We don't know shit about aNYthing, the store and lifestyle brand whose founder is suing its current owners, but it is good to know, for future reference, that Anything Corp. head Kiernan Costello will sue you if you call him a "trustafarian" ("a commonly used derisive description of wealthy slackers who take up a hippie or Rastafarian pose," according to Costello's lawyer). [Complex.com]
Hey, wow, he may be right, but this might not be exactly how maybe-millionaire sex-crimer Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, should handle the latest woman to come out of the woodwork to accuse his client of having sex with minors. (Despite all the Sadeian hand-wringing of her complaint, the only crime alleged is that she was 16.) Lefcourt said that she "admitted in her papers that she's insane, but she can read the word 'rich' in the newspapers." Yeah, does that somehow make your client look like less of a creep? [NY Post]
Does Google's new YouTube Video Identification tool mean it's backing down from its previous legal stance in the face of pressure from Viacom? A YouTube source told me no. He said the tool has been under development since before Google bought YouTube in 2006. It's just another effort to go above and beyond what's required by the law, he claimed. A pat recitation of the company's party line, of course. If that's true, why the sudden rollout, and why now? If Google really believed its case could stand up in court, why would it create the ID tool? How, exactly, does Google stand to profit?
Here's a story! Once upon a time a bad gal-pal told a 16-year-old girl that she knew this rich guy who helped girls become models. (A note from the real world: There are no older men who help girls become models. Except maybe Nigel Barker, fashion photographer and "America's Next Top Model" judge.) And so the girl showed up at this guy's huge house, up at 71st and 5th Avenue. She had brought photos of herself. The guy was wearing a bathrobe! He took her about the house, showing off the chandeliers and the gaudy crystal ball on the spiral staircase, and a statue of a dog and its poop. But oh noes! He also had a massage room!
After testing the iPhone in U.K. laboratories, Greenpeace researchers said they found it contains toxic brominated compounds, indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and hazardous PVC. Sounds unpleasant. Greenpeace published a full report here. In reaction to the news, The U.S. National Center for Environmental Health said it will file suit against Apple for breaking a Californian law which requires products containing certain chemicals to carry a warning label, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The takeaway? However much you love your iPhone, please, for the love of Jobs, do not pry open the case and rub its innards up and down your crotch. It's tempting, we realize. But don't.
Judge David Folsom, in the Eastern District of Texas today, banned the term "patent troll" from his courtroom. In his ruling, the judge wrote that the term "has no probative value and would unduly prejudice the Plaintiff." Does this mean MercExchange will quit abducting princesses? [Patent Troll Tracker]
The Associated Press has sued Moreover Technologies, an early news aggregator. Moreover, owned by VeriSign, provides news coverage from a wide variety of sources to subscribers that it finds on websites, including AP wire stories. AP's complaint is that Moreover is "scraping," or copying, the full text of wire stories and sending them to subscribers without paying for them. AP's lawyers argue that this is far outside the realm of fair use. After Moreover ignored a cease-and-desist letter, AP decided to sue. An interesting case, to be sure, but one that's widely misunderstood by quick-on-the-draw bloggers.
Back in July, DJ Samantha Ronson filed a defamation suit against folks who said she'd placed coke in Lindsay Lohan's car. (For those just tuning in, Lindsay Lohan is a rising young starlet and a staple of wholesome Disney films.) Blogger Perez ("Mario Lavandeira") Hilton's posting said that Ronson "planted drugs that were found in Lohan's car after it crashed into a tree in Beverly Hills on May 26, and that she set up her friend to be photographed while under the influence of alcohol," according to AP. For a defamation claim, she must prove somehow that he acted with malice. Says Perez's attorney: "If Ms. Ronson is attempting to get some sort of relief in court and to show that Mario Lavandeira had any malice, I think she's going to a hardware store for milk. It's just not going to happen." Where did they find this guy? Ms. Ronson also stated that she has never "handled" cocaine.
And we thought that Congress was going to be the main stumbling block for 3Com's buyout by Bain Capital and Huawei. Shareholders are suing 3Com, its directors, a former director, Bain Capital, Huawei Technologies, and the Easter Bunny over the "insufficient" purchase price. Just shut up and take the money. No one else is going to buy your little has-been networking-equipment company. [AP]
Brian Reid says he was fired from Google for being "too old." A profile of Reid in the Sydney Morning Herald notes that he "lost an annual salary of $200,000 and stock options which today would have been worth over $60 million." Quick background: Reid was a high-level manager working directly below the top level. Google says he was let go because the program he was in charge of was terminated. Reid says that he was fired for being old and that age discrimination is a systematic problem at Google. A statistician at UC Davis agrees, saying older employees got smaller bonuses and worse performance reviews. But how bad off, really, is Reid?
