Techdirt lawyers ask judge to throw out suit over “Inventor of E-mail”

Mike Masnick in 2012. (credit: Joel Sage / flickr)

Michael Masnick, who founded the popular Techdirt blog, filed a motion (PDF) today asking for a defamation lawsuit against him to be thrown out. Masnick was sued last month by Shiva Ayyadurai, a scientist and entrepreneur who claims to have invented e-mail in 1978 at a medical college in New Jersey.

In his motion, Masnick claims that Ayyadurai "is seeking to use the muzzle of a defamation action to silence those who question his claim to historical fame." He continues:

The 14 articles and 84 allegedly defamatory statements catalogued in the complaint all say essentially the same thing: that Defendants believe that because the critical elements of electronic mail were developed long before Ayyadurai's 1978 computer program, his claim to be the "inventor of e-mail" is false.

The motion holds that Techdirt's allegedly defamatory statements are actually constitutionally protected opinion. "This lawsuit is a misbegotten effort to stifle historical debate, silence criticism, and chill others from continuing to question Ayyadurai's grandiose claims," write Masnick's lawyers.

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