News & Media
Open letter to Mr. Bardamu: Why won’t you pay for porn?
By J. DeVoy On Ephemeral Notebook, Ferdinand Bardamu – skilled writer and friend of the blog – writes that Kayden Kross’ takedown of pirates won’t make him stop stealing porn. While “stealing” is an emotionally charged word, and copyright infringement laws only affect uploaders on bittorrent, tubes and file locker sites (assuming, very generously, the latter two are DMCA compliant),
Being beta is bad for you
By J. DeVoy A recent conversation led me to contemplate how destructive being beta is – for the body, for the wallet and for the soul. Regular readers should not be surprised by the proposition that the “dark triad” personality characteristics of narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy attract women. Newcomers and naysayers should ponder why their women friends are always complaining
Grady Judd, at it again, in America's Wang
By Marc Randazza Following a three-month-long investigation of Theresa and Warren Taylor – Theresa being better known as “Kimberly Kupps” – the Polk County sheriff arrested them both on charges of promotion and distribution of obscene material. The crime? Creating pornography in their own home, then selling it both on their paysite and the popular distribution site clips4sale.com. (Source.) Sadly,
Bloggers Mull Legal Action Against Righthaven
“This is a situation that I have to admit I’ve never before confronted in my career, where a party so clearly did not have standing to bring a case, yet it had settled with so many people,” Marc Randazza, a Miami attorney who represented about a dozen litigants who settled, said in a telephone interview.Read More…
Corbin Fisher Awarded Porn BitTorrent Judgment
Dispels the commonly held misconception that bittorrent copyright infringers can expect to pay minimum statutory damages of $750 if caught pirating adult video content.Read more…
Righthaven PWNED — District of Nevada finds Righthaven lacked standing to sue
By Marc J. Randazza Today, in Righthaven v. Democratic Underground, Case No. 2:10-cv-01356 (D. Nev.), the court held that Righthaven does not have standing to sue Democratic Underground – and hundreds of others – based on the Strategic Alliance Agreement (“SAA”) Righthaven entered into with Stephens Media LLC – previously reported here. As we predicted, Righthaven has no right to bring
Protected Expression or Privacy Violation — Discuss…
(Source) Acceptable third alternative: Crazy-ass zombie cannibal worshiper needs something better to do with his time.
"kill a cop cop, kill a cop"
By J. DeVoy [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqILx78oNww&w=560&h=349] I would not believe this if I didn’t hear it myself. Apparently genres have ceased to exist and death metal, long the province of epic tributes to satan and the abyss’ total darkness, now espouses murdering law enforcement officers – normally the subject matter of aggressive rap, Irish tavern songs (Whiskey in the Jar) and
Democrat shaming strategy beginning already
By J. DeVoy In addition to last month’s anemic job growth, other numbers are mounting up against Barack Obama. In particular, the youth who handed him his 2008 victory, are slowly deserting him. With 85% of the class of 2011 moving back into their parents’ basements, it’s easy to understand why. Yes, the president doesn’t control the economy, but he
Reps. Lee and Weiner: The case against pay dating sites
By J. DeVoy While normally totally useless, Congress has taught us quite a bit about online dating. Namely, paying for it is a fool’s game. Chris Lee trolled for women and transsexuals on Craigslist. Weiner, now infamously, used twitter and facebook to set up his fwb’s. I have no judgment about what these men did or liked, other than believing
Wingsuit Flying
By J. DeVoy [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bJmVJZbmIk&w=560&h=349] via Ferdinand Bardamu at his new NSFW project, Ephemeral Notebook, a collection of short rants, cool links and naked ladies.
Google Creates DMCA Time Machine
by Jason A. Fischer Until now, Google has managed to keep its development of a working flux capacitor under wraps, quietly rolling out the ability to send DMCA notices from as early as January 1, 1900. In other news, archeologists today announced the discovery of new cave drawings that include a text ad for Viagra.
Don't listen to other people
By J. DeVoy If I had listened to the advice of other people over the last five or so years, I’d have levered up and bought a house, gone to the local law school, started running marathons and stopped eating meat. In short, my life would have been ruined — actually and definitively ruined, stuck in an underwater house within
Well wrap me up in semen and diamonds and lick me
by Tatiana von Tauber Supermodel Naomi Campbell is insulted at being compared to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Bliss chocolate as in this ad. She’s considering legal action at its racist tone. If Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Bliss were white chocolate and compared to a white supermodel, I wonder if racism would come into the interpretation zone. Sexism might as who doesn’t love
The PROTECT IP act – a new name for COICA with the same uselessness for adult entertainment
By J. DeVoy I’ve previously written about the futility of federal proposals to further regulate the internet for copyright infringement. Fellow blogger and colleague Ron Coleman – who participated in a really awesome brief with Marc and I – took note of my prior musings about this topic, focused on the failed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or COICA.
Osama Bin Laden is Dead — but He Won the War
So says Rogier Van Bakel (and he’s dead right). Look, I trust that Osama Bin Laden’s death was horrible and bloody and painful (albeit not nearly drawn-out enough), and I hope that I will never eat a fish or a crustacean that contains even one molecule of that vile, mass-murdering thug — my stomach might not be able to take
Copyright suit over Mike Tyson's facial tattoo
Interesting copyright issue reported in the New York Times: In “The Hangover Part II,” the sequel to the very successful what-happened-last-night comedy, the character played by Ed Helms wakes up with a permanent tattoo bracketing his left eye. The Maori-inspired design is instantly recognizable as the one sported by the boxer Mike Tyson, which is part of the joke. (Mr.
The Magic Underwear State vs. Sexytime
Utah, apparently a hotbed of prostitution, appears to have had some trouble enforcing its anti-solictitation laws. Under Utah law, “solicitation” is defined as follows: 76-10-1313. Sexual solicitation (1) A person is guilty of sexual solicitation when: (a) he offers or agrees to commit any sexual activity with another person for a fee; or (b) he pays or offers or agrees
Peter Murphy should have stayed in retirement
I owned every Bauhaus album on vinyl back in the 1980s. I am the target demographic for his new album. However, this interview guarantees that I wouldn’t buy his warmed over dreck. “I’m not ashamed to claim that I’m the last and only star,” says Murphy, now 53, speaking by phone from his adopted home of Istanbul, Turkey. “I totally
D.C. Cir. – No Flashmobs in the Jefferson Memorial
By J. DeVoy Public lands are not necessarily public forums, or so the D.C. Circuit tells us in yesterday’s Oberwetter v. Hilliard, et al. decision. Case No. 10-5078, available here. Oberwetter and 17 friends conducted a silent dance in tribute to President Jefferson shortly before midnight on an April evening back in 2008. (Query whether the participants were University of
