hrugner]

Courts rarely find it appropriate to tell the press how to report on items of public interest, and for good reason.

You're right, they just tell them that what they report on is only protected as news if it happens to be of public interest. Since they avoided the part of the tape that was of public interest, they sort of aborted that defense.

[Wells]

You're right, they just tell them that what they report on is only protected as news if it happens to be of public interest. Since they avoided the part of the tape that was of public interest, they sort of aborted that defense.

Hence the appeal, which I suspect will be successful.

[hrugner]

Hence the appeal, which I suspect will be successful.

The appeal is just so everyone involved can continue off shoring cash in preparation. The penalty is unlikely to be reduced. The verdict unlikely to be over turned.
Gawker has been suing the FBI to get files on their investigation of Keith Davidson, the sex leak broker who was investigated, but never charged, though he did appear before a grand jury, which has of course also been made unavailable to the court. He received probation for some other thing in the time frame though. Those files are currently being used by another branch of US law enforcement and are going to stay closed.

So, Hogan gets his verdict. The NSA or the CIA get to keep looking into sex tape trafficking stuff and we'll probably hear about Mr. Denton again when that investigation ends.

I think this is a pretty up to date of everything that the appeals court will get to see that wasn't seen by the lower court.
http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20...0Investigation

They get all the names added back in. The privilege claim being unresolved is why I assume the current investigator isn't federal or state law enforcement.

But what is it you base your suspicion on exactly?

[Deleted]

Hence the appeal, which I suspect will be successful.

You know that the probability of overturning on an appeal is bad right?

- - - Updated - - -

You're right, they just tell them that what they report on is only protected as news if it happens to be of public interest. Since they avoided the part of the tape that was of public interest, they sort of aborted that defense.

I must admit i don't remember the exact nature of this case (i never watched the tape) - but aren't the sex tape and the recording of him saying some mean things about his daughters current girlfriend, unrelated?

[hrugner]

You know that the probability of overturning on an appeal is bad right?

- - - Updated - - -



I must admit i don't remember the exact nature of this case (i never watched the tape) - but aren't the sex tape and the recording of him saying some mean things about his daughters current girlfriend, unrelated?

Yes and no. Hogan isn't suing Gawker over the racist rant thing, though investigating his case did prompt investigation over whether or not Gawker leaked the racist rant to defame Hogan before the trial.

Gawker on the other hand is attempting to frame the trial as being entirely about the racist rant and that Hogan somehow coerced the FBI into stopping the distribution of the racist rant and then attempted to sue Gawker to scare them away from publishing the racist rant.

The rant supposedly appears on one of the 3 DVDs mentioned, but it doesn't match what's happening in the video, Gawker is claiming the FBI tampered with it, Hogan's attourney is saying it was always like that and was inserted by the blackmailer as part of his manipulation. It is something that Hogan knew was on the recording when he attempted to confirm it's authenticity with the blackmailer during the sting.

I didn't watch the video though. I'm honestly not sure where you'd find it. I doubt I'd watch it regardless.

[JohnBrown1917]

I wonder how many defending Gawker also agreed with them on what they said on the fappening.

[Pony Soldier]

I'm happy for him. He's has been going through so much ever since his divorce. It's nice to see something good happen to him for once. I remember seeing a documentary on TV about him and what he's dealing with after the divorce and it was horrible. The wife took almost everything from him. The house looked like an empty warehouse. There was a time where he was so depressed he was about to shoot himself in the head. Thanks to someone knocking at his door he didn't, thankfully, and it turned his life around. He was also broke. I forget exactly what happened, it's been a while since I seen this but I think the wife also took most of his money leaving him with basically nothing so he had to sell a bunch of his personal items just to make some money. He also talked with the WWE to see if he can come back for a while to make some money despite his body condition (which is terrible btw). Then on top of all that shit he has to take SO MANY meds because of his bad knees and back. He said there were times where he could hardly walk.

This is why I have a lot of respect for this guy. I don't care what he did on camera because after watching what he had to go through and the terrible shit his ex wife did to him during the divorce, I really couldn't care less.

[Simulacrum]

I told you so.

...Gawker’s constitutional right to publish content the public wants to consume outweighs what little privacy interests a public figure like Hogan may derive from state law. ...

That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. By that logic, nobody has any right to privacy as long as enough people care about their private life.

Shit, it means revenge porn perfectly fine as long as enough people have fapped to it.

[Deleted]

That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. By that logic, nobody has any right to privacy as long as enough people care about their private life.

Shit, it means revenge porn perfectly fine as long as enough people have fapped to it.

My ex girlfriend has said in public she gives great head - It clearly cant be revenge porn then.

[Wells]

That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. By that logic, nobody has any right to privacy as long as enough people care about their private life.

Shit, it means revenge porn perfectly fine as long as enough people have fapped to it.

Well, no, that's not strictly speaking the argument. A right to privacy doesn't ban reporting on matters of public interest, even if that matter is "private" or embarrassing. Revenge porn doesn't meet that standard.

[Sosoulsu]

^Response to being #rekt

[Deleted]

^Response to being #rekt

I thought it was a response to your argument being that grip on reality is inversely proportional to post count.

By which standard, I should know, being barely insane yet.