Results tagged “law” from The Daily Nugget

Wesley Snipes was found guilty of tax evasion charges in Florida in a case that started almost two years ago and is awaiting sentencing.  The IRS claimed that he owed $12 million in taxes because he filed false refunds.  Not only will Snipes have to pay these back taxes and interest, which have now been found to total over $15 million, but the Assistant Attorney General prosecuting the case wants Snipes to pay a $5 million fine and spend three years in prison!

Snipes attorneys say that probation is the appropriate punishment and submitted three dozen letters from friends of Snipes attesting to his character. Those coming to Snipes' aid included Denzel Washington and Woody Harrelson. 

I think the most damning evidence is that documents filed by the IRS prove that Snipes shipped millions of dollars to accounts in Switzerland, Antigua and the Isle of Man to avoid paying taxes on that money.  Blade is guilty and he should get some prison time if you ask me.  Rich people shouldn't continue to get away with this shit.  I pay my taxes, why shouldn't this bitch?

Update: Snap!  Snipes was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

The University of San Francisco's School of Law is supporting it's Intellectual Property Law Clinic's attorneys-in-training in helping outside lawyers to defend their clients against the RIAA, pro bono. The two attorneys in the program are doing this under the supervision of law school professors and have already assisted by filing briefs in New York for two pending cases. Big ups to USF, my alma matter, in fighting the RIAA's gestapo tactics and shakedown lawsuits against individuals.

A slimy ex-CEO in Boca Raton stopped paying his mortgage in 2002 and forced his bank to provide evidence that they owned his bank note. They have not been able to produce the necessary paperwork in foreclosure proceedings and he's still living in his home. Of course, he probably has had to defend himself in court which can't be cheap. But, it's probably less than he would have payed for his $1.5 million mortgage in a year. According to experts, about half of all mortgages in the U.S. may not have the necessary bank note paperwork. Seems like a sneaky way to get out of your personal obligations, but in the U.S. where there's a crook there's a way.

Gregory Reyes, ex-CEO of Brocade, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15 million fine for his involvement in Brocade's stock options backdating scandal. A $15 million fine should be nothing for this guy, since he was worth about $1 billion back in 2000. Still, 1 year and 9 months in the pen won't be nice for his hemorrhoids, if you know what I mean.

Sadly, my jury duty was deferred until 12/17, right in the middle of my vacation. Great!

Yes, lucky number 606 was picked from the hat and I will be going to Jury Duty tomorrow afternoon, and probably will be there for every afternoon for the rest of the week. This sucks hairy sweaty vinegary balls!

Welcome to hell. I am supposed to be in Jury Duty all of this week. This means that every evening I need to check the SFGov Jury Duty website to see if I get selected to go to the courthouse, stand in line, get called, stand in line, go inside the courtroom, stand in line, and if I am really, really unlucky, to get picked to be on a jury. Oh, it's a *duty* alright. It's like a perverse reverse lottery in which you are lucky NOT to get chosen. I have a bunch of work to do this week and if I get chosen for anything it's going to really, really suck. Wish me luck.

This is an image of what ISP pricing could look like if net neutrality disappears. The Internet could become like cable where you get basic cable and pay for premium channels, or websites in this case. This image should scare the hell about everybody since the Internet as we know it today would cease to exist. Write your congressperson and let them know that you want them to vote for net neutrality when legislation is complete. Via BoingBoing.

What happens when you piss off a future porn star in high school!? Well, I imagine the porn star could take your name as her stage name and start making movies. All the press releases for her upcoming films would then have *your* name on them, not hers. Well, it turns out that a woman is suing a porn star for doing just that. Wow, the woman suing must have been a real bitch in high school to inspire this type of revenge.

A judge issued an injunction today against Vonage that bars it from signing up new VoIP subscribers. The injunction comes just one month after a jury found that Vonage infringed on three Verizon patents and ordered Vonage to pay $58 million to Verizon. Now it seems that Vonage will die a slow painful death instead of being decapitated.

The Board of Supes will vote today on a ban of petroleum-based plastic bags in all supermarkets and pharmacies in the city. This would make San Francisco the first city in the nation to enact such a ban. The grocer's association is pissed.

