You All Disgust Me

The MPAA wants the ability to actually turn off certain ports on your home entertainment system, and the FCC is seriously considering it! WTF, am I in Bizarro-world now?

Tell the FCC to say no to Hollywood’s insane “Selectable Output Control” kill-switch – Boing Boing.

Who: Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander
Where: Indiana (Vermillion County, obviously)
Why: for arresting a poor old grandma for buying too much cough medicine, even though she admits that she knows the grandmother isn’t going to be cooking up meth. Not only that, but she’s standing by her decision so that absolutely no common sense or thought needs to be applied here. In essence, a monkey or a robot could do her job. Maybe they should start.

Thanks go out to Inquisitr, RumorMillNews, The Agitator, and Techdirt

Who: Antonin Scalia (I refuse to call him “Justice”, it’s a disservice and a dishonor to all others who hold the title)
When: October 8, 2009
Why: Claiming that the christian cross isn’t christian, stating that:

“The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead,” he said. “What would you have them erect? Some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Muslim half moon and star?”

Heavens no, Antoinin, we couldn’t have something OTHER than a christian symbol on government land now, could we?

Courtesy of the WSJ

According to a report on Techdirt, graphic designer Jon Engle (server is down or melted, Google cache still alive and kicking) was billed sometime last year by a conglomerate of pig sodomizers* stock art site to the tune of $18k. Jon “thought this was some accounting mistake”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. They were asking for payment on 65 images (that’s ~$275 per image).

So far, nothing newsworthy, right? Right. Here’s the kicker:

They were his own images.

Yeah, you read that right. Best guess is that some jackass took Jon’s images, stripped the typography from them, and submitted them to the aforementioned stock art site. But instead of a “whoops, our bad”, Jon was instead greeted with a “whoops, we’re suing your ass”, courtesy of a law firm that apparently specializes in fucking over legitimate artists**. Yes sir, the The Intellectual Property Group PLLC is a company that is reputed to “[Represent] businesses and professionals across the Country and Overseas in the Art, Media, Internet, and Entertainment fields” (weird capitalization theirs, not mine). Tell me again how this gels with suing the original artist for his entirely lawful and legitimate use of his own artwork? Go on, I’ll wait.

No? Yeah, didn’t think so.

So this “law firm” decides to contact Jon and offer to settle the matter for $18k. How the hell is that any different than just paying the stock art site? From the artist himself:

I refuse to pay THEM for work I created. That is the epitomy of ridiculous. The attorney didn’t like my response. He threatened to sue. I say BRING IT ON! I have no doubt I can win in court.

A-fucking-men. Glad to see someone not bending over and taking it from these bastards.

Now, I know that everyone makes jokes about lawyers. They say that they’re the lowest of the low, that they prey on the weak, and that they’d generally serve better as the foundation of a building than the foundation of law. All those lawyers that people make such jokes about? THOSE lawyers would spit on the lawyers who have brought this “case”. Know why? Because instead of backing off and realizing that hey, maybe this guy’s got a point, they decided to contact all of his clients, and “inform the client[s] that I’m being investigated for copyright infringement and that the logo I designed for them may have been stolen from their client.”

Holy shit, that’s some balls.

So, for all the readers of this site (stop laughing), I urge you to help in any way you can. How, you may ask? Simple. Jon is on Twitter and his friends have started a #SaveJon campaign in order to increase visibility and bring attention to this issue. If you use Twitter, please spread the news of his issue far and wide, and make sure to use the #SaveJon hashtag when you do. He’s got a new Tumblr blog up since everyone trying to see how he’s getting shafted has apparently destroyed his server. And if you have a few spare bucks, he’s got a legal defense fund set up. He may need it.

And if you feel so inclined, email the fine folks over at Art Laws by clicking here (an AOL address for a “professional” organization – I love it!) and let them know what you think of their plans to sue Jon for using his own artwork. Remember to treat these wonderful people with exactly the same amount of professionalism and courtesy that they have been treating Jon with. And as much as I despise having to say it, remember that they’re lawyers and can make your life a living hell for absolutely no other reason than that they don’t like you.

