Too Much Media Wins 1st Round Over Oprano Posts

[gonzo]

FREEHOLD, N.J. — Too Much Media has won the first round in a suit against a Washington state woman who was accused of making false statements against the company on message boards.

A New Jersey Superior Court judge, in an unpublished decision, said that Shellee Hale is not shielded by the state’s newsperson’s privilege and that her motion to protect sources of information is denied.



The judge also said that comments she made on Oprano.com were actionable without proof of monetary losses because her postings alleged that Too Much Media engaged in criminal conduct and that the company is incompetent.



Hale’s posts in 2007 alleged that breached Too Much Media data could have given hackers access to names and addresses of account holders, which the company denies.



Specifically, Hale alleged in posts on Oprano.com that Too Much Media engaged in illegal uses of technology, made physical threats against those who released information relative to an unrelated suit with NR Media, and used its NATS affiliate-tracking software to cause influx of spam to its customers and re-directs to websites away from their customers to websites owned by Too Much Media or one of its employees.
She also alleged that Too Much Media failed to inform customers of a security breach because it was making money off of it.



Hale had said that her sources were protected because she acts as a journalist.



But Judge J.S.C. Locuascio said in his ruling that Hale overextended her occupation to the court and that just because she has a license in private investigative work and holds a degree in medicine doesn’t mean she can be awarded protections for all aspects of news gathering and dissemination.



“Although Hale … vaguely contends that she has published articles in one legitimate newspaper and several trade journals, this court gives no credence to these contentions …,” ruled Locuascio, who noted that there were several discrepancies with her testimony at a pre-trial hearing.
Further, the court ruled that Hale’s contention that a message board is equivalent to a news website is incorrect and that posters should not be given the same protections as print or online news journalists.



“To extend the newsperson’s privilege to such posters would mean anyone with an email address, with no connection to any legitimate news publication, could post anything on the Internet and hide behind shield-law protections,” Locuascio wrote. “The fact that she never contacted Too Much Media’s representatives, to hear their side of the story, certainly does not suggest the kind of journalistic objectivity and credibility that courts have found to qualify for the protections.”



Too Much Media co-owner John Albright told XBIZ that he wanted to clear the air on the case as it continues at Monmouth County Superior Court. He said that there have been some misinterpretations in the press about his company’s legal challenge.



“It has been reported that we are suing her because she is simply discussing the fact that we had a security breach in the past,” he told XBIZ. “This is not the case. We are suing her due to the statements she has made about this incident.”



http://www.xbiz.com/news/110047

[softball]

curiouser and curiouser

[bluemoney]

“I’m out of order? You’re out of order! This whole fucking court is out of order!”

[RawAlex]

fast forward to about 4 minute mark to get what I mean.

Alternately, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XP_3PWFKhM

[gonzo]

Funny thing is you see Mark Prince cheering it on all the while his lawsuit was dismissed like it didnt even exist.

Whats up wid dat?

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Funny thing is you see Mark Prince cheering it on all the while his lawsuit was dismissed like it didnt even exist.

Whats up wid dat?

TMM vs. Shellee Hale is based on the sort of "reporting" you show when you say our case was dismissed. Obviously our case was never dismissed since Shellee is not at liberty to discuss the details with you, just as Mark can't talk about it. But maybe that's why you thought that.

Why are you under the impression it was dismissed? What's the source for that info? What's up widdat?

Cases like TMM's against Hale are important because they're "shots across the bough" of any future attempts to libel or gain cheap page views from false controversy.

While Mark was quite happy with the outcome of our case, I'm afraid TMM might not want to just settle, but go for the jugular.

If I ever say anything about that case, I'll get my facts straight first.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

TMM vs. Shellee Hale is based on the sort of "reporting" you show when you say our case was dismissed. Obviously our case was never dismissed since Shellee is not at liberty to discuss the details with you, just as Mark can't talk about it. But maybe that's why you thought that.

Why are you under the impression it was dismissed? What's the source for that info? What's up widdat?

Cases like TMM's against Hale are important because they're "shots across the bough" of any future attempts to libel or gain cheap page views from false controversy.

While Mark was quite happy with the outcome of our case, I'm afraid TMM might not want to just settle, but go for the jugular.

If I ever say anything about that case, I'll get my facts straight first.

Catsup Head I dont consider myself a reporter at all. What I have to say is covered in the US under fair comment as its my humble opion.

I only go by what Im told as far as the court case where you sent your "legal" documentations by Fed Ex.

Was this "settled" like the 20 million dollar out of court settlements that Michael Jackson made over the years?

He didnt want to talk about those either.