Some of you may remember Michael Crook. He is the lame ass that sent DCMA notices to 10 Zen Monkeys, BoingBoing, and others trying to get his own ugly ass picture down from those websites even though the copyright for the image was owned by Fox News. In addition to being a serial abuser of copyright law, crook is a racist and a holocaust denier. On his various websites, he has claimed to hate the military, Jews, homosexuals, immigrants, non-whites and children.

Needless to say, this guy is a loser. The EFF eventually filed suit against Crook and reached a settlement with him last week:

"[The agreement requires Crook] to 1) take a course on copyright law basics; 2) never again file any cease and desist notices concerning the image of him on Fox News; 3) withdraw each and every DMCA notice he served regarding the image; 4) refrain from filing any DMCA notices for 5 years unless the material in question is personally authored, photographed or originated by him; 5) include in any DMCA notice during that 5 year period, URLs pointing to the EFF’s web page summarizing [the] case; 6) turn over ownership of any domain names to Jeff Diehl and 10 Zen Monkeys if he is caught violating any of the terms of the agreement."

Finally, he had to apologize to those he harassed, which was pretty much the Internet at large, via a video which is now posted at 10 Zen Monkeys (scroll to the bottom of the linked page). Justice is served.

Thomas Hawk is not the only photographer that has been harassed by overzealous security guards to not take photographs in public, but he's the most famous. All over the web, there are many examples of photographers being told that they cannot take pictures by security guards and even police when they are not breaking any laws.

Jimmy Norton's latest post summarizes many of these incidents and provides a few links so that photographers can learn about their own rights, but these shouldn't be used in lieu of proper legal counsel.

Bottom line, document any incident in which you are harassed or arrested for taking photographs in detail and tell the ACLU about it. If you are not trespassing, more than likely, the law is on your side. In other countries, your rights may vary.

A sexual pervert is so attracted to mannequins that he can't resist breaking into storefronts to take them. And who can resist them, really!? He is now facing life in prison because he is considered a habitual offender, he has six breaking and entering convictions and a stint in prison in the last thirteen years. "I wish I could quit you, plastic hoes!"

Bo Stefan Eriksson, the con man that milked millions from video game company Gizmondo.com, escaped charges of grand theft and fraudulent concealment when the jury in his trial became deadlocked 10-2. Eriksson gained worldwide notoriety when he crashed a red Ferrari Enzo doing over 160 MPH on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu earlier this year.

Eriksson was not charged with stealing the red Enzo he destroyed in that crash but of taking the two other sports cars that prosecutors said he acquired in England, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and yet another black Ferrari Enzo. Prosecutors have already said that they would retry the case. He also faces trial on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm that authorities said they found when they searched his $6 million Bel-Air home in March.

Sadly, this guy may never be charged with the embezzlement of millions from Gizmondo.com. Corrupt executives often get away with stealing money from corporations. Mostly because shareholders do not want to sue in civil court. Some are just embarrassed they were conned and want to forget the whole thing. Others feel it's futile to try an pierce the corporate shroud and get to the stolen money in personal accounts.

We all know that crime (with a gun) doesn't pay. However, it seems that crimes with pens work out pretty well for the criminals. If you know how to manipulate the world's complex financial systems to your own benefit you can walk away with a king's ransom. if this guy survives a few trials, he may be chillin' with millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. Will karma eventually get him?

This guy is named Michael Crook and, no this is not Photoshopped, he really looks like a troll. This guy is most recently known for copying another guy in posting fake, sexually explicit ads on Craigslist a few months back. They did this to trick sexually adventurous guys into sharing their photos and personal information and then posted the victims' photos and data on the Internet.

He's obviously so embarrassed of this photo that he has sent phony DCMA notices to anyone that is hosting it even though he doesn't own the rights to the image. The image Crook is complaining about is a screengrab from his appearance on a Fox News show. When Fox was contacted for comment, the producer of the segment laughed and added that he had no problem with BoingBoing or anyone else posting the thumbnail image online. Now the EFF has filed suit against him for sending the phony notices.

I went to this guy's site and almost fell out of my chair laughing. He actually thinks that he's a pundit of some kind. He is promoting an upcoming podcast, and as icing on the cake, he says he is an aspiring lawyer! Note to lawyers everywhere, you don't want this guy around, he obviously doesn't understand copyright law. What a loser! Via BoingBoing and Wired.

Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, was sentenced to 24 years in prison today.

