Guy Who Didn't Invent Email Sues Gawker For Pointing Out He Didn't Invent Email (techdirt.com) 91
Mike Masnick, reporting for TechDirt: Oh boy. Remember Shiva Ayyadurai? The guy who has gone to great lengths to claim that he "invented email," when the reality is that he appears to have (likely independently) written an early implementation of email long after others had actually "invented email." In the past we've called out examples where gullible press have fallen for his easily debunked claims, but he keeps popping back up. The mainstream press repeated his bogus claims about inventing email after he married a TV star. And, most recently, he decided to scream at the press for memorializing Ray Tomlinson -- someone who actually did have a hand in creating email -- upon his death. [...] We, of course, have not been alone in debunking his claims. Back in 2012, a few weeks after we first debunked them, Gawker's Sam Biddle did a long and thorough takedown of Ayyadurai's claims. Apparently that story really angers Ayyadurai, and I'm guessing that seeing Hulk Hogan win his crazy lawsuit against Gawker helped Ayyadurai to decide to sue Gawker as well.
Just wanted to point out... (Score:1)
that I'll sue anyone who prints that I didn't date Jennifer Anniston.
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that I'll sue anyone who prints that I didn't date Jennifer Anniston.
You didn't date Jennifer Anniston! :)
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But maybe the poster really did date a woman named Jennifer Anniston (with two n's) who is constantly annoyed by people asking if she starred in Friends.
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that I'll sue anyone who prints that I didn't date Jennifer Anniston.
That's nothing....I'll sue anyone who claims they're not suing me.
I didn't invent email either. how much can I get? (Score:2)
and who do I sue, The Connected Internet?
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Anonymous Coward didn't date Jennifer Anniston.
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He's already punished himself (Score:5, Funny)
The celebrity wife in question is Fran Drescher.
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Just like Gilbert Gottfried, that isn't her real voice.
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*sigh*
Again a bogus summary? They say something about a "TV star".
Fuck, editors, can't you get anything right?
Crazy? (Score:1)
Wait, why was Hulk's lawsuit crazy?
Jesus Fucking Christ (Score:2)
Jesus Christ, this fucking asshole again? His claims were utterly decimated before, and now he wants to try to make the claim again.
For the fucking record, you pathetic worthless fraud, if there was any single inventor of modern email, then it was Roy Tomlinson.
Re:Jesus Fucking Christ (Score:5, Funny)
His claims were utterly decimated before, .
They were reduced by 1/10th?
Re:Jesus Fucking Christ (Score:4, Interesting)
Ahem, the Romans were killing their own; it was punishment for a legion's failure in battle - akin to the modern "the beatings will continue until morale improves"...
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And what is the definition of "it's" if I might ask?
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Yes, for those who were in the 1/10th of the people killed, it was in fact a huge deal!
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Doctor Who used it when the Master told the Toclafane to decimate the population. So they duly killed 1/10 of humanity. That episode got plaudits for correct usage of English. That illiterate dolts assume it means "destroy nearly all" it is immaterial, unless you also consider "irregardless" to be a valid word.
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Ladies and gentleman... the etymological fallacy.
Or, as I like to call it, cocaine for pedants.
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Doctor Who used it when the Master told the Toclafane to decimate the population.
The fact that you cite a Doctor Who episode makes for a really convincing argument. That's simply not what it means to most people these days. A few years ago I read that US English was closer to proper English than what is spoken in the UK these days. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I know I've had a little trouble with the slang when I've been there on more than one occasion.
I do chuckle anytime I hear the term "irregardless" used. According to Wikipedia, it was first used in print in 1795. I've read
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And even if it was, "decimated" doesn't strictly mean 1/10th.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries... [oxforddictionaries.com]
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Given that the "shitty offshoot separatist colonial dialect" is closer to what the English USED to sound like than today's "English" accent, it's YOU who should be apologizing for screwing up the English language.
http://the-toast.net/2014/03/1... [the-toast.net]
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So a line from a British show written by a Briton and starring Britons for a British audience isn't a good example of correct English?
No it's not. How about "timey wimey"? That was also used in the show you mentioned. While it was certainly very funny, it doesn't lend much credence to Doctor Who being a paragon of the correct use of English.
Stop inflicting your shitty offshoot separatist colonial dialect on me saying that I, as a native, am wrong about what is correct in *my* language.
If you really want to go down that road, fine. I'll be happy to stop. Just as soon as you pay back this "shitty offshoot separatist colony" for bailing you out of two world wars. Oh, and for all of the shit in the middle east for the last 100 years, since your stupid-ass ancestors decided to carve it
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We did pay you back. It took us until 1999 so I'll add usurious to the list.
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But it has, insomuch as dictionary definitions do not restrict the word in the way you do. From Webster's:
Full Definition of decimate
decimateddecimating
transitive verb
1
: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2
: to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3
a : to reduce drastically especially in number
b : to cause great destruction or harm to
decimation play \de-s-m-shn\ noun
Oxford even has a blog on it: http://blog.oxforddictionaries... [oxforddictionaries.com]
Or, to put it very simply, you're just plain wrong.
Re: Jesus Fucking Christ (Score:2, Informative)
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Because the length of rope is insufficient for a good hanging.
Conflicted (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: Conflicted (Score:1)
I saw Gawker quoted in the fricking Economist this week. It might be too late, but they still need to be reduced to a smoking hole in the ground.
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Newsflash (Score:2)
Guy who can't do jack shit tries to stay in the limelight by insane claims and publicity stunts.
