Dear John Hawkins: don’t worry, I have no plans to sue.

This is just stupid:

Huffington Post bloggers who think they ought to get paid for their volunteer writing have been litigating their case in the court of public opinion. Now they’re taking it to a real one.

Today, a group of bloggers led by union organizer and journalist Jonathan Tasini filed a class-action suit against the Huffington Post, founder Arianna Huffington, and AOL, which acquired the news-and-blogs site in February.

Oh, yes, let’s quote this guy Tasini:

“In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation.”

The key words here are “volunteer” and “slaves.” They kinda don’t go together.

Of course, all those HuffPo bloggers knew, from Day One, that they weren’t getting paid. If they didn’t know that the Huffington Post is a for-profit website, then they’re either idiots or trying to change the rules after the fact.

As many of you reading this are aware, The Trog is a weekend guest blogger over at Right Wing News. Have been since…wow, it’s almost two years already. Right Wing News earns revenue for its proprietor(s). I do not share in that revenue.

I knew I wasn’t going to be paid (at least, not in money) when I agreed to post at Right Wing News. But that’s okay by me, because that was the deal. I’m a volunteer, who is reimbursed in traffic, exposure, and ego-boost. I bet that was the deal for all those now-whining liberal bloggers at HuffPo, too.

Hat tip Stacy McCain, who writes:

David Axelrod got rich selling Obama Inc. to you chumps, and now Arianna Huffington has made herself a tidy fortune by selling out to AOL. The fact that you chumps don’t have anything to show for the transaction is just further proof that if a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is.

They got paid. You got played.

Maybe the difference between them and me is: when John Hawkins makes himself a tidy fortune by selling out to AOL, I’ll be thrilled.* Imagine the headlines. TrogloPundit-linked website sells for millions!

* And then I’ll hit him up for a job.

UPDATE – Eugene Volokh:

“…the authors of our million comments are (doubtless to their shock and horror) entirely unpaid, even though they drive up our page views and thus our income stream. And remember: Every comment you write in response to this post is just further oppression of you. Have you no self-respect?”

As quoted by Ann Althouse, who thus increases her own blog income (blocome?) by riding on Volokh’s oppression of his own commenters.

UPDATE II - WHAT!!?