We have continued to follow the outrageous expansion of copyright and trademark litigation (here and here and here), particularly the recording industry which is seeking crippling penalties for downloading song. Now, the industry has succeeded in nailing Whitney Harper who was between 14-16 years old when she downloaded 37 songs. The Court of Appeals increased the penalties against her — amounting to as much as $40,000.
Continue reading “Federal Court Rules Woman Must Pay As Much As $40,000 for 37 Songs She Downloaded At Age 14”
Category: Bizarre
A family in Rahway, New Jersey was ordered by police to cover up their nude snow woman after a neighbor complained. Maria Conneran added a bikini top and skirt to satisfy scandalized neighbors.
Continue reading “Venus de Malum: Police Order New Jersey Family Cover Up Nude Snowwoman”
Bishop Denis Brennan (Bishop of Ferns in Ireland) is being criticized for asking parishioners to help to pay for compensation claims linked to sexual abuse damages. The diocese has already paid 8 million euros to settle 48 civil actions arising from decades of sexual abuse by priests. An additional 13 actions are pending.
Delmer Doss, 19, and his girlfriend Amber Burgess, 19, have their own alleged version of family videos of their 11-month old baby. Police say that the couple blindfolded their 11-month-old son and then recorded the child bumping into walls with a video camera.
The National Enquirer is reporting that a federal grand jury is close to indicting two-time presidential candidate John Edwards for the misuse of campaign funds. ABC News reported earlier that Edwards’ mistress (with whom he recently admitted having a child after months of denial) had spoken to the grand jury, here. In the meantime, there is an equally interesting report that Elizabeth Edwards may be preparing to sue her husband’s longtime aide Andrew Young for alienation of affection (here).
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a bizarre incident where a child was allowed to direct air traffic at John F. Kennedy airport,. An air controller brought the child to work on February 17th and apparently fed the child lines to give orders to pilots. Both the air controller and the supervisor have been suspended. Now it appears that the air controller not only let his 9-year-old son direct planes at JFK but repeated the stunt with the boy’s twin sister the following day, here.
First, animal rights activists wanted to euthanize Knut as a polar bear cub at the Berlin Zoo, here. Now, they want to castrate him. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants Knut (now grown) to be castrated to avoid his mating with another bear who is his cousin. Giovanna has been placed in the same area as Knut and they are getting quite close. That has led to call to neuter Knut.
Continue reading “Calls for Knutering: PETA Demands German Polar Bear Be Castrated”
Florin Necula downloaded a flash drive in January to the surprise of Secret Service agents who had arrested him on suspicion of credit card theft. the Kingston flash drive was in his pocket and he swallowed it while in custody. The problem is that “this too will [not] pass.” Necula has finally agreed to have the flash drive surgically removed after it failed to pass naturally.
Continue reading “Flash In The Pants: Suspect Swallows Flash Drive In Bid To Destroy Evidence”
While Christopher Sheehan is being prosecuted in Florida in a case involving his iron garden, here, Quan and Angelina Ha are being prosecuted in California for their wood chip garden. The Has sought to conserve water in the drought-plagued City of Orange by replacing their lawn with eco-friendly plants and chips. They have now been charged with a misdemeanor and told that they must have a water-consuming lawn.
Christopher Sheehan, 51, has been arrested after sending a letter to the Department of Motor Vehicles demanding a driver’s license or he would seek “day of reckoning when I pull all of you lying pigs into an iron garden from which you will not escape.”
Today, the Turley Blog is posting early due to the shortening of the day after the Chilean earthquake. The reason that many of our regulars are likely to feel a bit groggy this morning is that the earthquake has shortened the day by one-millionth of a second. Yes, you are right: you did get less sleep last night.
Koua Fong Lee may be the first man to bring a “Toyota Defense” — claiming that the recent recall supports his earlier defense claim that he was not responsible for vehicular homicide in 2006.
Continue reading “The Toyota Defense: Man Demands Review of Vehicular Homicide Sentence in Light of Recall”
Political opponents have charged that Iraqi Prime minister, Nour al-Maliki, was come up with a unique version of a “chicken in every pot”: a gun in every home. Critics have released pictures of al-Maliki handing out thousands of guns to tribal leaders to win votes. The guns reportedly have personal messages engraved into them from al-Maliki.
Continue reading “Bullets for Ballots: Maliki Accused of Handing Out Guns for Votes”
Jerry Stefani, 49, and Douglas Wienberg, 39, may want to just go with Internet news in the future. The two were arrested after chasing newspaper carriers and then firing shots at them in the mistaken belief that they were prowlers.
Continue reading “Perils of the Press: Florida Men Arrested for Chasing and Shooting At Newspaper Carriers”
Jennifer Paviglianiti, 29, of Centereach, N.Y., has filed an interesting discrimination lawsuit against her former boss, John Doxey and the Cafe Royale Gentleman’s Club (a topless bar). When she became pregnant, she was allegedly fired because her new image was not what the club members expected.
Continue reading “Pregnant Bartender at Topless Bar Sues After Being Fired”