Wait, is that one of the Kadashians?
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Life is short (Score:3)
Do NOT feed the troll, remember?
Two words (Score:3)
Tort Reform. Why is it that none of the presidential candidates are talking about this and neither is the media?
Re: Two words (Score:1)
It's possible tort reform could become an agenda item on a Trump platform. He's not a fucking lawyer like most politicians.
Re: Two words (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the number of frivolous lawsuits Trump has initiated [fortune.com], I'm thinking tort reform won't be at the top of his list either.
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It would need to be done at multiple levels. Reform at the federal level is fine, but each of the states has their own laws as well. At least that is my understanding.
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Just because someone announces they are going to sue, doesn't mean it is going to go somewhere. Civil lawsuits are pretty much the only way for private citizens to go against large companies and have a remote chance of hurting the company. "Tort reform is the large companies trying to making fighting them impossible or not worth the effort. Meditation in the terms and condition of every product and service imaginable along with using lobbyists and P.R. to get news like this in the press in order to make "to
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Totally missing the big picture. The mere threat of a lawsuit requires that you have rather expensive liability insurance and a legal team on retainer. Big bucks. In addition, the standard practice is to settle out of court without any proof of guilt to make it go away because of the specter of bad publicity. All of that costs a lot of money and has to be built into the cost of doing business.
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Well, actually, just about anyone can file papers. You're right that to have a hope of hell of winning, you generally need a pretty good lawyer, but there's no particular expertise required to filing the paperwork.
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Because "tort reform" is the smokescreen corporations put on their efforts to limit their class-action liability via legislation and incomplete stories of outrageous sums awarded to an old lady for spilling coffee on her lap, or a burglar for falling through the skylight of the home he was breaking into, or an attempted suicide failing to be killed by a train he intentionally jumped in front of. Almost every time you read one of those stories, there's salient information not being included.
What's with the other claims? (Score:2)
He holds four degrees from MIT (where he lectures), numerous patents, honors, and awards. He also says he invented email, and there's a global conspiracy against him. Guess which one of these statements is true.
Uh... okay. So it's the last one, I guess. But what are these other claims about? Has he claimed those to be true as well? Or only the last one?
Or was the writer just trying to jazz up his piece?
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It's not as if very intelligent people can't also be paranoid, delusional, or insane.
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His whole argument seems to come down to the fact that he invented an email system with the name "email" as opposed to "electronic mail" or "e-mail". He believes his copyrighting of the term "Email" gives his claims some sort of increased merit. There's something of the etymological fallacy to this, since the difference between "e-mail" and "email" is pretty small. I'm not even sure the copyright it even defensible, but that's a side issue.
I have two theories about this guy. One is that he's just a fraud, a
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Maybe he's trying to garner enough interest in himself that the "threats" from previous employers in India won't be carried out. If the media pays enough attention to him, those wily assassins won't be able to get near.
Maybe he's just delusional.
I wrote a program to monitor and stop analysts and other programmers from compiling their code at inappropriate run-time priorities - that doesn't mean I get credit as the inventor of process queueing and scheduling.
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[1] http://www.bostonmagazine.com/... [bostonmagazine.com]
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He's also made other outrageous claims, like he invented the question mark.
Everyone knows who invented e-mail (Score:1)
It was Al Gore, and Manbearpig stole the server and ran off innawoods.
I'm a prodigy, you hear!? (Score:2)
He was 14 when he "invented email".
Let's just ignore ARPANET, which had been floating about for a while.
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Ayyadurai's whole claim really rests on the fact that he copyrighted the term "Email". Therefore, in the twisted logic of he and his supporters (who very likely are all just sockpuppets of Ayyadurai), that means he "invented" "Email". It's really just equivocation, and probably a bit of an etymological fallacy.
But his attacks on Tomlinson, who in fact, never even claimed to invent electronic mail, but rather came up with the "@" symbol as a means of routing mail between ARPANET servers, demonstrates that ev
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I'm gonna kick myself for admitting this but I think I know him and I'm 99.9% sure that's what we used (I'm MIT Alumni) for inter-departmental communiques. (Yes, verbiage intentional.)
Now, this was a lot of years ago and my head's a bit fuzzy from years of varied substance abuses but man, if he's who I think he is, he's supposedly an idiot and an arrogant twat. (Not firsthand knowledge - repeated after some lectures others went to.) I won't swear that it's him but if you really want I can try to contact som
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He wrote a program called EMAIL, starting in 1979. It didn't do the key essential parts of what we consider email.
Sadly, the key email RFCs came out in 1972 and 1977, and the concept was in progress in 1965. The ones crediting Tomlinson, etc.
If this gets to court (unlikely), then he will get destroyed (and not before time, it appears). Even the race card he plays is a total lie, as the RFCs include an Indian co-author.
Diddums.
Tomlinson invented using @ in addresses (Score:2)
Bio of Shiva Ayyadurai (Score:3)
Here is a brief bio of the Shiva Ayyadurai, if you are not familiar with him. His sons, of course, are much more famous.
Ayyadurai started his career as a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. In 1978, he married a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. Ayyadurai enjoys womanizing and drinking. In addition to email, he also invented the question mark. Ayyadurai has two sons, Austin and Douglas.
Hogan deserved the win (Score:1)
Hulk Hogan completely deserved to win his case though so there really is no comparison. This guy is making baseless accusations about E-Mail but regardless of what you think about the Hulk Gawker clearly broke the law in the Hulks case.
That's Nothing (Score:1)