Law School

So I fire off an email today to someone who would be the type of person to answer these questions:

My question: I find it strange that no one in Missouri has tried to go after thedirty.com.

That state has had cyberbullying laws for awhile:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,470629,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25465548/

Some of these people have money. And they aren't going after anyone?


E-mail back: They are either: 1-dumb, 2- don't know about those laws, which may fall into number 1, or 3- maybe they are. Nik doesn't post all the lawsuits / attorney letters he gets. Only the one's that will gain him more publicity.

He never posted anything about this:
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-vawdce/case_no-6:2008cv00008/case_id-68719/

A popular fraternity at Arizona State University alleges that the editor of Dirty World Entertainment posted salacious photos of men in “various unorthodox and inappropriate situations” on his reality blog and falsely claimed that the photos depicted Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers.

The fraternity filed a lawsuit accusing Dirty World editor Nik Ritchie of posting the photos along with a patently false account of the fraternity’s purported secret rituals. Ritchie alleged that a group of frat brothers got him drunk and brought him into a dark room with candles. “A boy in a robe asked me to take off all my clothes … touched my pectorals,” Ritchie posted. “I screamed FREEDOM then grabbed my pants and cried all the way home.”

The Kappa Alpha Order claims this scenario never happened.

Ritchie has allegedly refused to remove the photos from his site, despite repeated requests by the Kappa Alpha Order. After the second request, he changed the captions from “Kappa Alpha” to “KA,” but did not “alter or delete any of the offensive pictures,” the fraternity claims.

It says that some of the photos identifying Kappa Alpha members actually show members of other fraternities, including Sigma Phi Epsilon.

The plaintiff says the pictures on Dirty World’s site were “not sponsored or sanctioned by KA,” and that “the event did not occur at the KA Chapter house at ASU..”

The ASU chapter is one of 129 Kappa Alpha chapters nationwide. Founded in 1865, the fraternity is “well-known nationwide for its distinguished history, dedicated alumni base and selfless community service,” the lawsuit states. The fraternity claims the mislabeled pictures and fictional anecdotes have tarnished everything the society has worked so hard to create.It adds that defendants’ “use of KA’s mark could easily confuse potential fraternity recruits or members of the ASU community that this event is or was officially sanctioned by KA, which is categorically false.”

Causes of action: Federal trademark infringement; federal trademark dilution; common law infringement; preliminary and permanent injunctive relief
Filing counsel: Robert Brooke, Matthew Kirsner and Stephen Pipegrass of Troutman Sanders (Richmond, Va.) – K.V.

I am hearing Dirty World Entertainment, LLC paid Kappa Alpha money to dismiss.

Or this one:

Woman sues thedirty.com

Same story, different link.

But also I believe if they were to prosecute thedirty.com / nik richie / hooman for cyber bulling they would have to do it under AZ law since that is where thedirty.com resides on servers. These cases and other cases where the harassment is on myspace have to be prosecuted under CA law because myspace..com resides on servers located in california.


SPURS FAN says: Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question.

This just happened today in Missouri, and it made me curious as to how this works.


Also, I changed my mind. Scroll below.