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Bitcoin Your Rights Online

Bitcoin Trademark Troll Now Sending Bogus DMCA Takedowns 120

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the my-claims-are-legit dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A couple weeks ago, Slashdot wrote about a lawyer named Michael Pascazi, who was trying to trademark Bitcoin. Techdirt picked up on the story, including Pascazi's evidence of the trademark. Pascazi has now sent Techdirt a bogus DMCA takedown request over the post, claiming that the header and footer in his stationery, which appears via an embed on the story, violates his copyright. He appears to be claiming that simply posting any version of his stationery is a copyright violation. It's not clear if the content in question is even copyrightable, and if it is, how Techdirt's use isn't fair use."
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Bitcoin Trademark Troll Now Sending Bogus DMCA Takedowns More

Bitcoin Trademark Troll Now Sending Bogus DMCA Takedowns

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  • Gives lawyers everywhere a bad name. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @03:48PM (#36815976)
    He should be summarily executed as an example and to prevent such foolishness in the future. We don't need him polluting our gene pool.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Today, in news, Michael Pascazi was launched into the sun by a unanimous vote of the worlds population, on charges of being a complete douche.

      • Today, in news, Michael Pascazi was launched into the sun by a unanimous vote of the worlds population, on charges of being a complete douche.

        If we make a habit of this, we probably have enough complete douches here to keep the sun going for a few million extra years. Not to mention what this would do for our population issues...

        • Well, there goes everybody in the Senate and Congress. And the President. And all the governors and state representatives.

          Now, who's up for running for office?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Today, in news, Michael Pascazi was launched into the sun by a unanimous vote of the worlds population, on charges of being a complete douche.

          If we make a habit of this, we probably have enough complete douches here to keep the sun going for a few million extra years. Not to mention what this would do for our population issues...

          Assuming the average douche weights 80 KG and is consistent with the human body (10% hydrogen) that's 8 KG of hydrogen per douche, how long until we place enough fuel in the sun before the ratio of hydrogen to helium causes the sun well...

          to explode (or at least eject some douche matter)?

      • Techdirt knows how to deal with the guy. The only thing that they would be worried about is maintaining their safe harbor status, thus they'll react, probably not in the manner this obvious troll expects. I am sure they have been waiting on challenge like this. Mike Masnick isn't even surprised I'd expect.

    • Isn't "giving lawyers a bad name" akin to saying "Lord Voldemort is kind of a douche?"

      • Isn't "giving lawyers a bad name" akin to saying "Lord Voldemort is kind of a douche?"

        I kind of like Voldemort. I guess it's because he hangs around with Bellatrix Le'Strange. Now she is absolutely everything I want in a woman.

    • He should be summarily executed as an example and to prevent such foolishness in the future. We don't need him polluting our gene pool.

      Agreed. But as to giving lawyers a bad name, no he doesn't. Lawyers already have a more than bad name. IANAL, thank god!

    • He should be summarily executed as an example and to prevent such foolishness in the future. We don't need him polluting our gene pool.

      Says the insane internet vigilante/tough guy.

      • I dunno, usually the term "internet tough guy" and "internet vigilante" referrs to people claiming to want to do X, Y, Z, not necessarily feeling that thing X should be done to person Y for his/her act Z.

  • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Fraud (Score:3)

    by sentientbeing ( 688713 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @03:49PM (#36815996)
    This is just simple fraud. Surely.

    • Re:Fraud (Score:5, Insightful)

      by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @03:57PM (#36816094) Homepage

      Worse than simple fraud, it is wilful abuse of the DMCA provisions for takedown notices. This is no simple businessman who might not understand the technical details of the DMCA -- this is a person whose profession is the practice of law -- someone who should know better and is expected to know better. I'd like to read the next story about him being disbarred.

      • Re:Fraud (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ElectricTurtle ( 1171201 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @04:13PM (#36816286)
        You know what would be hilarious? If a legal fund to get him disbarred was set up and it took bitcoin donations. If it were to be successful he would be defeated by the very thing he sought to control.

      • A great service (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        This lawyer could be doing all geeks a great service.

        If handled correctly this could end up in a review of the DMCA rules, possibly (but I am not that naive) a change of the law to make it more compliant with the real world.

        And the same with the copyright... And possibly the patent system... After the ruling that you can't copyright something that someone else have made and the sue them, perhaps the same will go for patents, you can no longer patent someone else's inventions and sue them over it?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes. So please show me how your great judicial system works fairly now. Show me how this person will be punished. Oh, he will not? Really?

  • If you're going to misuse trademark law you might as well misuse copyright law as well.
  • I wonder if he is a card carrying member of the church of scientology [arstechnica.com]?
  • Once you hit -10 you instantly die. Same with meta voting on driving. Every car has a heads-up display and you can instantly vote other drivers up or down. At -10 your car turns off. PS, I patented both of those already.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      As someone how used to race to see how fast we could get new account to +50, and then aack down to zero I suspect your ideas would be subject of abuse.

  • Deal with this the slashdot way... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Time for Slashdot to deal with this ourselves.

    Someone get and post his address, then everyone send him all the junkmail you can.

