Hulk Hogan & Peter Thiel v. Gawker

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Jorge]

Gawker Media is more than just Gawker the gossip site. They've put up a lot of great writing over the years. I have friends who write for Gawker sites. They've done some gross things, especially Gawker dot com. The Peter Thiel thing is inexcusable. But they filed for bankruptcy today, and I can't help feel a little sad.

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[BurtReynolds]

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[BurtReynolds]

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[BurtReynolds]

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[BurtReynolds]

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[Green Habit]

Gawker Media is more than just Gawker the gossip site. They've put up a lot of great writing over the years. I have friends who write for Gawker sites. They've done some gross things, especially Gawker dot com. The Peter Thiel thing is inexcusable. But they filed for bankruptcy today, and I can't help feel a little sad.

Kotaku, io9, Deadspin are all great. Lifehacker and Jezebel are mixed.

Deadspin's the only one that I can find interesting, and even then it's a bit hit or miss.

[Green Habit]

...Thiel bankrolling lawsuits just to settle an unrelated personal vendetta is a dangerous perversion of justice.

I don't have a problem with this. I mean, obviously our justice system is a joke where money talks, but thats a far bigger problem.

I know what you're trying to say, but these two sentences read to me as exact opposites of each other.

[BurtReynolds]

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[LoathedVermin72]

I'll give you a problem.

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[BurtReynolds]

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[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Green Habit]

Thiel just wrote an op-ed on this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/opini ... eft-region

I still say his proposed solution violates the First Amendment--especially when applied to third parties as Gawker. Here's the text of the bill he's supporting (bolded mine):

http://speier.house.gov/images/pdf/IPPA_Final.pdf

Whoever knowingly uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or electronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to distribute a visual depiction of a person who is identifiable from the image itself or information displayed in connection with the image and who is engaging in sexually explicit conduct, or of the naked genitals or post-pubescent female nipple of a person, with reckless disregard for the person’s lack of consent to the distribution, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

There are four affirmative defenses, the only non-trivial one of which is the third: "This section shall not apply in the case of a visual depiction, the disclosure of which is in the bona fide public interest." But the First Amendment should not allow the law to determine what is a "bona fide public interest". And back to what what I bolded, how you define "reckless disregard" is also questionable.

I think in order for something like this to pass constitutional muster, you have to do two things:
--Limit it to behavior intended to harass.
--Make it content neutral, and not content-based toward sex and nudity.

(As an aside, I find the mention of "post-pubescent female nipple" laughable. One reason is as if censoring only the nipple really makes much of a difference. But the other is that distinguishing between the male and female nipples in general should bring into question Equal Protection Clause problems--but that's a debate for another day.)

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Green Habit]

"Intended to harass" is tougher for me to pin down; "intended to incite" might be more inclusive of the subject of a given story (e.g. Gawker wasn't trying to harass Hogan, but rather trying to incite web traffic with a salacious story).

Restricting inciting only passes First Amendment muster if it's inciting meant to create "imminent lawless action".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Green Habit]

Possibly circular logic here, but if the Intimate Privacy Protection Act passes, wouldn't that mean that articles of this ilk are inherently lawless?

Possibly--as I said, the First Amendment is designed so the government shouldn't be allowed to decide which expressions are "inherently lawless."

I suppose I'm out of my element here. But I'm still team Thiel.

I think it's fine to be Team Thiel in the sense that those who seek to expose people's intimate matters without their consent should be shamed and condemned, and also be Team Gawker in the sense that this shouldn't be legally actionable.

I should also add that the act Gawker committed that got Thiel so pissed off at them in the first place (outing) is an act that, while morally evil in the current societal atmosphere, is also an act that almost everyone would agree is constitutionally protected.