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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Mike Masnick at Techdirt lays out, once again, the evidence about Shiva Ayyadurai not inventing e-mail [techdirt.com]. Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who did not invent e-mail, just settled with Techdirt over his false claims. No money was exchanged in the settlement but Techdirt did agree to publish Ayyadurai's false claims side by side with the actual facts for comparison. Ayyadurai rose to international attention a few years ago after the inventor of e-mail died and he claimed the mantle for himself and went around accusing detractors of racism underwritten by large corporations. Now that the issue is settled official, Mike Masnick has written another summary.

[...] And with that, we'll (hopefully) leave this saga aside. If Ayyadurai would like to respond to this, or to supply evidence to contradict the points and evidence raised above, he is, as always, welcome to provide it. He could have done so any time since 2012 when we first wrote about him and his claims, rather than taking us to court for two and a half years. I still believe that Ayyadurai should, in fact, be praised for what he accomplished as a teenager -- building a working email system as he apparently did, at the time he did, is no small feat. Our only issue with his claims is the decision to argue that his impressive creation was actually "the invention of email." It was not.

It may take a while for Techdirt to get back on its feet both regarding finances and workflow. The trouble from that particular charlatan cost not only a lot of time but also a fair amount of money. Mike Masnick ended up accepting support from the Koch brothers [arstechnica.com] in order to keep going with writing and reporting, allowing the site to keep going but at the cost of tainting its reputation somewhat. With luck the site can become independent again.

Earlier on SN:
Case Dismissed: Judge Throws Out Shiva Ayyadurai's Defamation Lawsuit Against Techdirt [soylentnews.org](2017)
The Guy who Claims to have Invented E-Mail is at it Again [soylentnews.org] (2017)
The Guy who Claims he Created EMAIL is at it; Again [soylentnews.org] (2017)
  [...]
Huffington Post Shows the Importance Of Fact Checking [soylentnews.org] (2014)

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