I personally can’t wait to see how this plays out, and see exactly how far Jon can cram his counter-suit up their collective asses.

* – they don’t really fuck pigs. That was just hyperbole on my part. It was a joke, an opinion, when I said that the people at stockart.com fuck pigs. To clarify, the people at stockart.com DO NOT FUCK PIGS. So if you’re looking for someone to fuck a pig of yours, do NOT ask anyone at stockart.com, as they DO NOT FUCK PIGS. stockart.com ARE NOT PIG FUCKERS. I hope that clears things up.

** – this probably isn’t what they specialize in, although whatever is said on their site is certainly belied by their actions.

You are not allowed to sue someone just because you disagree with what they wrote about you online. Let me say that again – if someone says something factually negative about you online in a forum post, or a blog entry, suing them is not a rational course of action.

“But Mr. Quick-To-Anger Blogger, we knew that already. EVERYONE knows that!”

Not so fast there. Apparently, the fine bridge trolls** at Shop To Earn missed a memo.

Shop To Earn (google them – I won’t give them even the paltry traffic that my site might drive to them) is a MLM “company” who have decided that the best way to publicize their company is to sue anyone who says anything remotely unflattering about their pyramid marketing scheme. I know that’s a phrase that’s looked down upon by legitimate MLM companies (oxmoron, anyone?) but as someone far more eloquent than me put it:

People pay a fee to become a member of the scheme, hoping that they can recoup their money by recruiting more members who also pay fees to join the scheme. When you recruit a downline, the structure sure looks like a pyramid to me.

Basically, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are it’s going to bilk you out of your hard-earned money.

These people should really look up the Streisand effect.

The way it works is this:

To become a “website owner” it’s $349, or to become just a “business builder” it’s $99. To become a “broker” which is a website owner and business builder, it’s $448. There is also an annual renewal fee that is charged, which is $69 for a website owner or business builder, or $119 for a broker.

So basically, you’re paying hundreds of dollars for the privilege of joining a link farm. That’s ALL it is.

Popular blog Everyday Finance took a look at the company, and posted their findings online, stating that the whole thing wasn’t his cup of tea for reasons he outlines in the linked post. Unfortunately, the legal department of Shop To Earn, Mr. Gerald Nehra, decided that the best, most reasonable course of action would be to demand that he take his entire site down.

Nice.

This is Patrick Welsh. He’s the guy who created this company, and it only took him 10 years! Way to go, Patrick! This alone should tell you all you need to know about this company.

If you look at their About Us page, you’ll notice our good friend Gerald Nehra on there. The fact that a company decides that it’s a good idea to list the founder, both presidents and their lawyer on their “Meet the Company” page speaks volumes.

Matter of fact, why don’t you contact these fine people and give them a piece of your mind? Here’s the pertinent info:

Shop To Earn
Phone: (800) 239-5813

Gerry Nehra
1710 Beach Street
Muskegon, MI 49441-1008
Phone: (231) 755-3800
Fax: (231) 755-4700
Email: gnehra@mlmatty.com

Patrick Welsh
Unfortunately, publicly available information on Mr. Welsh isn’t easy to come by. Maybe you could try asking Gerry for his information?

And in news that really doesn’t mean anything, but amuses me anyway: if you go to their site – shoptoearn.org – and look at the bottom, it says “Powered by Free Website Templates”. Yeah, I want to spend my money with a company that couldn’t be bothered to design an original website, or at least pick one that didn’t look like EVERY OTHER SITE OUT THERE.

Thanks go out to Techdirt, where I first read about this “company”.

* – I should state that this is my opinion. I have absolutely no information about the parentage of even one person that works for ShopToEarn. I was using the word “bastard” to mean “jerks” anyway, which, in my opinion, they are.

** – again, this is merely my opinion. I have no firsthand knowledge of any trollish heritage, nor under-bridge dwelling habits of anyone at ShopToEarn.