HuffPo: Blogger wrote for fame, not money

Lawyers for The Huffington Post on Friday moved to dismiss Jonathan Tasini’s lawsuit that claims the news website owes money to its unpaid bloggers, paidContent reported.

The HuffPo says Tasini wrote for the website for fame and exposure to larger audiences, not for money. The site, created by Arianna Huffington, also pointed out that Tasini and the HuffPo had a written agreement: the sites terms and conditions, which give the website the right to publish content from its bloggers without paying them. In all, Tasini wrote more than 200 items for the website, knowing he was doing so for no monetary compensation.

paidContent noted that the judge may give Tasini a chance to amend his complaint. Tasini has also hinted in the past that other HuffPo bloggers may come forward.

Tasini filed the US$105 million lawsuit after AOL paid $315 million for the HuffPo, stating that the site’s bloggers (there are more than 9,000) are what made the website worth buying in the first place.

“TheHuffingtonPost.com has been unjustly enriched by engaging in and continuing to engage in the practice of generating enormous profits by luring carefully-vetted contributors, with the prospect of ‘exposure'…” part of his complaint reads.

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