Legal Tips
The basis for what was a very substantial claim was a contract formed through a set of postings on social media
name was withheld), Mr. Augstein
instructed lawyers in March 2011 to pursue Mr. Leslie for the reward.
By the time the case came to court, it was agreed among all the parties that there was potentially a binding contract formed through the medium of those YouTube clips and accompanying social media items. Mr. Leslie’s reward videos were actually offering a contract whereby he would pay $1 million to any person who could fulfill their side of the agreement by returning his property. The judge gave a preliminary ruling that, although the original video was far less clear, by virtue of the second
clip it was plain that Mr. Augstein’s side of the agreement had to be returning the “intellectual property” that was stored on the laptop and portable hard drive – predominantly sound files for Mr. Leslie’s new album, and albums that he was producing for others.
The argument in court was whether Mr. Augstein had lived up to his side of the bargain, as Mr. Leslie claimed that the files on the portable hard drive could not be accessed when it was returned. Unfortunately for Mr. Leslie, he and his team then allowed the hard drive to be replaced by the manufacturer – at a time when they knew that they were
being sued for the reward and might reasonably have expected the issue of recoverability of the data to come up in the case. The judge took a dim view of this and instructed the jury to assume that the intellectual property could have been recovered. The were jury found in favour of Mr. Augstein.
The result of the case, in some ways, is secondary – what ought to be the more sobering point for entrepreneurs is that the basis for what was a very substantial claim was a contract formed through a set of postings on social media.
25 entrepreneurcountry
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