Roanoke Times suing former Va Tech beat writer for access to Twitter account

The company has lawyers on retainer, and additional costs would be covered by a winning verdict. I don't think that will be an issue but it could be. But if I were the Roanoke sports editor, I'd be worried what this will mean when there's another opening on the desk, too. Honestly, this might reverberate through BH Media properties since most people see it as the company trying to take his personal Twitter account and don't even realize he took over the account from the paper. There's a lot of bad information being spread about this.

 

In fairness, though, I think most people paying attention understand that layoffs in recent years have rarely been about a publication's lack of money.

 

I think there's a question on whether BH ever "owned" this account to begin with. It started at the Virginian Pilot, and BH didn't buy that paper when it bought the other Landmark properties. Kyle never worked for the Roanoke Times or for BH media.

 

That could be an interesting point for him to argue, but Tucker worked for Landmark, which owned the Virginian-Pilot, so the account would have been owned by Landmark, and Bitter covered VaTech for both papers. If the sale included intellectual property such as social media profiles operated by the properties (I'm betting that's part of any media company deal these days), then it would have transferred to BH.

The V-P doesn't seek any ownership in this story.

Roanoke Times sues its former Virginia Tech reporter for rights to his Twitter account

 

It's all The Suits' fault.

 

Completely agree. But every company got a 14-percent tax cut and layoffs continue.

In summary, suits and logic are in opposite corners of the universe.

 

BH Media has already lost by looking so ridiculous in public and giving their former employee free advertising. The final loss will just take longer and cost more money in lawyers' fees.

 

If they win, there likely won't be lawyer fees. That's how it works.

Sure you're not Fredrick?

 

Wonder what the folks in the newsroom every day think about this? Oy.

 

Here's one of them.

 

This does not go in BH's favor. If the account originated at the V-P, the fact that BH did not buy the V-P is incredibly significant. Any intellectual property of the V-P wasn't owned by Landmark Media Enterprises. It was owned by Virginian-Pilot Media Companies, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Media Enterprises. Similarly, any intellectual property owned by the Roanoke Times wasn't owned by Landmark Media Enterprises. It was owned by Times-World, LLC, which was another wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Media Enterprises.

What BH Media purchased was Times-World, LLC and all of its intellectual property. They did not purchase Virginian-Pilot Media Companies and its intellectual property.

This very well might be Bitter's best argument for why BH needs to go pound sand. BH never owned it in the first place. Or at least BH may have a really hard time proving they ever owned it.

 

Money. Lot's of money. Court of public opinion is for dipshits.