[TheEnforcer]

Well, it will be interesting to see where this all goes....

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

Cases like TMM's against Hale are important because they're "shots across the bough" of any future attempts to libel or gain cheap page views from false controversy.

That is of course if the controversy is in fact false, which is something I haven't seen entirely settled yet, at least not in a way I can understand it.

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Catsup Head I dont consider myself a reporter at all. What I have to say is covered in the US under fair comment as its my humble opion.

I only go by what Im told as far as the court case where you sent your "legal" documentations by Fed Ex.

Was this "settled" like the 20 million dollar out of court settlements that Michael Jackson made over the years?

He didnt want to talk about those either.

What you wrote isn't covered by fair comment. It was a statement of "fact", which was erroneous. The case wasn't dismissed.

You are wrong.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

What you wrote isn't covered by fair comment. It was a statement of "fact", which was erroneous. The case wasn't dismissed.

You are wrong.

He said... she said...

Care to back up any of your claims with documented facts?

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by gonzo

He said... she said...

Care to back up any of your claims with documented facts?

I could ask the same of your claim.

That litigation, involving Montreal-based live-cam company 2Much Internet Services, recently ended in a confidential settlement before the case went to trial.
"I am allowed to say that I’m happy with it, so hopefully that gets my point across loud and clear," 2Much owner Mark Prince told XBIZ.

http://www.xbiz.com/news/110070

I said, now you say.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

I could ask the same of your claim.



http://www.xbiz.com/news/110070

I said, now you say.

You settled to not talk about each other in an out of court settlement.

Hardly something to brag about.
Just like the ads running on Craigs List for investors last year.

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by gonzo

You settled to not talk about each other in an out of court settlement.

Wow. You acknowledged I was right

Originally Posted by gonzo

Hardly something to brag about.

Take it whatever way you want... but stop and listen to the wondrous, lovely silence, the calm sound of serenity...

Originally Posted by gonzo

Just like the ads running on Craigs List for investors last year.

So relevant, so... à propos!

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by gonzo

You settled to not talk about each other in an out of court settlement.

Hardly something to brag about.
Just like the ads running on Craigs List for investors last year.

Mr. Gonzo,

I am surprised to see that after more than a year you still find it interesting to talk about us, a company whos people and products you hold such little regard for and I would have thought, no interest in. What is it about me that gives you such a hard-on? Is it the way I walk?

Did I post the fact that we were looking for investors last January on Craigs List? Of course ! And so what? Investors are good.

Now. 2M vs. SH is settled. And when we wrote up the terms of the settlement, one of the terms within the terms was that both sides remain confidential. We both signed it, and both walked away and put the matter behind us. And that my friend, was the end of that. I know you miss the drama but for God sakes man, get over it. Move on with your life, and - Oops, wait, sorry, I forgot who I was talking to.

I was talking to GONZO of OPRANO: The "Big Boy" who scrapes whole articles from legitimate news sources and short-changes the value of their content by copy-pasting it on to Oprano in a weak attempt to generate page views, search engine relevance and discussion, while simultaneously begging to be recognized by the industry as legit, and sell adspace to advertisers.

You = Fail

"The business of porn"? No. XBiz is the business of porn. Ynot is the business of porn. Xnations is the business of porn. Netpond is the business of porn. Cozyfrog is the business of porn. GFY is the business of porn.

Oprano is closer to "The Bitterness of Porn".

By the way, you should also stop referring to GFY.com as "The Zoo". You come off like a jealous little wannabe every time you do. Not very flattering for the great Gonzo.

You could achieve some real respect in this domain if you didn't accuse anyone who gets bigger than you of being corrupt, skimming or fraudulent.

Unlike you, we do not resent the "big boys" in the business or feel any jealousy towards them. We admire their business acumen and seek to achieve just a little piece of what they have. You just try to hide your inability to expand or get bigger in this business behind some phony concept of integrity and honesty of "amateur" being real porn. Stop your grandstanding and accept your littleness.

"There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong."
- Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s (1988). Hunter S. Thompson

[PORNSTARGLOBAL™]

Originally Posted by 2MuchMark

Mr. Gonzo,

I am surprised to see that after more than a year you still find it interesting to talk about us, a company whos people and products you hold such little regard for and I would have thought, no interest in. What is it about me that gives you such a hard-on? Is it the way I walk?

Did I post the fact that we were looking for investors last January on Craigs List? Of course ! And so what? Investors are good.

