Lawmaker, Convicted Of Raping Foster Kids, Claims Name Is Copyrighted So You Can't Report It

from the what-happens-when-you-teach-people-that-copyright-allows-ownership-of-words dept

Wed, Dec 16th 2009 11:35am — Mike Masnick

A bunch of folks have sent in this story of former South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt, who was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago, and who is now claiming that his name is covered by copyright, so no one can report on it. More specifically, he's trying to claim a "common law copyright." Unfortunately for Mr. Klaudt, except in extremely limited circumstances, the US does not recognize "common law copyright." He's demanding written permission to use his name in a news report, and has apparently demanded anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million for each "unauthorized" use. Apparently Klaudt, despite having been a former lawmaker, is unfamiliar with the basics of the law. Perhaps he can use his time in prison -- where he will most likely be for quite some time -- to study up.

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Filed Under: common law copyright, copyright, reporting, ted alvin klaudt

46 Comments

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Brendan (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 10:49am

So how much for this post?
By his calculations, $5M - $20M.

Sorry Mike, I don't have the cash on me. Do you accept travelers cheques?

BEGIN SPAM WALL
Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago. Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago.
END SPAM WALL
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Will (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 11:31am

The fact
The fact that someone would try this just shows a huge issue with the way many people see copyright. When he should have tried trademark.
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- David (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:06pm
  
  Re: The fact
  Will Said: The fact that someone would try this just shows a huge issue with the way many people see copyright. When he should have tried trademark.
  Trademark would not have worked either. it would only have stopped someone from using it for a product, not reporting on it... :-)
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  - interval, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:34pm
    
    Re: Re: The fact
    Fuck copyright. My issue is another elected official reveals his true worth. Die you sick bastard Klaudt, die.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:34pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: The fact
      You fill in the blank, ____bag!
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  - Will (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 5:28pm
    
    Re: Re: The fact
    It was supposed to be a joke. I know you can't and trademark is only for confusion inside a market.
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Ima Fish (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 11:48am

Wait a minute, are you saying that former South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his two foster daughters a couple years ago? Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of rape? The Ted Alvin Klaudt?

Wow, I can't believe that Ted Alvin Klaudt was convicted of raping his foster daughters. Ted Alvin Klaudt, the former state rep. You know, the Ted Alvin Klaudt who was convicted of raping two foster daughters.
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- Yakko Warner, 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:14pm
  
  Re:
  I got dibs on DidTedAlvinKlaudtRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com.
  
  Is there a connection with Glenn Beck's alleged kidnap and rape of a girl in 1990?
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  - Ben (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:21pm
    
    Re: Re DidTedAlvinKlaudtRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com
    Damnit! I had dibs on that. I'm gonna sue you for out innovating me.
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    - chris (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:38pm
      
      Re: Re: Re DidTedAlvinKlaudtRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com
      ha ha losers, you forgot to register TedAlvinKlaudtDidRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com
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      - Danny (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 3:37pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re DidTedAlvinKlaudtRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com
        I filed for a patent for the business process of creating a "DidXRapeHisTwoFosterDaughters.com" website each time a story like this comes up.
        
        You will all have to pay me!
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Richard (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 11:55am

Mix and match
Mix and match this story with the earlier one about "Nexus" and it seems to me that logically you can either allow both cases or neither.
They are both attempting to copyright and/or trademark one or two words without a clear "trade" angle (that would allow trademark).
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:10pm

Wow. Just wow. Ima Fish wins this thread. (Bows down)
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davebarnes (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:10pm

I think you just make this stuff up
Mike,

I am beginning to believe that you just make this stuff up to mess with our heads.

I expect this from Fark, but not you.

,dave
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Robert Ring (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:32pm

Just ... wow.

I don't really believe this guy actually believes he has a legit copyright claim to his name. Looks like it's just a ditch, shot-in-the-dark effort to keep reporting on him to a minimum.

Quintessential "Barbara Streisand Effect" moment.
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Anonymous Poster, 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:33pm

In before he sues everyone in Britain.
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thublihnk (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:39pm

Remember, guys. Copyright law is important, because it protects artists. And child molesters.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:42pm

This tactic has been tried before by various felons, either in a futile attempt to get money or to throw a monkey wrench into the legal system. Ted won't have much luck in this regard.

I'm so glad Republican family values are being upheld.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 12:57pm

"study up" wrong phrase
I suspect, given his conviction for child rape, that the correct phrase should be "boning up." And it will *surely* be a learning experience.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:00pm
  
  Re: "study up" wrong phrase
  Correction: Should read:
  
  I suspect, given Ted Alvin Klaudt's(c) conviction for child rape, that the correct phrase should be "boning up." And it will surely be a learning experience for Ted Alvin Klaudt(c)
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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:11pm

Joe Biden
Now we know why the vice president has been meeting with pro-copyright folks so much. All politicians want to be able to copyright their names so that they can get away with anything at all and it can never be reported.
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- chris (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:41pm
  
  Re: Joe Biden
  Now we know why the vice president has been meeting with pro-copyright folks so much. All politicians want to be able to copyright their names so that they can get away with anything at all and it can never be reported.
  
  no, they just want to get away with rape. sheesh you conspiracy theorists and your tinfoil hats.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:17pm

Maybe he should have patent the process of becoming a respectable pillar of society, worming his way in to a position of trust and then abusing said trust ... its done often enough that he could make a mint licensing it ... :>
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NullOp, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:22pm

Huh?
Too bad something like that isn't a capital crime. Ya gotta wonder why not.

