Comment is likely a day late and a dollar short, but just saw the Bitter article and didn’t see a similar comment below.

What I didn’t see publicly presented was Bitter’s original employment agreement, and I definitely don’t know Va labor laws. It should specifically specify whether his work is “work made for hire” or similar terminology, and the agreement needs to spell out whether or not he owns the twitter account- if he was expected to use it when he was hired, his agreement will say whether or not he has to give it up upon termination for whatever reason.

If his employment agreement doesn’t discuss the ownership of the twitter account, even if it might have been implied, I would probably expect a court to rule in Bitters favor. The RTD article said that the RT argues that it would take an equivalent length of time of his RT employment to build an equivalent product, so I would then interpret RT’s own argument that Bitter basically started from scratch building the twitter following and that any previously existing Tucker product was irrelevant.

Simply, if his contract says that anything he created during his employment is RT property, than RT owns it. If it doesn’t say that, then RT doesn’t own it. I don’t think any of us have seen the contract.

In the public info I saw, it just looks like both parties are trying to maximize their financial gain- there is no info that clearly states who is right or wrong. I definitely disagree with the RT comment that this case will set precedent- I’m not saying that I have any better understanding of those laws than reporter Phillips, but there are enough already decided similar cases in US district court that this one will not set any precedent. Just another reporter trying to glorify his own writing for $$$ sake. This lawsuit will NOT make national headlines if seeking excess of $5,000 damages.

The decision will likely be based on an interpretation of his employment agreement and how that specific court tends to rule on employment agreements (and they definitely vary depending on jurisdiction and local labor laws).





[Post edited by reconhokie at 08/10/2018 03:30AM]