We know that the unpaid interns are disgruntled, but other uncompensated workers in the media have been striking back too—namely the unpaid bloggers that contribute to The Huffington Post. This round, however, goes to the companies.
Bloggers sued HuffPo last year, seeking a cut of the $315 million AOL paid to acquire the website. They claimed the content they created made the website valuable, and asked for at least $105 million.
On Friday, a district court ruled in favor of HuffPo, saying that the bloggers entered into their agreement with the understanding that they would not be paid for their work, and that the only compensation they would receive would be exposure.
HuffPo’s lawyers claimed that the bloggers were essentially requesting a “do over”—now that there was money on the line, they wanted to redefine the terms of their relationship with the website.
“In such circumstances, equity and good conscience counsel against retroactively altering the parties’ clear agreements,” the court wrote.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal.
