News & Media
Are all .com and .net domains under U.S. jurisdiction?
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) takes the position that if a website is located at a .com or a .net domain, then they have sufficient ties to the USA to make them fair game for U.S. prosecutors. (source) To understand this position, you need to understand that every domain name has a registrant, a registrar, and a registry. The registrant is the easy part — whoever registered the domain name is the registrant. Registrar is one that most people are familiar with too — this is the company you use to register your domain name. The Registry
ACLU Challenges "cyber bullying" ban in Tennessee
The international association of crybabies has had quite a lot of success getting “cyber bullying” into the national lexicon, and following that, getting new laws passed in order to make sure that nobody’s feewings get hurt on the Internets. Tennessee’s new crybaby law makes it illegal to post any images that cause “emotional distress” to any individual. Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, said he believed it was too broadly drafted. “I think about some of the e-mail I’ve gotten from constituents that were quite emotionally distressing and I wonder where we’re going with this,” he said. (Source) It is pretty obvious
Doubting of Thomas
The Atlantic provides a good study into Clarence Thomas’ dubious claim that he is merely a faithful “originalist.” (source)
The big, bad Wolf on porn
By Tatiana von Tauber Feminist Naomi Wolf asked a serious question in a recent CNN article: “Is pornography driving men crazy?” I had to read it twice just to make sure I was understanding her claim. In a nutshell, Wolf suggests that porn rewires the brain and hence creates impulses that are uncontrollable while “desensitizing healthy young men to the erotic appeal of their own partners”. She brings up neuroscience, sex addictions, dopamine and a slew of other interesting ideas best left for a good laugh. Between the Republican dingbats Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin claiming capability of leadership and sex scared feminists
Jessica Valenti doesn't understand the Streisand Effect
By J. DeVoy Imagine if there was an online database of killers, child abusers, bigots, rapists and liars – and they were all women. Now there is! Register-Her.com, a project started by Paul Elam, a men’s rights activist and contributor to The Spearhead, uses a wiki-style webpage to consolidate locally and nationally reported facts about women whose documented wrongs range from murder to false rape accusations. [Disclaimer: Like Elam, I also contribute to The Spearhead.] This is SRS BUSINESS. One of the first additions to the site as a “bigot” is feministing’s own Jessica Valenti. Merriam-Webster defines a bigot as “a
Dog Shooter SLAPP Suit Shot Down
By Marc J. Randazza It’s an all-too-common scenario: A blogger criticizes someone online, and then gets sued for his statements. But two things make this case unique: First, the plaintiff sued because of the blogger’s characterizations of him shooting two dogs at close range; second, the defendant blogger was in Florida – and thus protected by Fla. Stat. § 770.01. Florida’s pre-suit notice statute, § 770.01, requires defamation plaintiffs to alert defendants to the allegedly defamatory material before filing suit. The statute reads, in its entirety: 770.01 Notice condition precedent to action or prosecution for libel or slander. Before
Righthaven Hit with Third Fair Use Loss Over R-J Material
Vegas Inc., June 20, 2011 Reviews the District of Nevada’s decision in Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, — F. Supp. 2d —, 2011 WL 2441020, which dismissed Righthaven’s case against Hoehn for lack of standing and, in addition, found that Hoehn’s use of a full Las Vegas Review-Journal article in a discussion forum as non-infringing fair use. Read more…
Righthaven suffers new setback
I am not going to comment extensively upon this, since Myself and Jay DeVoy of Randazza Legal Group are counsel for the defendant. However, I will share that Righthaven filed suit against a guy for posting a news article into a newsgroup. We felt that this was fair use. We moved for summary judgment, and while that motion was pending, we discovered that it seemed that Righthaven did not have standing in the first place. The judge agreed on both grounds, and Mr. Hoehn has prevailed. Judge Pro’s opinion is here.
Rep. Steve Cohen on SLAPPs
Representative Steve Cohen, the Legal Satyricon’s favorite Congressman (source), provides an editorial in Roll Call on SLAPP litigation and the Dan Snyder case (prev. blogged on here).
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), that is ultimately what piracy of porn and anything else is about: Getting something for nothing. I’m fond of Ferdinand, and his primary blog, In Mala Fide, is on our blogroll. He links to my posts when they’re interesting and
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 about being ignored by the “assholes” they love. Today begins the weekend. For the typical beta, this means one dinner date – possibly two – that might conclude with awkward kissing on her front step and unreturned phone calls. I’ll
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, this is par for the course in Polk County. The same Polk County where Philip Greaves, then living in Colorado, was indicted on obscenity charges for writing a book concerning pedophilia. Let’s not forget the 15-year-old who was suspended from
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 copyright infringement suits on behalf of the Las Vegas Review Journal. It’s “assignment” of rights, executed before the suits were brought, clearly shows that it had none of the rights of a copyright holder. The Court held that the clarification
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 Bobby Fuller (“I fought the law and the law won”). To say this is a disappointment from Morbid Angel is letting them off too easily. Notorious historical figures share my outrage. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ZpJ4lvEs8&w=425&h=349]
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 surely hasn’t made it better, or taken actions that would improve the situation – cutting spending, using whatever tools he has to end the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program (the most potent of which being to tell people what it
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 Weiner is a dumbass for crafting an elaborate web of lies that later collapsed under its own weight, and deserves to lose his office for that alone. What do all of these services have in common? Craigslist: FREE. Facebook: FREE.
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.