By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Unpaid bloggers have lost their
bid to get an appeals court to restore a lawsuit contending AOL
Inc owes them a cut of the $315 million it spent last year to
buy The Huffington Post.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in New York rejected on Wednesday claims that the
bloggers deserved $105 million of the deal's purchase price.
The bloggers, who included social activist and commentator
Jonathan Tasini, had claimed they were tricked into supplying
free content to the news and opinion website.
They had argued that they gave free content to The
Huffington Post on the understanding it would be provided as a
public service and wouldn't be sold to a larger media
organization.
The case had sought class-action status on behalf of 9,000
unpaid contributors to the website, which was founded in 2005.
It was dismissed in March by Manhattan U.S. District Judge John
Koeltl.
The 2nd Circuit said there was "no basis" for the bloggers'
argument. The court said bloggers were well aware that The
Huffington Post was for-profit and understood "they would
receive compensation only in the form of exposure and
promotion."
While the court said it was "no doubt a great disappointment
to find that The Huffington Post did not live up to the ideals
plaintiffs ascribed to it," the panel said the bloggers had made
no allegations that would support a case for restitution.
"We have always believed this case had no merit, and are
pleased that the 2nd Circuit Court agreed with us," said Rhoades
Alderson, a spokesman for The Huffington Post.
Valeria Calafiore Healy, a lawyer for the bloggers, said the
appeals court "showed much more sympathy for the journalists'
position" than Judge Koeltl, "but wasn't willing to find the
district court abused its discretion."
"That doesn't mean that what HuffPo did was right - it
wasn't," she said in a statement.
The case is Tasini v. AOL Inc, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, No. 12-1428.
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