14 DAY TRIAL // Kanye West proposed to Kim Kardashian on her 33rd birthday last year but, before E! got the chance to air the surprise proposal on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, fans at home had already gotten a chance to see it because YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley leaked a video of it. And he’s in for a world of trouble because of it.
Hurley posted the video on a new website he’d just launched, MixBit, and from the angle of it, it was clear that he’d shot it, perhaps on his mobile phone. While that in itself is no crime, making it public was because Hurley, like every other guest to the surprise party, had signed a confidentiality agreement before he went in.
As rumored shortly after the leak, Kanye and Kim did take legal action against him, arguing in court that the leak cost them millions – millions that Hurley will probably have to pay out of his own pocket for breach of contract.
The YouTube co-founder initially tried to argue before a judge that the NDA he had signed wasn’t a proper one but, Radar Online informs, the judge dismissed his argument, siding with Kim and Kanye and allowing the case to proceed to trial.
A hearing has been set for November 17, unless both parties reach some sort of agreement before that. However, the reality star and the rapper seemed hell-bent to see Hurley pay for what he did, so chances of that are probably slim.
TMZ notes that the judge dismissed all of Hurley’s claims by stating the obvious: the confidentiality agreement was just one page long and included the word “confidential” in block letters right at the top, which was pretty impossible to miss.
In other words, he might have tried to hint that he had no idea the paper he signed was legally binding, but there’s no getting away around that.
“Kanye and Kim could score a huge payday, courtesy of their lawyer, Eric George because the judge said Hurley could be liable for fraud, which opens the door to punitive damages, which theoretically could mean millions of dollars,” TMZ adds.
The fuss around the leak is explainable by the kind of ratings Kim brings with events documented on camera and released as specials on E!. Her wedding to Kris Humphries, for instance, shown as a 2-part special, made a killing when aired.
E! hadn’t advertised in any the engagement to Kanye at the time word of it got out, but they did hold exclusive rights over it because both Kim and Kanye had allowed their cameras in on their happy moment. So, by posting a video of it online, even one of poor audio and video quality, Hurley actually did E! and Kim a huge disservice, because it was all meant to be a surprise.