A U.S. District judge erased Ken Lay's criminal conviction citing an earlier case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals extinguished a defendant's entire case pending appeal due to his death. The reasoning was that the defendant hadn't had a full opportunity to challenge the conviction and the government shouldn't be able to punish a dead defendant or his estate. This means that that Ken Lay's estate is off the hook for the $43.5 million in ill-gotten Enron gains that the U.S. government would have received as restitution as part of his conviction. The U.S. government must now sue the Ken Lay estate like any other litigant in civil court.

I guess that if you steal hundreds of millions of dollars and fail to get away with it, you can always kill yourself while on appeal and leave your heirs a pretty nice nest egg. Who knew? Some people claim that he either killed himself or faked his own death. It turns out that he may have "died" on the advice of legal counsel. Surely laws will have to be changed going forward to deal with this, since many CEOs are old farts that may die before the legal process is through with them.

Wesley Snipes, known for his "Blade" movies, was indicted on tax fraud charges accusing him of getting paid $12 million from the government in false refund claims. The suit claims that he filed for the false refunds for 2 years and then failed to file a refund for 6 years. If indicted on all counts he faces 16 years in prison. Damn, looks like Blade may be trading in all his cool gadgets for a jail house shiv!

I don't know why any celebrity would do this. I mean celebrities already get paid obscene amounts of money compared to the rest of society. Some would argue that becoming a famous actor is like hitting the lottery. And on top of that some of them try to cheat their way out of paying for their fair share of taxes! That's totally wrong! If Snipes is guilty of doing this he should definitely go down.

In 2003, when Michael Moore was promoting his book Dude Where's My Country, he setup a mock petition to urge Oprah to run for president that he published on his website. While the petition never took flight, apparently a fan of Oprah's named Patrick Crowe, has been urging her to run for president for years, has setup a website dedicated to that cause, and was planning to publish a book titled Oprah for President: Run Oprah Run.

That is, until Oprah's lawyers found out about it. Crowe has received a cease and desist notice from Oprah's lawyers urging him to stop plans for his book and take down his website citing that these could cause "damage and irreparable injury" to Oprah's reputation. Damn, I guess Oprah really doesn't want to be president. However, she may find it hard to prove that her reputation could be injured if a public document, in this case a book and a website, urges her to run in a court of law. Besides, I don't see her threatening Michael Moore.

An article about the legal implications of the word fuck. Via BoingBoing.

A judge in the Phillipines who claimed he could see into the future and admitted to consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs in his decisions was fired by the country's Supreme Court after a lengthy three-year investigation. The Supreme Court said that he was incompetent, showed bias (probably to dwarfs), and criticized court procedure. However, the court said it was not within its expertise to conclude that this guy is insane. Okay, I'll do it, this mofo is insane!

They put me in the lineup and let the bright lights shine
There was ten poor dudes like me standing in that line
I knew I was the victim of somebody's evil plan
When this scroungy looking dude came up and said, yeah that's him, man
-- Excerpt Lyrics from "Framed" By Cheech and Chong (1975)

New York Post gossip writer, Jared Paul Stern, accused of trying to extort money from a billionaire in exchange for good press said today he was framed. He claims that the idea of giving him money as an investment in his clothing company was suggested by billionaire Ron Burkle through a "middleman." Well, he better get his story straight if he doesn't want to become the middleman in his cell.

An Illinois man was fined $250 and placed under court supervision for one year for sitting in his car on the street with a laptop and piggybacking off his neighbor's WiFi connection. I don't agree with this guy being fined and humiliated like this.

This case is akin to having a neighbor with a really strong sprinkler system (wireless router). If I realize that the sprinkler system sprays beyond his yard (private domain) onto the street (the public domain), I should be able to park my car there and get a free wash. I am technically not stealing the water, just using it. Sure, water isn't free (neither are high-speed Internet connections), but the neighbor sprayed his water into the public domain and that makes it public.

Of course, if this guy was in his car attempting to gain access to his neighbor's computer instead of simply getting access to the Internet, then he should get a much more severe penalty. But my understanding is that this was a case of frivolous web-surfing on someone else's connection. All San Francisco residents have done that once or twice. In any case, I am curious to see how this plays out going forward. Stay tuned.

