Former Revenge Pornster Chance Trahan Reinvents Himself... As Shark Tank's Daymond John

from the highly-motivated-plagiarism dept

Chance Trahan and Craig Brittain, the "masterminds" behind revenge porn also-ran IsAnybodyDown, were never much for originality. To start out with, the site name was nothing more than a knockoff of revenge porn "pioneer" Hunter Moore's Is Anyone Up?

Like Hunter Moore, Trahan and Brittain made a living off the misery of others, hosting explicit photos assumed to be forever secret by those featured in them. All three resided in a particular subset of humanity, existing only to entertain and titillate another subset of humanity located roughly adjacent to these misery merchants.

And like Hunter Moore, these revenge pornsters ran headlong into the legal system. The FTC wrestled Brittain into an unfavorable settlement, while Trahan's supposed rebirth as an actual, presumably useful human being has gone unnoticed.

Or mostly unnoticed. Asher Langton noticed. Chance Trahan thinks he's enough of a draw that people will willingly pay him up to and including $70,000 to pretend to be someone else. Chance Trahan invites potential victims attendees to "look in the mirror" and "reflect success!" (Exclamation point in the "original.") But when Trahan looks in the mirror, he sees… Shark Tank's Daymond John.

Chance Trahan has copied -- in whole -- presentation FAQs and speaking topics [embedded below] from Daymond John's website, replacing little more than Daymond's name and logo with his own. [Original on top, Trahan's knockoff on the bottom.]



Yes, Chance Trahan is so inspirational he can't even bothered to compose his own AV instructions. He's the white Daymond John, only without the talent, drive or provable success. He's everything you could possibly expect from a former revenge porn site operator, including deeply hypocritical.

Much like Craig Brittain, Trahan has a deep -- if completely arbitrary -- respect for people's intellectual property. While the two may have built a small fiefdom using unauthorized photos, they're quick to deny that privilege to others. Brittain issued a DMCA notice a few weeks ago, aimed at delisting articles critical of him, including the FTC's own statement on his settlement. In his notice, he claimed the following, all without the slightest trace of irony:
Unauthorized use of photos of me and other related information. Unauthorized use of statements and identity related information. Unauthorized copying of excerpts from isanybodydown.com. Using photos which are not 'fair use'.
Trahan has made similar demands in the past. (h/t Adam Steinbaugh)
You are infringing Chance's intellectual property. Please consider this a notice of infringement and a demand that you cease and desist from using Chance and from using any and all intellectual property owned by Chance. Regarding the DMCA, all content of Chance that you use is copyrighted material for which you are using without permission of the copyright owner; namely, Chance. You are also using Chance's registered trademarks without permission.
Apparently, doing a name and logo swap isn't infringement. And neither is the use of others' intellectual property without permission -- like, say, in the context of a revenge porn site. Chance Trahan may be trying to reinvent himself as a brand-new, less-evil person, but so far, all he's done is reinvent himself as the Daymond John no one's interested in. The uninitiated may fall for this borrowed persona, but those familiar with Trahan's past will see right through his secondhand alter ego.

There's a lesson to be learned here. 98% of it is: don't be so fucking stupid. The other 2% is this: if you want to make amends for your previous wrongdoings, great. Just don't do it by trying to bury your past (Brittain) or by building a whole "new" persona nearly-completely based on someone else's work and success.

If this pair genuinely wants to go forth and do no (further) evil, that would be great. But so far, both have proven they can't even get out the front door without botching it completely. Fortunately, this time, the damage they're causing is mostly internal.






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Filed Under: chance trahan, craig brittain, daymond john, motivational speaker, plagiarism, reflect success, revenge porn


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  1. icon
    sorrykb (profile), 9 Mar 2015 @ 4:16pm

    There's a lesson to be learned here. 98% of it is: don't be so fucking stupid.

    Can't we save some of those valuable percents for "Don't be such an asshole"? Because that is how all this started.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Ben (profile), 9 Mar 2015 @ 4:21pm

    Protographer?

    I love the fact that it seems even the typo's are duplicated. What the hell is a protographer?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    tqk (profile), 9 Mar 2015 @ 4:34pm

    Re: Protographer?

    That's just ecstatically funny on many levels. Copyright enforcers and spies have been known to insert typos in order to track sensitive documents back to their leakers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2015 @ 4:35pm

    Re: Protographer?

    That's like a pro photographer, right? I'm not just a photographer I'm a *pro*-tographer.

    Ok, I'll see myself out.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    sophisticatedjanedoe (profile), 9 Mar 2015 @ 5:15pm

    Can't we direct copyright trolls -- all of them: Lipscomb, Rushie, Siegel -- towards this guy, so they all annihilate? Please!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2015 @ 5:48pm

    Thank God

    Thank God Mother Therasa is no longer alive.

    Although the odds of her crossing paths with Trahan (or Brittain or Moore) were infinitesimal, if it DID happen, the interaction between the two would likely destroy the Earth.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Kronomex, 9 Mar 2015 @ 7:30pm

    A protographer is a stone age demographer who sat in a cave drawing circles in the dirt while trying to figure out why there's a big black monolith sitting in the entrance.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    bugmenot (profile), 9 Mar 2015 @ 9:00pm

    Don't miss his typo-riddled promotional video on YouTube.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2015 @ 6:29am

    Re: Protographer?

    He did seem to fix "exceleent" though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 10 Mar 2015 @ 10:55am

    Re:

    Good point, although there is overlap between those two categories. In my experience, being stupid and being an asshole have a correlation.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Patrick, 23 Mar 2015 @ 6:05pm

    Oh dear...

    This is almost pitiable. Almost.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Ida jones, 7 Aug 2017 @ 9:30pm

    He is in Juneau, Ak

    Chance Trahan immediately shows himself on FB community page for Juneau. Gets up on his high horse regarding how people can talk to him and respond to his lengthy posts, gets deleted due to content?? and public ally disrespects the groups administrators. Enough red flags for me to Google the guy. Wish I wouldn't have.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    S'eil Tin, 3 Sep 2017 @ 5:35pm

    Chance Trahan is causing a couple people here in Juneau to Google him. He's not wasting anytime getting noticed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Rhonda, 27 Jan 2018 @ 8:35pm

    Chance Trahan

    This joke is in Juneau now and quickly gets in arguments if people disagree with him on several facebook groups then gets kicked out. He now has one of his own, called Juneau. He is in charge of it and its contents, he says people have freedom of speech but also threatens to kick people out for not following his tight rules. The man is a psycho! I want him out of my town.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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