    If it works for spammers, trolls should enjoy it too.

  • A trademark, according to US law, has to be an adjective. Hence "Band-Aid brand bandages". He's using it purely as a noun "Bitcoins are..." His trademark can be easily struck down on that basis alone. Ironically, using a trademark as a noun is exactly the thing that depreciates the trademark as a protectable entity. (Again: See Band-Aid. They fought and fought to make sure that people not just call all bandages "band-aids", because using their trademark as a noun instead of an adjective is what dilutes it.)

    • I'm not entirely sure that this is 100% correct... after all I think the Google Search Engine still owns the trademark on Google but no one says Google Search Engine. This could be said as Bitcoin Virtual Currency.

    • Parent is a moron. Windows is a registered trademark and is not an adjective.

  • So sue them. (Score:5, Informative)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @04:11PM (#36816256)

    1.Sue them, for filing a false DMCA claim.
    2.Collect damages - monetary losses and legal expenses.

    http://www.aaronkellylaw.com/Internet-Law-and-Intellectual-Property-Articles/Consequences-of-filing-a-false-DMCA-Takedown-Request.shtml [aaronkellylaw.com]

    Stop whining, and put your money where your mouth is, people.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      1.Sue them, for filing a false DMCA claim.
      2.Collect damages - monetary losses and legal expenses.

      ...

      Stop whining, and put your money where your mouth is, people.

      That would work great for Techdirt, the recipient of the takedown notice, but people can't just go around filing lawsuits when someone does something they don't like. You need to have standing to sue. You need to have been harmed by someone before you "put your money where your mouth is."

    • Geeks suing a lawyer--Great idea! And let's hire a bunch of lawyers to write software and configure firewalls!

      • And now back in reality when I sue you, you're not going to be defending yourself against me. You'll be defending yourself against lawyers. Because ... you know these things called lawyers ... they actually provide a service to people who need to do just this kind of stuff.

    • 1.Sue them, for filing a false DMCA claim.

      Is it a false claim if he has a current trademark application?

    • From the article: Payout was $125,000 out of court settlement for falsely sending DMCA takedown notices over emails published regarding Diebold eVoting machines.

      Something tells me the lawyers involved cost more.

  • Trademark is marked 'DEAD' at USPTO now (Score:3)

    by whiteboy86 ( 1930018 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @04:14PM (#36816296)
    Went to USPTO to see it with my own eyes. The record in question is currently marked as "Abandoned July 7, 2011" and effectively DEAD - the trademark seams invalid. Could somebody elaborate, doesn't this only mean that the trademark is in some limbo stage before it goes "live" or something?

  • Disbar (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PickyH3D ( 680158 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @04:19PM (#36816348)

    All involved lawyers should be disbarred. Not only for the initial, in-bad-faith filing, but also for abusing the legal system with in-bad-faith DMCA letters.

  • Where to start.... *looks* Ah fuckit. I can't even begin pointing out what's wrong with this without getting into a dissertation on trademark and copyright law. This guy that sent the letters is obviously a "talking asshole" or what is called (in technical terms) a "cartooney." You find them everywhere on the 'net and if you go through life never being impotently threatened by idiots like this, you aren't trying hard enough. (You get extra points if you get cartooneyed by a "lawyer" in Italy defending

  • will this count as strike? under the new ISP copyright plan and you will you have to pay $35 to clear your name from the this BS?

  • But it's not appropriate or necessary to kill ALL the lawyers.

  • /. needs a "Number of days since last BTC story" (Score:3)

    by sirwired ( 27582 ) on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @05:08PM (#36816838)

    Slashdot needs a "Number of days since last BitCoin Story" thing on the homepage, kind of like those "Number of Days Since Last Accident" signs at some factories.

    I can't imagine we'd need more than three bits (unsigned) to express that value.

    • That's a good idea. They should do it for each category and also include an "average number of days between stories". I felt like we were overdue for a Bitcoin story.
  • From http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/02/6222.ars [arstechnica.com] : "So who is this Michael Pascazi? He was once president of a firm called Fiber Optek, which in 1999 won a US$4 million contract to construct a fiber-optic infrastructure along from Hartford, Connecticut to Springfield, Massachusetts. Fiber Optek attempted to purchase the failed Global Crossing company in 2002 before going bankrupt itself, a victim of the dotcom implosion. Pascazi went on to study law. He also claims to be starting a biotechnology com
  • It took years to get Slashdot to add an Ubuntu logo so that stories didn't have to use the Debian one. Why does bitcoin get fast-tracked?

    • It took years to get Slashdot to add an Ubuntu logo so that stories didn't have to use the Debian one. Why does bitcoin get fast-tracked?

      Maybe the icon designer was bribed... with bitcoins.

  • Why doesn't anyone report him to ACLU to have him disbarred for fraudulent litigation?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PhxBlue ( 562201 )
      For that matter, just report him to the state bar for unethical behavior. He doesn't own the trademark, nor the copyright, and he's acting in bad faith.
  • So that guy is Bitcoin, right? I wouldn't like to be him when bankers, governmnents, IRS, wall street etc. want Bitcoin dead.

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