Kemo
03-13-2016, 03:26 AM
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Yesterday (Friday, March 11th) was probably the most mundane day for testimony so far in the trial of Terry Gene Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, v. Gawker Media, Nick Denton, and A.J. Daulerio. As the final witnesses of Bollea/Hogan’s case, “digital marketing expert” Shanti Shunn and “intellectual property valuation expert” Jeff Anderson weren’t especially compelling, both in terms of capturing your attention and strengthening the plaintiff’s case. Both were badly picked apart by Gawker attorney Michael Berry, who got Shunn to acknowledge that he wasn’t sure about what some of Gawker’s traffic statistics represented and Berry to agree that his methods for determining how the “Hulk Hogan sex tape” post increase the value of the Gawker.com website. It felt like there could have been much better ways to prove the same point, with Anderson’s methodology coming off especially nebulous.
That said there was some probable damage to Gawker and Daulerio, as Hogan’s lawyers read a 2010 email exchange between Daulerio and a young woman who was in a video Gawker had posted showing her having sex in a public restroom stall. She begged them to take it down for obvious reasons, but Daulerio replied that “It’s not getting taken down. I’ve said that. And it’s not a very serious matter. It is a dumb mistake you (or whomever) made while drunk in college. Happens to the best of us.” He also claimed it was impossible to identify the people in the video, but the woman countered that anyone who knew them could easily tell. In January 2011, Daulerio told GQ that he regretted his actions. “It wasn’t funny. It was possibly rape. […] I didn’t really look at the thing close enough to realize there’s maybe something a little more sinister going on here and a little more disturbing.”
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After the Terry Bollea/Hulk Hogan side rested their case and the jury was excused for the weekend, Gawker moved for a directed verdict in their favor on most of the counts in the case, which the judge quickly denied. As a layman, it did sound like they had some compelling arguments, but a directed verdict is rare. They have to try, though. At one point, when the various issues of “public concern” were brought up, Bollea attorney Kenneth Turkel cited Toffoloni v. LFP Publishing Group, which happens to have its own pro wrestling connections, as precedent. That’s the case where Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, Nancy Benoit’s parents, sued the parent company of Hustler over nude images of her that were published after she was murdered by her husband, Chris Benoit. Contrary to popular belief, Nancy never asked the man who shot the video to destroy it (it’s MUCH more complicated than that), so the case centered around the issue of “right of publicity.” Eventually, the precedent was set that, in layman’s terms, an article about the person’s life is not a blanket justification for nude images to be reprinted without permission.
Gawker starts presenting their case Monday morning after a hearing dealing with outside motions from:
Bubba Clem attempting to get out of testifying.
News organizations regarding the identities of the jurors deciding this case.
The hearing starts at 8:30 a.m. ET, with Gawker beginning to present their case afterwards.
Yesterday (Friday, March 11th) was probably the most mundane day for testimony so far in the trial of Terry Gene Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, v. Gawker Media, Nick Denton, and A.J. Daulerio. As the final witnesses of Bollea/Hogan’s case, “digital marketing expert” Shanti Shunn and “intellectual property valuation expert” Jeff Anderson weren’t especially compelling, both in terms of capturing your attention and strengthening the plaintiff’s case. Both were badly picked apart by Gawker attorney Michael Berry, who got Shunn to acknowledge that he wasn’t sure about what some of Gawker’s traffic statistics represented and Berry to agree that his methods for determining how the “Hulk Hogan sex tape” post increase the value of the Gawker.com website. It felt like there could have been much better ways to prove the same point, with Anderson’s methodology coming off especially nebulous.
That said there was some probable damage to Gawker and Daulerio, as Hogan’s lawyers read a 2010 email exchange between Daulerio and a young woman who was in a video Gawker had posted showing her having sex in a public restroom stall. She begged them to take it down for obvious reasons, but Daulerio replied that “It’s not getting taken down. I’ve said that. And it’s not a very serious matter. It is a dumb mistake you (or whomever) made while drunk in college. Happens to the best of us.” He also claimed it was impossible to identify the people in the video, but the woman countered that anyone who knew them could easily tell. In January 2011, Daulerio told GQ that he regretted his actions. “It wasn’t funny. It was possibly rape. […] I didn’t really look at the thing close enough to realize there’s maybe something a little more sinister going on here and a little more disturbing.”
8IkyyU4YTAo
After the Terry Bollea/Hulk Hogan side rested their case and the jury was excused for the weekend, Gawker moved for a directed verdict in their favor on most of the counts in the case, which the judge quickly denied. As a layman, it did sound like they had some compelling arguments, but a directed verdict is rare. They have to try, though. At one point, when the various issues of “public concern” were brought up, Bollea attorney Kenneth Turkel cited Toffoloni v. LFP Publishing Group, which happens to have its own pro wrestling connections, as precedent. That’s the case where Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, Nancy Benoit’s parents, sued the parent company of Hustler over nude images of her that were published after she was murdered by her husband, Chris Benoit. Contrary to popular belief, Nancy never asked the man who shot the video to destroy it (it’s MUCH more complicated than that), so the case centered around the issue of “right of publicity.” Eventually, the precedent was set that, in layman’s terms, an article about the person’s life is not a blanket justification for nude images to be reprinted without permission.
Gawker starts presenting their case Monday morning after a hearing dealing with outside motions from:
Bubba Clem attempting to get out of testifying.
News organizations regarding the identities of the jurors deciding this case.
The hearing starts at 8:30 a.m. ET, with Gawker beginning to present their case afterwards.