Tony La Russa Settles With Twitter (UPDATE: No, He Didn't)

Well, that was disappointingly fast. One day after Tony La Russa announced his intention to sue everybody's favorite social media client o' the month, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that La Russa and Twitter, Inc. have settled their lawsuit out of court. There's no exact terms of settlement listed, but it looks like Twitter will agree to cover La Russa's court costs and make a donation to La Russa's animal shelter charity, ARF.

I'll admit it, I'm a little disappointed. If this thing pressed forward, there would've been some fun mudslinging (La Russa sued on the grounds of his reputation being damaged and, as David Pinto pointed out, his reputation ain't exactly great) coupled with the public completely misunderstanding terms like "parody" and "satire" and "freedom of speech." Nothing quite gets me fired up like people talking about things they don't understand and this court case would've had that written all over it.

In reality, though, this was the only way this case could end. La Russa had almost no case; there's an established precedent allowing parodies and satire of famous individuals (which the page clearly was, as it said on the fake La Russa page that "bio parodies are fun") and there's no way that Twitter, or whoever set up that account, was profiting off of La Russa's likeness.

Of course, that's exactly why Twitter had to settle. The people that run Twitter actually aren't certain how to make money off of it yet, and settling now is much cheaper for them then paying lawyers to defend them in any sort of drawn-out court battle.

Once Twitter pulled the fake page, this settlement was inevitable. I would assume that they gave Tony control of Twitter.com/TonyLaRussa, if he wants it. Maybe he'll start tweeting for real now.

Exciting UPDATE: Twitter has updated their blog today (6/6) to say this:

Reports this week that Twitter has settled a law suit and officially agreed to pay legal fees for an impersonation complaint that was taken care of by our support staff in accordance with our Terms are erroneous. Twitter has not settled, nor do we plan to settle or pay.

With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa's lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous. Twitter's Terms of Service are fair and we believe will be upheld in a court that will ultimately dismiss Mr. La Russa's lawsuit.

Ohhhhhh, snap! Maybe this will be interesting after all.