If you are going to lie in a UDRP case - at least be smart about it! Hydentra, LP. v. Xedoc Holding SA

The recent domain name decision, Hydentra, LP. v. Xedoc Holding SA, WIPO Case No. D2008-0454 is of interest for a few reasons:

The Best Part - Cybersqatter Busted and PWNED

The Complainant alleged that the domain in question, metart.com, was owned and controlled by a man by the name of Slavik Viner. The Complaint further alleged that given Viner’s standing in the adult entertainment community, he must have known about the Complainant’s trademark and website (www.met-art.com) when he registered the domain in question, www.metart.com.

The Respondent claimed that Mr. Viner was not the owner of the domain name.

In support of its position, the Respondent also files a declaration in the name of Paul Raynor Keating that is said to be given “under the penalty of perjury”. Mr. Keating asserts:

(i) That he is an attorney licensed to practice by the State of California.

(ii) That he is a director of the Respondent and familiar with the ownership of the corporation and that “Mr. Viner is not listed in the records of the corporation as a shareholder”. (source at 5.22)

Perhaps Mr. Viner was “not listed in the records of the corporation as a shareholder,” but does that make the statement honest? Lets keep exploring:

The respondent then continued to deny any involvement by Mr. Viner:

“Mr Viner does not control all or any part of Xedoc. Xedoc is a duly registered Luxembourg corporation. None of its shareholders are US citizens or residents. Its directors are publically listed. They include Mr. Keating who is a director of a number of corporations”. (source at 5.26)

The Panel was provided with various emails between the Respondent and the domain broker.

Some of these are redacted but an explanation of this is given in a footnote. In particular, the Respondent states: “Some documents may have been partially redacted so as to preclude the inadvertent disclosure of highly confidential information such as bank account numbers, user names, passwords and the like.”(source at 5.17)

However, it seems that more than this “highly confidential” information was redacted.

Complainant’s Response to the Respondent’s Supplemental Submissions

5.29 The Complainant contends in this particular submission that notwithstanding the Respondent redaction of certain emails appended to its submissions, it was possible for the Complainant to see what was behind those redactions. In particular, some text was not fully obscured and when the pdf text was copied by it to a Microsoft Word file, the redactions disappeared in their entirety.

5.30 Once these redactions are removed, the Complainant contends that it is apparent that Mr. Slavik Viner was the individual who conducted the negotiations with Sedo in relation to the purchase of the domain name. (source at 5.29-5.30)

Oh SNAP! It is bad enough to be PWNED for lying to a tribunal — it is even worse when you get caught by being so utterly stupid as to not know how to properly obscure text in a PDF document!

5.31 As a consequence the Complainant contends that the Respondent has sought to deliberately hide Mr. Viner’s connection with the Respondent. Further, since the material discloses Mr. Viner’s email address, the Complainant has been able to discover further evidence to show that Mr. Viner frequently frequents and posts on various “adult webmaster forums” and it is “not conceivable that he would not be aware of one of the most well-known adult nude photography sites in existence”. (source at 5.31)

This is why even if you are ethically-challenged, honesty is still the best policy. You never know when a dumb maneuver will reveal your lack of honesty for all the world to see.

Although this is the most interesting part of this decision, there are other issues of interest:

Sam Brownback Can’t Spell Irony

One of my favorite targets for the ass-hat award, the normally-uber-swine Sam Brownback is on the right side of an internet freedom issue.

The Chinese government (enshrined with a permanent ass-hat award) monitors all internet service in the country, and has required foreign-owned hotels to install snooping equipment. Sam Brownback is outraged and held a press conference.

No mention was made, during the grandstanding, of the Bush Administration’s monitoring of animal rights, environmental and poverty relief activists, as documented by files released in 2005 as a result of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union. (In those cases, the monitoring was done by the FBI.) (source)

Kevin Martin, at it Again with his “Porn Free Broadband Proposal”

One wonders what awful experiences in Kevin Martin’s life must have twisted him into the modern day Comstock. His latest proposal is to provide free broadband nationwide, but the company that gets the bid (under little Kevvie’s proposal) must promise to block all porn from the network. See Artstechnica.

Another Monica Blows It

When you are a Republican hack and even a Bush controlled Department of Justice determines that you broke the law, you’re probably screwed. See Justice Dept. report concludes aides broke law.

Male Dworkinite Pleads Guilty to being a Pervo

Kyle Payne
“feminist” sleazeball
& asshat of the week

This just in from the “it figures” department.

Kyle D. Payne describes himself as follows:

Kyle has studied the feminist anti-pornography movement and is particularly interested in men’s roles in confronting pornography and the rape culture. In addition to his pro-feminist work, he is involved with anti-racist, free speech, peace, and anti-globalization movements. (source)

On his blog, he waxes sycophantically about Gail Dines and her anti pornography crusade (source).

But the burning question is this: What does a self-professed male feminist who fights porn and works toward “a more just and life-affirming culture of sexuality” for women” do for kicks?

