It's pretty hard to win against TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington because no matter what you say about him or do to him, he has a megaphone most people don't have and is never shy about using it to present his side. And no matter how you feel about the guy personally, the fact is that he's a pretty smart cookie and not embarrassed to lay everthing out, which means his posts usually come across as fairly reasonable.

Take the latest kerfuffle. According to a post on CrunchNotes this morning, former TechCrunch UK editor Sanjiv "Sam" Sethi is trumpeting in private communications the fact that he just "won" his libel lawsuit against Arrington et al. So Arrington got on his megaphone to set the record straight.

To backtrack: In June, Sethi decided to sue Arrington and TechCrunch for libel for all sorts of unpleasant things Arrington said about him after the two parted ways (see details in this post). The suit was filed in a British court. Arrington, for reasons described in his post this morning, decided not to engage with the suit. As a result, the court Thursday ruled in favor of Sethi and ordered Arrington et al to pay damages and legal costs.

In response to Sethi's alleged claims to victory, Arrington is hitting back, saying Sethi won nothing. TechCrunch decided not to fight the case because a) it would be ridiculously expensive to defend it, even though UK attorneys advised them they would probably win, and b) they believe the proper jurisdiction for such claims in California. In other words, if Sethi wants to file suit here, TechCrunch would be happy to play ball.

So, from our vantage, Arrington has won the war of words. Sadly for him, however, he's sacrificed his ability to travel to England. Given that TechCrunch is planning to ignore the ruling and pay nothing to Sethi, Arrington would likely be arrested, should he travel to England.

That probably wasn't the justice Sethi was seeking. Nevertheless, we'll put the score for this match at love all.

Photo: Joi Ito