The lil' ladies suing both Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his company Bloomberg LP for being discarded after they became pregnant have claimed they knew the Mayor talked regularly with Bloomberg's CEO—despite the wee helicopter-flying oligarch's loud protestations that he has nothing to do with the company. Oh guess what? "After a week of distancing himself from the company he founded and owns," says the Times, "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he talked regularly to senior executives at the firm and was kept abreast of what was happening there." Please, can please everyone please not use "abreast" when writing about sex discrimination litigation please?
"Reid was also subject to derogatory comments from colleagues within the organization, who referred to Reid as an 'old man,' an 'old guy,' an 'old fuddy-duddy.' They told him his knowledge was ancient, and joked that the CD jewel case office placard should be an 'LP' instead of a 'CD.'" — The California Sixth District Court of Appeal, ruling that an age-discrimination lawsuit against Google was wrongly rejected. [Central Valley Business Times]
If you worship at the Church of Family Guy, you're undoubtedly familiar with the ditty "I Need a Jew," sung at the precise moment of episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" when Griffin patriarch Peter realizes he's helpless to manage his finances without the aid of an arithmetically-astute Member of the Tribe. A full four years after the episode first aired, the copyright owner of Pinocchio classic "When You Wish Upon a Star" is now suing "Fox Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network and others" for infringement. A Fox spokesperson had "no comment," and its suspected their lawyers are currently mapping their strategy: They've already eliminated playing the "fair Jew-use" card, as the song-parody managed to be penned by the single goyische comedy-writer named Seth currently working in Hollywood.
A patent holding firm is suing Google, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo over its patent for "Systems and methods for transacting business over a global communications network such as the Internet." Or rather, for using automated bidding systems to sell online advertising — in other words, where all the money is. At least the company's a clever patent troll. [InformationWeek]
Do you know what's awesome? When you're about to have a big party but right before it, you find out you're being slapped with a $60-million libel lawsuit by Howard K. Stern, with more suits to follow from other subjects of your book. What is almost as awesome: that tonight's party at Pacha for Rita Cosby's book (hosted by weird high-roller quarterly 21 magazine!) about Anna Nicole Smith is a benefit for D.A.R.E. Show up for the children, people! Added bonus: We hear that Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole's sainted mother, may be on hand!
Howard K. Stern, paramour and lawyer to fallen angel-temptress Anna Nicole Smith, is suing the holy heck out of Rita Cosby and her publisher, Hachette Book Group. Cosby's book, "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death," which has pretty much only been read by tabloid mag staffers in need of innuendo for items, claims that Howard K. Stern and Anna Nicole babydaddy Larry Birkhead had an affair, for one thing. Birkhead's attorney—his client certainly has more case for grievance, because oh my God, Howard K. Stern, eww—says he'll file his own libel suit soon enough. Nifty! The legacy of Anna Nicole lives on!
Former Viacom C.E.O. Tom Freston's suit against the City of New York goes to the Supreme Court today. "[T]he central question of the case: Must parents of special-education students give public schools a chance before having taxpayers reimburse them for private-school tuition?" Freston's son has attention deficit disorder; Freston thought that he couldn't perform in math class (the City disagreed) and then asked the City to foot the $21,819 tuition of private school Gaynor. Expect to see the phrase "$85 million dollar severance deal" appear in most of the coverage of the trial. [WSJ]
The Internet has an uncanny ability to draw out the crazies. Movie director Uwe Boll challenged his Internet critics to a boxing match. A biologist wrote a book review and was subsequently sued for "assault, libel and slander." Now the Video Professor, the charming older gentleman who appears in commercials pitching your mom to learn Excel spreadsheets and how to surf the Web with his handy series of instructional DVDs, is suing 100 posters on infomercialscams.com for "unauthorized Internet disparagement." His critics claim that John Scherer's Video Professor has a habit of signing people up for subscriptions they don't want. As punishment for voicing such opinions, Video Professor is trying to obtain the posters' IP addresses so it can sue each one individually. That'll teach you to surf the Web.