His attempt to claim his name is copyrighted is just another arrogant attempt to bend the law to his own uses. I sincerely hope he learns some lessons in prison.

Hey, do you hear banjo music?
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- drewmerc (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:38pm
  
  Re: Huh?
  banjo music? i want bango music the sound his ass will make while being banged
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- aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:19pm
  
  Re: Huh?
  You sure do have a pretty mouth.
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Samuel, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:35pm

Can't copyright names
"Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks."

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
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Alex Hagen, 16 Dec 2009 @ 1:42pm

Link to the original crime reports
If anyone else is curious about what he did exactly:

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?ID=0,57158
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- Danny (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 3:39pm
  
  Re: Link to the original crime reports
  He looks a lot like Jared's before picture.
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Oliver Wendell Jones (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:12pm

Copyright Owner?
Wouldn't the copyright (if there was one, and I think we all agree there isn't...) technically belong to his parents as they created him and his name? Unless he legally changed his name to something completely new and different, I don't see how he can claim the ownership of his name...
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Jake, 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:16pm

I suppose he had nothing to lose by trying.
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., 16 Dec 2009 @ 2:39pm

Not a great headline a better one would be...
...Copyright used to shield convicted child molester.

Or

Copyright helps convicted child molester.

Or

Copyright aiding and abetting convicted child molester.

This is fun LoL

Have he issued DMCA takedowns yet?

That would be fun to put on the front page.

"Convicted child molester issues takedown notices".
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 3:09pm

Not surprisingly, he is a republican.
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Ima Fish (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 3:50pm

Convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt
Check out the Supreme Court of South Dakota's opinion (PDF) here. It's a great summary of the facts. The guy is a total sicko.

It appears he molested many more girls than just these two. And his defense was, get this, because he tricked them into submitting to fake medical exams, which he performed despite having no medical training or background, it was not technically rape because, well, they submitted to it. Never mind the fact that they never would have submitted if they knew the truth.

And it's totally depressing that one of the victims had a father who sexually abused her. So when the state placed her with the not yet convicted rapist Ted Alvin Klaudt, she probably thought she was safe and that her troubles were behind her. In reality it was out of the frying pan into the fire. Now she'll probably never trust another man again.

Luckily the sicko got 44 years so he'll never see the light of day again.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 5:07pm

This story has little to do with copyright, is has everything to do with a convicted child molesting scumbag trying everything under the legal system to keep his name from being out there.

Another stupid republican fool thinking that the laws don't apply to him, only the people he writes laws for. Ever notice that republicans write the hardest laws against porn, are the most arrogant about gays and gay marriage, and yet many of them turn out to be either in the closet or in some little kid's pants?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 5:47pm

But didn't Congress just say that rape is ok ?
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 6:29pm
  
  Re:
  I think it was only if you are blind.
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Jose, 16 Dec 2009 @ 7:08pm

A good example of what one writer calls copyfraud. See this article:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=787244
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 16 Dec 2009 @ 7:38pm

i was wondering when some moron would pop up and play the political party card.

thank you #30 for reaffirming my hatred of dumb people talking politics.
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- Ryan Diederich, 16 Dec 2009 @ 8:44pm
  
  Re:
  Agreed!
  
  And YOU... you stupid filthy democratic liberals who want to bankcrupt my children by making them pay for illegals and the unemployed.
  
  there, doesnt that sound pretty
  
  oh wait, you wouldnt ever hear a republican bad mouth a democrat like that, would you?
  
  would you?
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 9:33pm
  
  Re:
  Please point out where I am wrong, mentioning that some of the most strident anti-gay republicans always seem to be the ones that end up having had an affair with male staff members, male hookers, or some combination there of? Aren't the republican's the grand moral christian conservatives who would never do this stuff? Yet is almost always seems to be a republican caught out looking like fools.
  
  Maybe they were getting moral advice from Jimmy Swaggart.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2009 @ 9:05pm

Hey Rapist: Ted Alvin Klaudt

Sue me!
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JustMe (profile), 17 Dec 2009 @ 4:20am

South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt
So you mean I can't say that South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person because he has a copyright on his name? Interesting, because I thought I could say that South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person because, even though South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt, again, a world-renowned despicable and reprehensible person, thinks I can't.

Wow, this is a puzzler. If only someone like South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt, a well known despicable and reprehensible person, were here to help me out. You know, I'm almost sure that South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person. And I don't care if South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt (a despicable and reprehensible person) thinks he has a copyright on his name because South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person.

South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person
South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person
South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person
Phhhbbbtttt!
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Mo, 17 Dec 2009 @ 6:49am

Ted Alvin Klaudt
Let Teddy boy sue this site, and this link where his name is listed at least one hundred times:

http://moronsinchapelhill.com/2009/12/17/exlawmaker-convicted-of-rape-name-is-copyrighted. aspx

What a moron. Hopefully he'll get butt phuqued by about a hundred homo bubbas in prison, then die.
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TheGreatSemaj, 17 Dec 2009 @ 11:25am

The T-Shirt
And here's the t-shirt. I don't plan on ever making money on these things I just like for them to be out there.

http://www.zazzle.com/former_south_dakota_state_rep_ted_alvin_klaudt_tshirt-23530979769683 1311
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kevin (profile), 14 Apr 2011 @ 12:16am

Ted Alvin Klaudt, a well known despicable and reprehensible person, were here to help me out. You know, I'm almost sure that South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person. And I don't care if South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt (a despicable Wood Burning Pellets and reprehensible person) thinks he has a copyright on his name because South Dakota state Rep. Ted Alvin Klaudt is a despicable and reprehensible person.
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