Bloggers Suing AOL, Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post

Lace your gloves up tight everyone, the fight is about to begin. A class action lawsuit is being brought against AOL, Arianna Huffington, and The Huffington Post, according to Forbes. Lead by union leader and journalist Jonathan Tasini – who previously blogged for HuffPo for about six years – the lawsuit is seeking payment for writers who have previously written for the site.

If you think this has no shot, think again. Tasini is somewhat of a veteran of these kinds of things. He successfully won a lawsuit against The New York Times that said the paper could not license print articles in electronic form without permission from, or payment to freelance writers.

With all the tension between HuffPo and freelancers steadily building, you had to know this was coming. If the lawsuit wins anything for the plaintiffs it’s a win for bloggers everywhere, so from FishbowlNY to Tasini and the others: Good luck.

UPDATE:

We just read that Tasini described the bloggers as  “modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation” during a conference call. We officially take back our support of Tasini. Anyone who throws around a metaphor like that is an idiot.

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