The Supreme Court Justices were all into the sordid details of Anna Nicole Smith's case. It is a tale of sex, deception, and greed that has many legal twists and turns to boot. They are not expected to rule on the case until June, but they had a lively discussion in court discussing the details of the case. "'I just want some money from this guy.' That's all she's saying," Justice David Souter said. "Just give me the money I would have had." That's exactly what Anna Nicole has been saying for the last ten years!

I personally think she deserves some serious compensation for having to touch that guy's wrinkly old penis. I really don't understand why his son is engaging in posthumous cock-blocking anyway. There's certainly more than enough money in the bank for all parties to be satisfied. This is a simple case of quid pro quo, money for sex. Whether it was handjobs, blowjobs, or full missionary is something that was between Anna and the old fart. But a deal's a deal and she should get paid for granting an old man his dying wish.

A man in St. Petersburg, Florida has been charged with stealing a neighbor's unprotected WiFi connection. The man admitted to using the wireless signal while sitting in his car with a laptop. The criminal charge, unauthorized access to a computer network, is a third degree felony in the state of Florida. It will be interesting to see how this case of WiFi theft plays out.

I personally am so paranoid about someone using my home network to commit a crime or download kiddie porn or something that I use WiFi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK) with a highly complex passphrase that is immune to dictionary attacks. WEP is so easy to crack using AirSnort that I stopped using it a long time ago.

However, even though I am paranoid about my own network, this doesn't stop me from using open WiFi access at places like Union Square, Yerba Buena Gardens, or other public spaces throughout the city of San Francisco. This case may change the public's perception about wireless and spur a wave of wireless security initiatives and protocols. Stay tuned.

Unless you've been living under a rock you've heard about what happened to Mark Jen. Mark was fired from Google after he detailed confidential financial information on his blog. Google asked him to take the offending content down, which he did immediately. Then two days later he was fired from the company. Here's the story, straight from the horse's mouth.

Google is one of my firm's clients and I work at the Googleplex, the Google campus, almost every day. I can tell you that this has sent ripples throughout the company, particularly through those employees which keep their own blogs. The fear of being terminated for accidentally, or deliberately, disclosing confidential information is real--not just at Google. It probably doesn't help that Google does not have an official policy regarding employee blogs and what can or can't be written in them.

A word of advice to bloggers at Google, or elsewhere, don't post any company-specific information that cannot be verified by a public news source. If you do, there may be consequences. Good luck to all.

More news on this fiasco:
Do no evil? - News.com, 1/26/2005
Google blogger has left the building - News.com, 2/8/2005
A chat with Mark Jen - Jeremy Zawodny, 2/9/2005
Google blogger: 'I was terminated' - News.com, 2/11/2005
Have a blog, lose your job? - CNN/Money, 2/14/2005

A Superior Court Judge in Sacramento upheld a new state law that is poised to give domestic partners the same legal rights as married couples, except for the ability to file a joint tax return. This will finally afford gay couples many of the same legal protections that married couples enjoy, including using the court systems to divide assets after a separation and taking leave from work to care for a sick partner. About time. In addition to the ruling the judge offered the opinion that if the purpose of the California Defense of Marriage Act was to prohibit gay couples from enjoying those legal fruits, it was likely unconstitutional.

"It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the 'land of the free' and the 'home of the brave.'"
--Howard Stern

Howard Stern was yanked from six Clear Channel stations earlier today. The conglomerate cited $495,000 in fines for 18 instances of fart sounds, which are in violation of federal decency rules, as their decision to drop Stern.

What the fuck? Howard Stern's show hasn't really changed much in the last ten years and now they want to take him off the air for "a little farting." I am the first to admit that I do NOT always agree with Howard Stern. Hell, I don't even like him all that much, but freedom of speech is what we have in common.

Throughout this ordeal, Stern has maintained that the Bush Administration is targetting him directly for his criticism of President Bush. The Administration is using Clear Channel to do its bidding. Clear Channel's political action committee and its employees have given $265,800 to Republicans for the 2004 election, more than any other broadcaster, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Stern will still be aired in dozens of stations across the country, but this is just another example of public dissent and freedom of speech being stifled in our country by those in the highest bastions of power (also, see the CNN story).

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
--Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), The Godfather III, 1990 (Movie Clip)

Now that the frivolous defamation case brought against me by Mark A. Popp is over (see previous blog entry), you would think that would be the end of it, but no. Time Out New York Magazine just ran a story about the iMind Parody Site and SLAPP lawsuits on the Internet. Email me if you'd like to check out the story!