Now. 2M vs. SH is settled. And when we wrote up the terms of the settlement, one of the terms within the terms was that both sides remain confidential. We both signed it, and both walked away and put the matter behind us. And that my friend, was the end of that. I know you miss the drama but for God sakes man, get over it. Move on with your life, and - Oops, wait, sorry, I forgot who I was talking to.

I was talking to GONZO of OPRANO: The "Big Boy" who scrapes whole articles from legitimate news sources and short-changes the value of their content by copy-pasting it on to Oprano in a weak attempt to generate page views, search engine relevance and discussion, while simultaneously begging to be recognized by the industry as legit, and sell adspace to advertisers.

You = Fail

"The business of porn"? No. XBiz is the business of porn. Ynot is the business of porn. Xnations is the business of porn. Netpond is the business of porn. Cozyfrog is the business of porn. GFY is the business of porn.

Oprano is closer to "The Bitterness of Porn".

By the way, you should also stop referring to GFY.com as "The Zoo". You come off like a jealous little wannabe every time you do. Not very flattering for the great Gonzo.

You could achieve some real respect in this domain if you didn't accuse anyone who gets bigger than you of being corrupt, skimming or fraudulent.

Unlike you, we do not resent the "big boys" in the business or feel any jealousy towards them. We admire their business acumen and seek to achieve just a little piece of what they have. You just try to hide your inability to expand or get bigger in this business behind some phony concept of integrity and honesty of "amateur" being real porn. Stop your grandstanding and accept your littleness.

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong.
- Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s (1988)

Ouch

[softball]

Netpond is the business of porn.

I don"t want to interrupt this fine discussion, but you gotta admit you just shot yourself in the foot with that. It kinda wrecks the whole post.

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

I don"t want to interrupt this fine discussion, but you gotta admit you just shot yourself in the foot with that. It kinda wrecks the whole post.

Perhaps...

There may be some problems over there (I've never done business with them so I don't know for sure), but I'd still file them under "business of porn". I hope that whatever the issues are that they get them worked out.

[softball]

Originally Posted by 2MuchMark

Perhaps...

There may be some problems over there (I've never done business with them so I don't know for sure), but I'd still file them under "business of porn". I hope that whatever the issues are that they get them worked out.

The business of porn is littered with train wrecks like Ibill, Batts, JMM et al. IMHO, there will be a few surprises in the next year and you might be searching this thread to see what you actually posted. Every so often I go back as far as boards will allow and the quotes (including my own) are priceless. The opinions of the so called experts were wildly wrong. See who is still around and making a living next year.

[2MuchMark]

Agreed, although I'm not sure the term Trainwreck applies everywhere. I prefer to think "spiraled out of control". We used to use Probilling as a payment processor. I'm not sure what went wrong with them but one day they stopped accepting Visa and a week later, Mastercard was gone too and then suddenly no more checks. Their own forum was an ugly mess of name calling, unconfirmed theoires from users presented as facts, etc. Every ugly thing that could be said about them was said, and it became impossible to distringuish the truth from the non-truths (to me, anyway).

Then one day about 3 years later, Probilling called us up to confirm our address, and we received a check for almost $22,000 USD from them which was equal to about a week's worth of billing for us at the time. Somehow they stayed alive and paid out. Pretty cool.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by 2MuchMark

Did I post the fact that we were looking for investors last January on Craigs List? Of course ! And so what? Investors are good.

I don't want to argue about the other issue...
How did this work out?

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

I don't want to argue about the other issue...
How did this work out?

Hi EmporerEJ,

Honestly? Not very well. We had many replies but none were interesting. Almost everyone wanted a 50/50 "deal" on all gross sales in exchange for nothing of interest back.

One person called just recently and sounded like a used car salesman. Without asking a thing about us, he went on and on about who he was and what he could do, etc. When I told him that it was unfortunately too late, he got very upset and started yelling. After a rant that went on for almost 2 minutes he hung up. Very strange!

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by 2MuchMark

Hi EmporerEJ,

Honestly? Not very well. We had many replies but none were interesting. Almost everyone wanted a 50/50 "deal" on all gross sales in exchange for nothing of interest back.

One person called just recently and sounded like a used car salesman. Without asking a thing about us, he went on and on about who he was and what he could do, etc. When I told him that it was unfortunately too late, he got very upset and started yelling. After a rant that went on for almost 2 minutes he hung up. Very strange!

Yes, quite distressing.
The adult industry is it's own worst enemy. If there was less people trying to steal other's ideas and work, and more working together, there would be more advancement and protection for all.
Then you have companies that come along and claim to be legitimate investment funds, that only turn out to be scams.

Funny, that. The adult industry has the product that always has a market. You'd think there would be a way for people to be able to invest "cleanly." If someone can crack that nut, they'll have it all.

