YouTube says it’s not fair! Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, is asking a judge to throw out the lawsuit filed against him by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West for posting footage of Kanye’s elaborate marriage proposal.
Though E! was the only outlet authorized to film the proposal, Hurley did record and post some footage on his new venture, MixBit. This was a clear violation of the confidentiality agreement, say West and Kardashian.
But it gets a little tricky from here. Hurley is arguing that the video falls under the first amendment right of free speech via public interest. He also says the power couple benefited from the publicity of the video, and lastly wants to know why they aren’t suing other outlets who have shared his footage.
In fact, court documents specifically call out TMZ for rehashing and rebranding Hurley’s footage without penalty:
Plaintiffs jumped through hoops to be the named plaintiffs in this suit, acquiring purported rights under the Release from E! Entertainment Television L.L.C., inexplicably leaked the complaint to news outlets before defendants were even served, and failed to go after other parties, including TMZ, that continue to display postings of the purportedly offending video even to this day …
Plaintiffs have still not sued TMZ or requested that TMZ remove the copy of the proposal that remains on its website.
Hurley says since TMZ has removed his logo and replaced it with their own, he has no control over it anymore, and does not even benefit from it now.
