Adam Curry

After a time working in Dutch pirate radio at Radio Picasso in Amstelveen and Radio Decibel in Amsterdam in the early eighties under the pseudonym "John Holden", he got a break in broadcasting as the host of the Dutch weekly pop-music television program Countdown, and the English version of the same show, which was broadcast on pan-European music channel Music Box. He also hosted several other radio and television programs for the Dutch broadcast station Veronica. Aside Countdown, in the Netherlands Adam Curry is mostly known for his part in the Curry and Van Inkel radioshow (together with Dutch DJ Jeroen van Inkel). Read Less

Although this move was sanctioned by his superiors at MTV Networks at the time, when Curry left to start his own web-portal design and hosting company, OnRamp Inc, MTV subsequently sued him for the domain name, which led to an out-of-court settlement.

OnRamp eventually grew to 40 employees and was sold to Think New Ideas Inc., another company that he co-founded, becoming Chief Technology Officer of Think. In 1996, as the Internet was undergoing its "bubble", the company made an initial public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol THNK. It subsequently grew to employ over 400 people and with offices in seven countries, and was absorbed into Answerthink Inc., in a later merger.

In 2005, Curry founded a video sharing site called Mevio (formerly PodShow) with Ron Bloom. In May 2008, mevio claimed to have reached 9 million unique visitors. It offers advertisers "brand safe" content on a large scale. It raised a US$15 million third round in July 2008, bringing the total amount it has raised since its launch to over US$38 million. Curry has also gone back to his hosting roots and can be seen daily on the site in the show called "Mevio Today". Read Less

He also uses his show to discuss news topics and conspiracy theories such as Free energy suppression and the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Curry is widely credited for popularizing the podcast medium. As Annalee Newitz noted in Wired, "Every new medium needs a celebrity, and Curry is happy to fill that role."

In late February 2006, Curry sued the Dutch tabloid Weekend for reprinting photos from his Flickr page and publishing details about his daughter. The photos were released under a version of the Creative Commons license that forbids commercial use and requires acknowledgement, but the tabloid printed a few of them without contacting Curry.

The verdict of the lawsuit did not award Curry any damages, but did forbid the tabloid from reprinting the photos in the future, and set a fine of 1,000€ for each subsequent violation by the tabloid. It was one of the first times the license was tested in a court. Read Less