Snopes locked in legal battle for control of its website

Poynter, a few weeks ago, in a post that lays out the legal details:

The owner of Snopes is locked in a legal battle with a small digital services company for control of the popular debunking site.

Proper Media — a company that owns, operates and represents web properties — has issued a legal complaint and demand for a jury trial with Snopes owner Bardav, Inc. for what it calls “a lengthy scheme of concealment and subterfuge to gain control of the company and to drain its profits,” according to documents filed in the Superior Court of California in San Diego County.

And from this New York Times article:

The site, which gets all of its revenue from advertising, created a crowdfunding page on Monday, seeking $500,000 from readers to remain operational indefinitely. It says that Proper Media, the vendor that runs its advertising services, has withheld the site’s revenue and has refused to relinquish control of the site. That leaves Bardav — the company that owns and operates Snopes — with no way of moving the site to a new host or installing its own ads, said David Mikkelson, a founder of the site.

What a mess. It’s all so twisted. If only there was a site one could go to to get the real story. Oh. Wait.

UPDATE: We received an email from Procopio, the law firm representing Snopes, with details on their current legal strategy. Here’s a link to the press release that lays it all out.