Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Biter, Bit!

Two Democratic political consultants have claimed that The Huffington Post's founders stole their blueprint for the popular news-and-views website.
Peter Daou and James Boyce claim they came up with the site's signature blend of blogs by prominent people, news aggregation, original reporting and online community-building, originally envisioned as a liberal counterpoint to such conservative-tilting sites as the Drudge Report.
In a statement, Huffington Post co-founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer called the claims "pure fantasy."
The site has become an online colossus, built on the idea of shared effort. It has made the top 10 current events and global news sites, launched city-specific pages and developed a roster of sections such as food and books. The work of its 70-person paid staff is augmented by content from news outlets and 6,000 bloggers who write for free.
Mr Daou and Mr Boyce claim they repeatedly discussed their plan in detail with Ms Huffington and Mr Lerer in 2004 and responded to a request from them for specifics, believed they were all partners, communicated with at least one potential investor and suggested some of the celebrity contributors who ended up writing for the site.

More here:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/8142126/Founders-of-The-Huffington-Post-sued-for-stealing-website-blueprint.html

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