Sending A Dick Pic As Your Response To A Lawsuit: Not An Effective Legal Strategy

from the just-saying dept

Thu, Jun 27th 2013 2:33pm — Mike Masnick

When we last wrote about Hunter Moore, the guy who created one of the more well known "revenge porn" sites called "Is Anyone Up," it was because he'd lost a lawsuit (mostly by ignoring it) and was ordered to pay $250,000, which (as far as we know) he's ignored as well. Others have been suing Moore, including Brandi Passante, from the TV show Storage Wars who sued Moore for posting a video that he claimed was a sex tape of Passante that she had made for him. Moore mostly ignored the lawsuit, except for... sending a photo of his penis to Passante's lawyer. As Adam Steingbaugh points out,

Dick pics are not among the responsive pleadings permitted by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12.

The court has now found Moore liable for trademark infringement, fraud and defamation, though has only awarded $750 in damages plus attorney fees. The low amount, however, is mainly because Passante failed to show her actual damages. She can submit more information explaining any actual damages and the amount Moore owes could go up. The court appears to recognize that Moore seems to have little interest in the judicial process.

Defendant has stated that he receives “about a million” cease and desist letters but states that “Idon’t give a fuck. I’m never going to stop.”

I will say that I'm extremely skeptical of publicity rights cases, as well as many trademark cases like this one, where it appears trademark is being used as yet another way to shoot for a publicity rights kind of protection, but under federal, rather than state laws. But, given the way Moore has treated this case, it's hardly a surprise that the court went with a default judgment against Moore.

149111974 Hunter Moore Brandi Passante Judgment (PDF)149111974 Hunter Moore Brandi Passante Judgment (Text)

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Filed Under: brandi passante, dick pic, hunter moore, is anyone up, privacy rights, publicity rights, trademark

23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 2:40pm

This guy seems fairly cocky.
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gnudist, 27 Jun 2013 @ 2:56pm

Re:
Someone that arrogant will never get a head in life
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Zac Morris, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:14pm

Sounds effective to me
I hate to sound like an ass, but if his goal is to cause even more stress to this person, with only a $750 slap on the wrist, I'd say has strategy sounds pretty effective to me...
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BentFranklin (profile), 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:14pm

I like to imagine that some NSA prole had to view that pic before they stored it forever in their Utah fortress, and had to ponder, if ever so briefly, whether it contained a coded message.
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Zac Morris, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:14pm

Re: Re:
You guys are just being dicks! ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:23pm

Re:
Oddly enough it highly probably contains the code for life itself.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:24pm

That is what people call "a dick move"?
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Nastybutler77 (profile), 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:40pm

This is my favorite TD post headline ever.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:51pm

Re: Re: Re:
Please don't give us a hard time.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 3:51pm

Re: Re:
Only half.
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John Fenderson (profile), 27 Jun 2013 @ 4:18pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Careful you don't make him spitting mad.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 4:32pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Now you're all just being juvenile... in need of a good whack with the rod.
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quawonk, 27 Jun 2013 @ 4:37pm

I hope this piece of garbage gets what's coming to him. Huge fines he can't pay and/or jail time.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 5:36pm

What a dick..
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9Blu, 27 Jun 2013 @ 6:47pm

"Dick pics are not among the responsive pleadings permitted by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12."

Well this obviously need to be corrected. Photocopied butts should also be considered a valid response as well.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 6:48pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
We're on the internet. Whacking is what it was made for!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 6:52pm

Re: Re: Re:
Species talk.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 7:08pm

Re:
This is an interesting experiment.
What if your actual, legal response is written on your butt and then you photocopied it to send. Would that be considered a valid response?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Jun 2013 @ 10:17pm

Re: Sounds effective to me
She should have hired the RIAA lawyers.

They would probably have got a few 000's added on to that figure.
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That One Guy (profile), 28 Jun 2013 @ 12:14am

Given the contempt he seems to hold for, well, everyone not him, I have to wonder if the pic was only meant for her, or the whole court in general. After all, a $750 fine? That's probably nothing to a scumbag like that for the chance to mock an entire courtroom full of lawyers and one of his victims.
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Ninja (profile), 28 Jun 2013 @ 4:02am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I am overwhelmed by the amount of possible jokes and puns!

I think he was too hard on Ms Peasant.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jun 2013 @ 6:00am

The video sucks anyway.
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another mike (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 10:51am

$750 isn't much of an endowment. Apparently the court was not impressed.
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