YouTube founder Chad Hurley has filed an anti-SLAPP motion to postpone the lawsuit celebrity couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian has filed against him in October 2013, The Hollywood Report said in a report. The SLAPP statute of California enables defendants of a lawsuit to deter litigation that violates one's First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, which was pursued by the Kanye and Kardashian over the publication of their engagement proposal video over Hurley's new Internet venture MixBit, will be questioned by the court on whether the defendant's actions had been spurred from activity that furthers his free speech rights in a matter of public interest.THR said that since it is fairly established that there is public clamor over all news about the Kardashians, the plaintiffs need to acquire a ruling that there is a probability for their lawsuit to prevail based on the case' merits.
Hurley said in court papers filed before a scheduled March 18 hearing, Hurley said in his anti-SLAPP motion, "This lawsuit continues to be about garnering publicity for Plaintiffs Kardashian and West. Plaintiffs jumped through hoops to be the named plaintiffs in this suit, acquiring purported rights under the Release from E! Entertainment Television LLC, 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."
Kardashian's mother and manager, Kris Jenner, also submitted her declaration insisting that Hurley was not among the media outlets invited to help organize and run West's proposal to Kardashian, which happened on October 21, THR said.
Hurley insisted in his motion that Kardashian and West were not financially harmed in the video considering that his website was not as popular to other websites like TMZ, of which he said continues to publish the video to this day. Moreover, he said that the video does not classify under the definition of "confidential information" when he signed a release from the defendants.