Also, just to prove that when it rains it pours, I've just been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in an ongoing investor lawsuit brought against the iMind founders, Mark A. Popp and Daniel Schwenter, by Doug Hannah, an iMind ex-employee and investor. The iMind saga just refuses to come to an end!

A jury awarded $30.1 million to two men that claimed Taco Bell stole their idea for talking Chihuahua ads. Deeyam! That's like hitting the damn lotto! Think about it. After the lawyers take a third, assuming the lawyers worked on a contingency fee, that's still $20 million. It's pretty amazing that these guys fought a large corporation and actually won, I bet they don't even believe it. I'd like to know more about this.

British lawyers, called barristers, are not happy that the British courts are thinking of removing the curl wig that has been part of court dress code since the 17th century. Apparently, they must all enjoy wearing the itchy, heavy, unhygenic, and smelly horse hair wig simply because of tradition. One of them even compared a barrister without a wig to a doctor without a stethoscope. I disagree. A doctor uses a stethoscope to examine his patients, but a lawyer doesn't argue a case using the stink of his wig or the ridiculousness of his appearance.

A lawyer was arrested late Monday at a public mall in New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. What the fuck!? Is this the end of the world as we know it!? Do you want a mall security guard making judgments regarding the First Amendment!? I didn't think so. If this guy sees prison time, I am going to get on a plane to Iraq and sign up to become a human shield. This is crazy.

A Texas judge ordered a defendant's mouth taped shut with duct tape after the defendant refused to be quiet. I didn't know whether or not to title this, "Reason Not to Go to Texas No. 749." Ultimately though, taping someone's mouth shut is one of many uses for duct tape. Since we all know it also fights terrorism--thanks to homeland security.

Michael Jackson was involved in a civil lawsuit in 1993 where a 13-year-old boy claimed he had been sexually molested by the star. The case was settled out of court for an estimated $15 to $40 million dollars. Page two of the lawsuit explains the sexual molestation in excruciating detail. Check it out. Big ups to Chad for finding the link.

An old, prestigious, and established San Francisco law firm shocked it's employees by announcing it is closing down--a victim of the rise and fall of the new economy. I guess they bet too much on the dot-com boom lasting forever--too bad. Another 1,100 unemployed mofos. Hey, maybe they could get jobs at MoFo.

The class action lawsuit filed against McDonald's in New York was dismissed as frivolous. The judge stated, "If a person knows or should know that eating copious orders of supersized McDonald's products is unhealthy and may result in weight gain...it is not the place of the law to protect them from their own excesses." Damn, it's a burger, not crack. Maintain control people!

I am raising money for a legal defense fund--please help.

Stan Lee sues Marvel for $10MM in order to get a fair share of the "jackpot" being reaped in by the Spiderman film--$400MM domestically, $1B worldwide. Marvel claims that after they still don't have a profit--that must be Enron accounting they are using. He is also suing for a fair share of The Hulk, Daredevil and X-Men II. Marvel better stop fucking around with Stan--greedy fuckers.

File swapping is getting out of control and the DOJ warns that they will start prosecuting peer-to-peer pirates. All you die hard Kazaa users out there, watch out. Funny, I remember that this is the same thing that the DOJ touted when CD-ROM burners were released six years ago. Unless you are making a profit (i.e. charging for copies) it is unlikely you will go down. I foresee that they will make examples of the largest offenders first, i.e. people with lots of source files on fast connections. Good luck.

Intel is trying to sue an ex-employee for electronic trespassing because he sent electronic mail to workers criticizing the company. This is total bullshit. It isn't illegal to send 10,000 pieces of good ol' fashioned snail mail to anyone--this should be no different. This is shaping up to be the biggest free speech battle in Internet history. What do you think? Enter your comments.

I just read that a fat guy is going to sue three major fast food chains for not warning him that he could get fat eating their products--gimme a break. I am sure he is failing to mention that he eats six times a day and the only part of his body that he exercises is his mouth. Jeez.

What's next, are skinny-ass anorexic people going to sue Vogue and Cosmopolitan for showing waifs that pass for models and not warning them that the only way that regular girls can maintain that figure is to throw up their food after they eat it?