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

Yes, quite distressing.
The adult industry is it's own worst enemy. If there was less people trying to steal other's ideas and work, and more working together, there would be more advancement and protection for all.
Then you have companies that come along and claim to be legitimate investment funds, that only turn out to be scams.

Funny, that. The adult industry has the product that always has a market. You'd think there would be a way for people to be able to invest "cleanly." If someone can crack that nut, they'll have it all.

So far, we've been pretty lucky. We have met only a few people who tried to rip us off (some more famously than others). Overall though this has to be one of the coolest industries I've ever been involved in. Trade shows like Internext and especially Qwebec Expo have proven this to me again and again.

Best of all, the indsutry really knows how to have fun. Check out the Ambush Interview of MediaGuy over at GFY. Not only are the questions great but the pictures of shows past involving my employee and best friend are just too funny. In what other industry could you get away with things like that?

Cheers!

[gonzo]

Update

Shellee Hale files a motion in this case for a reconsideration.

http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/t...dia-llc-v-hale

The link to the pdf file is the very last one on the page.
Whats interesting is that at the very bottom of the file / motion you finally find out who made the alleged death threat.

SON!

[DannyCox]

That is really a poor excuse for a death threat. "I'll tell you something, but if you repeat it, I'll kill you" . Jeez, that's stretching things just a bit.

I wish they would all just go away.

[softball]

12clicks?????? wtf is up with that?

[Hell Puppy]

Yah, I'm sure 12clicks is excited to be mentioned in this suit. That doesn't put him in a favorable light from any angle you look at it.

[LAJ]

Fun stuff!

[DannyCox]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

12clicks?????? wtf is up with that?

Use that many question marks again Rhet and I'll have to kill you!!

Oh no, that threat was even published for all to see!

Does it make the threat even worse if I use a mad face after it ??

[softball]

Originally Posted by DannyCox

Use that many question marks again Rhet and I'll have to kill you!!

Oh no, that threat was even published for all to see!

Does it make the threat even worse if I use a mad face after it ??

I just hired armed security.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

I just hired armed security.

I think I've met her.

[softball]

Originally Posted by Toby

I think I've met her.

and her twin sister....

[thepunisher]

it would be great to see what's in store for this

[rabble]

I find the most interesting aspect of this to be the judge's ruling Shellee.
as a blogger, had no standing as a journalist. By the standards he set, that she didn't get both sides of the story, the entire faux(fox) news network would be deligitimized.

Legal Guide Bloggers' Rights at EFF.

[2muchmark2]

Originally Posted by 2MuchMark

Mr. Gonzo,

I am surprised to see that after more than a year you still find it interesting to talk about us, a company whos people and products you hold such little regard for and I would have thought, no interest in. What is it about me that gives you such a hard-on? Is it the way I walk?

Did I post the fact that we were looking for investors last January on Craigs List? Of course ! And so what? Investors are good.

Now. 2M vs. SH is settled. And when we wrote up the terms of the settlement, one of the terms within the terms was that both sides remain confidential. We both signed it, and both walked away and put the matter behind us. And that my friend, was the end of that. I know you miss the drama but for God sakes man, get over it. Move on with your life, and - Oops, wait, sorry, I forgot who I was talking to.

I was talking to GONZO of OPRANO: The "Big Boy" who scrapes whole articles from legitimate news sources and short-changes the value of their content by copy-pasting it on to Oprano in a weak attempt to generate page views, search engine relevance and discussion, while simultaneously begging to be recognized by the industry as legit, and sell adspace to advertisers.

You = Fail

"The business of porn"? No. XBiz is the business of porn. Ynot is the business of porn. Xnations is the business of porn. Netpond is the business of porn. Cozyfrog is the business of porn. GFY is the business of porn.

Oprano is closer to "The Bitterness of Porn".

By the way, you should also stop referring to GFY.com as "The Zoo". You come off like a jealous little wannabe every time you do. Not very flattering for the great Gonzo.

You could achieve some real respect in this domain if you didn't accuse anyone who gets bigger than you of being corrupt, skimming or fraudulent.

Unlike you, we do not resent the "big boys" in the business or feel any jealousy towards them. We admire their business acumen and seek to achieve just a little piece of what they have. You just try to hide your inability to expand or get bigger in this business behind some phony concept of integrity and honesty of "amateur" being real porn. Stop your grandstanding and accept your littleness.

"There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong."
- Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s (1988). Hunter S. Thompson

Looks like Gonzo banned me for this post which is why I had to make a new account. Sorry I struck a nerve there, sweet cheeks.