It is very common for start up business partners or start up LLC corporations to agree to test the market and agree to work for some time, without salary or draws to determine if the business plan is even workable.
Usually in these circumstances some pre-business agreement is made buy all involved to split the risk as well as the reward, and establish what would be the ideal profit distribution and royalty distributions and royalty rights perpetuity agreement should a profit ever materialize.
I doubt that Art would have avoided doing this and certainly Art and Keith Rowland would have done that before starting MITD.
If Leo Ashcraft was brought in after Keith and Art then a similar deal should have been struck between Art and Leo as well.
While not absolutely necessary, Art and Keith should have shown Leo their deal so that Leo could be sure not to inadvertently step on either Keith's or Art's pre-business agreement.
The "Statute of Frauds" requires wise and sound business practice, that requires that business and royalty agreements should always be in writing to protect the business and the business customers.
It seems that Art and Keith had to be aware, since it was posted at (ArtBell.com) that Leo's defunct Nexus Broadcasting's domain name was being promoted as the contact link to be used by new affiliates to sign up.
Therefore, Art certainly should have purchased the rights to use that domain name from Leo before making it part of ArtBell.com, unless a solid and well constructed legal agreement already existed between Art Bell, Keith Rowland, and Leo Ashcraft to protect the best interests of MITD and its customers and MIDT's contracted fans (Time travelers and Wormhole ) fans from any disruption to MITD by Leo Ashcraft (or any other content provider or MITD employee for that matter).
I think it was likely legally OK for Art to talk about the dispute on air, given the fact that the "Time Traveler/Wormhole access rights would be damaged by Leo's posting about the dispute on facebook.
I've been practicing high stacks deal law for 35 years. I have no idea what laws you are talking about. Have you been to law school, past a bar exam, anything? I hope people don't take this sort of "quoted law" stuff seriously. Yow.
"Turnabout is Fair Play", and "No Harm No Foul" apply here.
If Leo is trying to damage MIDT on facebook then, "Turnabout" is good and proper for Art to use try to mitigate the damage Leo intentionally was trying to cause.
If Leo is doing intentional damage to MITD, then Leo could be damaging himself as well, and reducing any recovery of damages because Leo, just like Art and Keith, also has a common-law duty to mitigate damages, rather than foolishly trying to enlarge the damage, especially if Leo himself is creating and magnifying any damage at all!
Leo could also be opening himself up to civil lawsuits and class action lawsuits from "Time Traveler/Wormhole users who's paid up accounts are damaged by Leo's "Intentional Interference With a Contract," for which a court could find Leo liable to "Time Traveler/Wormhole Users for both compensatory and punitive damages.
Leo would be very wise to "Cease and Desist" from any further attempts to disrupt MITD and its listener's right to quiet enjoyment of the show.
Failure to do so by Leo, could mean that the Courts will simply follow Leo's own lead, and quickly find Leo responsible (by failing to mitigate damages) for tort interference with the "Time- Traveler/Wormhole user's contract rights as well as general fans listening rights
If Leo does not intend to damage or has actually done no damage, then, "No Harm No Foul" provided that Art has the right to buy or has bought the continued use of the Nexus Broadcasting domain name for a fair price without further interference or coercion by Leo in seeking a higher price than it's actual reasonable value.
Yes, Leo should be paid if he has a contract agreement that Keith and Art must buyout; or if he has been working without pay, hoping to cash in if the show someday makes a profit.
However, courts would hold that with any buy out, the buyout amount would need to be reduced by the dollar amount of any intentional damage he has already caused or made inevitable for other parties or listeners.
Leo should also know that no court is going to award him speculative damages.
By intentionally damaging MITD Leo would also be sabotaging his own position, by making any future damage award speculative (a truly bad idea for and by Leo himself).
Loss of affiliates and loss of time-travelers are actual damages, not speculative damages
i hope this helps,
With Best Regards,
Plasmon Polarition
Libertailien from the Pleiades Star Cluster
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