BLOG RIGHTS

Should people who contribute to a blog have the right to a share of the blog's revenues and/or sales proceeds if it makes money in some way? This is, admittedly, a hypothetical question in the case of this blog. But it is not hypothetical elsewhere in the blogosphere.

The Huffington Post, perhaps the world's most widely read blog, was recently purchased by AOL for the princely sum of US$315 million. It is now being sued in a class action lawsuit by journalist Jonathan Tasini, acting on behalf of all unpaid contributors. Boiling the case down to its essence, he maintains that a large part of the value of HuffPost is the contributions made by readers; so when that value is realised, as it now has been, the contributors should get a proportion of it.

The mechanics of any such share-out would be horrendously complicated; what proportion would go to contributors, and how would the contributors divide it amongst themselves (by comment, by marked comment, by number of fans etc etc)? But assuming these issues could be finessed, there remains the question whether they should get anything at all. I would say no, even though I have myself begun to comment on HuffPost. My reasoning is that commenting is a totally voluntary activity, there is no prior agreement with the blog, which could in any sense be construed as having the characteristics of a contract. When you collect on behalf of a charity - another totally voluntary activity - you don't expect the charity to pay you afterwards for your efforts. Commenting on a blog is essentially the same.

Having said that, the U.S. legal system never ceases to spring surprises. This case will be worth watching.

Walter Blotscher