Police reports indicate that while attending to an intoxicated and unconscious female student, Payne reportedly assaulted and photographed her. The guilty plea entered Monday did not include assault charges. Tips received by police and campus security following the incident led to a 10-month investigation that resulted in Payne’s arrest in February. (source)

See also Iowa Blogger Pleads Guilty to Secretly Photographing Woman’s Breasts.

I can forgive 19 year old girls for being bamboozled by Andrea Dworkin types. They are still working out their father issues and trying to fit in, and are thus susceptible to the victim studies cult. On the other hand, any male who embraces the “teachings” of the prune svengalis needs to have his man card taken away.

Of course, any “man” who takes advantage of a passed out girl, especially one who has been entrusted to his care, never got a man card issued to him in the first place.

Kyle Payne, congratulations, you are the asshat of the week!

(Note, I did give Payne an opportunity to comment on this story. He deleted my post to his blog asking for a comment).

South Carolina is SO GAY!

From The State, but Hat Tip to Ann Bartow

South Carolina’s top tourism agency has canceled an overseas advertising campaign targeting gay tourists.

The campaign, tied to gay pride week celebrations in London, included ads that proclaimed “South Carolina is so gay.” A handful of other U.S. destinations joined the campaign, including Atlanta, Boston and New Orleans.

After learning last week the state had agreed to spend tax money on the campaign — and spurred by a post on The Palmetto Scoop blog — the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism said Thursday it would not pay the tour operator.

Parks, Recreation and Tourism director Chad Prosser said an agency advertising manager signed off on the contract, proposed by the agency’s London advertising contractor.

The agency will not pay the roughly $4,942 fee to take part in the campaign.

Employees “exercised extremely poor judgment in approving participation in the program,” Prosser said. PRT, he said, will require more review of future overseas advertising, as it does with domestic advertising.

Bartow says that this will alienate gay tourists and high-tech investors alike. I’m not so optimistic.

I agree that bigotry isn’t good business, and as someone who supports equal rights, I won’t be taking any trips to South Carolina — but I wasn’t going there anyhow. I would imagine that the bozos who got all upset that some gay European golfers might come to Myrtle Beach would rather starve to death than become a gay tourist destination.

South Carolina should be ashamed of itself. However, I would imagine that any citizens who could bear the shame of being represented by Strom Thurmond and the mere presence of Bob Jones University won’t exactly get their mullets in tangles worrying about being perceived as homophobic.

Law Professor gets pwned by pornographer

Prof. Barry McDonald is a “First Amendment Professor” who doesn’t seem to know a freakin’ thing about the First Amendment. Not that Pepperdine is a bastion of intellectual prowess, but the fact that this ass clown has a teaching gig anywhere should shock us all.

Kudos to the L.A. Times for giving Mr. John Stagliano this platform upon which he can punk McDonald.

I remember when one of the qualifications to teach something was that you had to have actually done that thing. You want to teach at the motorcycle mechanics institute, you had better have fixed a motorcycle once or twice. McDonald seems to have learned First Amendment law by shoving his head up his ass and shitting in his own eyes. Having shit in your eyes does not qualify you as a “First Amendment expert.”

McDonald, U R PWNED.

And for formality’s sake:

Barry McDonald = AssHat of the week.
Stagliano = First Amendment Bad Ass

Arrested for Cheering

Seven people were arrested for cheering.

Cheering what?

An Al Quaeda attack? No. Cheering at the death of a puppy? No. Cheering as a mob of people rape a handicapped person? No.

These scofflaws had the audacity to cheer as their loved ones received high school diplomas.

When school officials in Rock Hill, South Carolina, tell graduation ceremony crowds to hold their applause until the end, they mean it — Police arrested seven people after they were accused of loud cheering during the ceremonies.

Six people at Fort Mill High School’s graduation were charged Saturday and a seventh at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School was charged Friday with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Police said the seven yelled after students’ names were called. (source)

And to think, we fought a war to keep South Carolina part of the United States. That was a waste of money.

HT: Supe

Mind your own business, please.

From the Seattle Times

Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.

But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable. (source)

If two girls making out makes you uncomfortable, well… you aint no friend of mine. The only thing hotter than two girls making out is two girls who like baseball making out. (For the record, these don’t seem to be the kind of lesbians that look like Benny Hill with a mullet).

The ball game is actually a pretty money date idea. I’ve done my share of making out at Fenway and Camden Yards. I guess nobody cared because it was of the heterosexual variety.

I’m not the most socially enlightened guy in the world, but for christ’s sake, how hard is it to just leave gay people alone? Do you think they woke up one day and said “gee, in this quest for love, I think I’d rather reduce my dating pool by 97% and freak everyone out!”

It is probably tough enough being gay without “regular” people busting their balls.

Professor claims that Anti-Intellectualism violates her civil rights

Former Dartmouth professor Priya Venkatesan is threatening to sue her former students “because, she claims, their “anti-intellectualism” violated her civil rights.”

She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of “French narrative theory” that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will “name names.”
…
Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. “My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful,” she told Tyler Brace of the Dartmouth Review. “They’d argue with your ideas.” This caused “subversiveness,” a principle English professors usually favor.

For the rest of this train wreck, see Dartmouth’s ‘Hostile’ Environment.

UPDATE: Greenfield has some great commentary on this issue here.