NEW YORK - A union activist and blogger has filed a complaint against AOL and Huffington Post for not paying bloggers independent while benefiting financially from the content they create.
According to Jonathan Tasini, filed Tuesday, seeks class-action status on behalf of more than 9,000 writers and other content providers and application of at least U.S. $ 105 million in damages.
The suit names the Huffington Post Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer co-founded as defendants. AOL bought the Huffington Post for $ 315 million last month, which said Tasini, asked the trial.
The lawsuit alleges that the Huffington Post was "unjustly enriched" by the lure donors in view of the exhibition, but to retain the economic benefit of their articles.
AOL said the trial without merit.
"As we have already said, our bloggers to use our platform - as well as other outstanding group blogs across the Internet - to communicate and facilitate their work can be seen by as many people as possible" said AOL spokesman Mario Ruiz in a statement. "It's the same reason, hundreds of people go on television to promote their views and ideas. HuffPost Bloggers can publish their cross Work on other sites, including their own. "
But the prosecution says the Huffington Post Tasini establishes an "artificially low" in the content of their unpaid employees create by not sharing the benefits it brings, "pushing the market for such content."
Tasini started blogging for the Huffington Post in 2005 and stopped in early 2010. His trial said he created 216 pieces of content for the site.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
