Drew Curtis is the Founder of Fark.com, an internet news aggregator. He is also the author of It’s Not News, It’s FARK: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News. Fark began in 1993 when Curtis was in England, sending links back to his friends. Curtis registered Fark.com in 1997 but did not begin posting links on the site until 1999. The first story on Fark was a news article about a fighter pilot who crashed while attempting to moon another fighter pilot.

In January 2011, Fark was sued along with MSN, reddit and Yahoo for violation of a patent. The patent was for “creation and distribution of news releases via email.” The flaw in the case against Fark was that news release has a specific meaning in media – a press release by a company. Curtis believed this meant he was not in violation, but a quirk in patent law is that the burden of proof is on the defendant to prove they have not violated the patent.

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When Drew demanded screenshots showing where Fark had violated the patent, his troll was very quick to want a settlement: immediately demanding Curtis’ “best and final offer.” Curtis took the bold step of offering NOTHING and refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. In an unusual turn of events; they accepted.

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Drew can be seen on his TED talk about how he beat a Patent Troll