• Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Last I heard they were still in the process. Has it been finalized yet?

    Edit- Awaiting the OK from Texas judges.

    It would cost the Onion $81k a month for the domain. The best part is that Jones is going through bankruptcy, having to sell off almost all of his belongings to compensate the families he harassed and slandered (libelled?)

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      both. libel is print, slander is speech, he did both. some jurisdictions have rolled both crimes into slander to stop confusing the public.

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Apparently finalized a few days ago. But the news was published in The Onion, so you can be forgiven for thinking it might be satire.

      • THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, they’re posting it all over the place. I’ve seen other platforms also posting it everywhere.

        • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          the fact that onion is posting something all over the place does not mean anything, they seem to be taking it as seriously as all their other news

          this is the freshest info: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/business/infowars-alex-jones-the-onion.html

          they are waiting for a judge, they have a wish, but they own/rent/control anything at this time.

          “other platforms” reposting that does not mean anything. same as it did not mean anything when they posted the same false information 18 months ago:

          if anything, it is nice example of why we need professional media collecting and verifying news before releasing them and why random people shouting on social networks are not news

          • booly@sh.itjust.works
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            8 hours ago

            This is the best article I’ve found, and it’s more recent than the NYT article you’ve posted:

            https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/the-onions-infowars-takeover-follows-complicated-legal-journey

            I still find dedicated legal reporting to be better than general reporting. And this is a complicated history touching on a lot of different areas of the law.

            But the key fact here is that Alex Jones was allowed to keep control over the business assets while his appeals are pending, but has run out of money and cannot continue running his own business. At that point, the receiver overseeing things (where Alex Jones can run the business but can’t transfer assets out or pay anything not directly related to running the business) saw that things had changed enough that he needed to keep the business assets valuable, and that Alex Jones himself couldn’t.

            So this licensing deal is a way to keep the assets valuable: keep paying rent on the studio itself, keep all the broadcasting and recording equipment under one roof, keep all the unexpired contracts.

            If Alex Jones can’t come up with a plan to actually pay the rent and keep all the stuff, the court is basically going to have no choice but to agree that there’s no way to keep things as they are while the appeals wind through the system, and a temporary licensing agreement is the best option until the appeals go through.

            Most of the reporting doesn’t seem to appreciate that Jones’ prospects of blocking this in the courts is dependent on a practical hurdle, not just a legal one: he can’t afford to keep it. That’s what’s changed since December 2024 when The Onion’s first attempt to buy this stuff was blocked (by another federal bankruptcy court, with a different judge than this state court judge overseeing the receiver).

    • homes@piefed.world
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      1 day ago

      It would cost the Onion $81k a month for the domain

      all things considered, that could be renegotiated with the registrar now that Jones is no longer the owner. It’s no longer worth that as it’s not raking in Jones-level revenue. Sure, it’s still worth a lot, especially with The Onion owning it, but, still, not $81k/mo.

      • booly@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        The licensing deal is for more than just the domain. It’s like hundreds of squatter domains, too (including, hilariously, goblinlove dot com), and the trademarks.

        And the reason why it’s exactly that amount isn’t about the cost of the domain. It’s that the physical studio’s rent is about $75k/month, and they need to keep that lease active long enough to buy the whole shebang once Alex Jones’ appeals run out.

        • homes@piefed.world
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          7 hours ago

          So they would be in holding of the whole property… On the flipside, there’s so much crazy shit they can do with it, lol

      • rImITywR@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        That $81K/mo isn’t going to the registrar. Its going to the manager of Jone’s debt to be distributed to his creditors, including the families of Sandy Hook.

        • homes@piefed.world
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          1 day ago

          oh, my mistake

          The deal calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to license the Infowars.com domain and brand name, which the receiver says will “cover carrying costs to preserve and protect the assets of the receivership estate” until an appeal filed by Jones is decided and the path is cleared for a sale.

          I see, so it’s temporary, although that appeal could take years

          • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
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            1 day ago

            it is not temporary and it is not permanent. there isn’t ANYTHING yet. they have a wish they brought to a judge and now they wait for what the judge will decide. if the judge decides to their liking, then it will be temporary…

            • booly@sh.itjust.works
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              8 hours ago

              A very important point is that the judge can’t just reject the deal and let Alex Jones continue forward. The whole reason why the licensing deal is coming to fruition now (instead of in 2024 when he first lost control, or after all the appeals are exhausted) is because this middle ground became untenable: Alex Jones can’t afford the studio’s rent and the creditors are going to seize all the physical assets if they’re not being actively used to run a profitable business to preserve the status quo.

              If the status quo is no longer an option, the court will have to order that SOMEthing happen.