Man Who Didn’t Invent Email Sues Techdirt for Saying So ⇥ nymag.com

Brian Feldman, New York magazine:

Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who claims to have invented email — and who sued now-defunct gossip blog Gawker for saying he didn’t — announced this morning that he’s filed a new lawsuit yesterday against the website Techdirt. Ayyadurai is seeking $15 million in damages — and is represented by Charles Harder, the lawyer who represented him and Hulk Hogan in their suits against Gawker.

The only person who truly believes that Ayyadurai invented email is Ayyadurai himself. It must be pretty nice to be able to use the American legal system as a means for legitimizing a false narrative, while bleeding dry any publication that bothers to fact-check those claims.

Update: In an apparent attempt to support his claims, Ayyadurai is appearing tomorrow on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show. Apt.

Update: Mike Masnick, writing in November at Techdirt:

It’s a victory for bullshit. It’s a victory for trying to rewrite history and smear the actual truth. And it was aided by Peter Thiel. I do wonder, though, if Ayyadurai continues to sue publications that properly point out that he is not telling the truth, and targets us, if Thiel will come to our aid. Hell, I’m not even a single-digit millionaire. So, clearly, he’s going to help us out, right?