Nikki Finke v. Janice Min: The Bazillion-Dollar Lawsuit

While the lawsuit apparently filed today by the parent company of Nikki Finke’s Deadline against the parent company of the Hollywood Reporter is largely about “misappropriating wholesale content” from Deadline, the fun begins when you see they accused the Reporter of straight up stealing code from their site TVLine. (The copyright infringement on the code seems pretty cut and dry. [PDF]) BUT THEN there’s also a section on how the Reporter tried to “lure away” Deadline’s employee, Ms. Finke, with a decent salary and a “ONE MILLION DOLLAR MALIBU HOME.” Then there are like a thousand examples of stories that Deadline posted first and then the Reporter posted 42 minutes later.

Annnnd they’re asking for $5 million for “actual damages” for each instance of infringement. AND MUCH MUCH MORE. Never have the words “demands a jury trial” been more exciting.