Four new plaintiffs have joined Jonathan Tasini in a lawsuit against The Huffington Post to demand compensation for unpaid bloggers, Forbes reported today.Journalist and labour organiser Tasini has also added 30 pages of material to his US$105 million lawsuit against HuffPo and its founders; however nothing in the new documentation is a “smoking gun” that will help judgment to come down on Tasini's side, a paidContent article stated.
The new plaintiffs are journalist Billy Altman, filmmaker Molly Secours, marketing expert Richard Laermer and writer Tara Dublin. All four stopped contributing to the site within the first two months of the year. Having the additional plaintiffs could help Tasini in his effort to gain class certification, after which the courts will “test his somewhat novel legal theory that Huffington's treatment of her bloggers constitutes unjust enrichment,” Forbes noted.
However, the fact that just four more plaintiffs have come forward and not more “suggests that bloggers aren't exactly outraged over the way they were treated,” paidContent countered.
In late May, HuffPo lawyers moved that the case be dismissed, claiming Tasini wrote for fame and exposure to larger audiences, not for money. In all, he wrote more than 200 pieces for the website, knowing he was doing so for no monetary compensation.
Tasini filed the $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.
Image: Tasini, via Wikipedia
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