SAN DIEGO -- Fact-checking website Snopes.com has quickly met a $500,000 goal set for an online fundraiser amid a legal battle with an outside vendor that Snopes says is holding it hostage.

Snopes started the GoFundMe campaign Monday and reached the half-million dollar goal about 24 hours later.

Snopes says Proper Media cut it off from advertising income, will not return control of the site, is inserting its own ads on it and is withholding advertising revenue. A lawyer for Proper Media, Karl Kronenberger, tells The New York Times that Snopes founder David Mikkelson didn't properly cancel their contract and that Mikkelson retains control of the Snopes.com domain name.

Both sides have sued each other in California.