Friday,
November 24th, 2000
Luke Gets Mail
Goddess writes: Ya know, a little tofurkey would have turned that whole dreary Thanksgiving thing upside down for ya, Luke.
Frank writes: Luke, I know the feeling of loneliness and depression you speak of, today I spent the holiday with a roomful of family and couldnt have felt more alone. I would have much prefered to be alone with my toast as you were. I know where youre coming from.
Muzman writes: I thought your site was to inform people about the porn industry,as in,new starlets,upcoming releases,etc.instead we get industry infighting,legalise talking, and jewish raving. Is it just me,or have all you insiders,lost the plot
Fran writes: Your site rocked this last week...your baby lawyer friend Jones is correct in many ways (from my perspective as a lawyer and an 'outsider'). 200,000 complaints is pretty damn significant. Denying the seriousness of the RJB and industry billing problems, and blaming 200,000 wives is crazy.
Lynne writes Luke: I was pleased to see during my recent brief perusal that your site is going strong, and that you have reenergized your interests in degradation and sex via the troubles at AVN. You are always so irresistible when you are gloating over others' misfortunes that your dating must be going strong as well.
Rich Botto from RJB Telcom writes: Back from 2 grueling days of meeting with the FTC. Didn't get back to the middle of the night (busiest travel day of the year in America), which is why you are getting this update now.
Let me start with what was accomplished and then I'll get into dispelling some myths, rumors and BS that keep popping up. Our meetings were draining, but enormously successful. At this moment, we have a preliminary agreement in place which (without getting into too many details at this point) would give us control of our company and unfreeze the assets. NOW, the agreement IS in place...All parties have agreed to it. From here, it will be passed to the hierarchy of the FTC on Monday morning. They need to sign off on it. We have no reason to believe they won't. At that point, it is then faxed to the judge who signed off on the initial FTC complaint..Once he signs, the agreement is valid and goes into effect immediately.
We are confident that this whole process will happen on Monday, Tuesday the latest. The first course of action IMMEDIATELY thereafter will be to pay the webmasters. Obviously, this is great news.
We continue to contend that we have been wrongfully accused of the allegations in the complaint. I continue to be amazed by the so called "expert" lawyers who have chimed in with their opinions and the rest of the armchair quarterbacks that think they have a clue. I think it would be safe to say the NO two people know more about this case than Bob and I. Although I am not going to talk about all aspects of the case (one day I will, I assure you), let me tackle some of the BS I have read and blind the speculators with fact.
1 - The main focus of the complaint revolves around credit card cramming. To date, of course, no evidence has been provided to back that up. That should be no surprise.
2 - People keep making this into a dialer case. That simply is not true. The dialer issue represented less than 10% of the complaint. Additionally, it represented less than 5% of the exhibits. Also, some of the accusations (and exhibits) regarding the dialer referenced use of it back in February and March. We did not start using it until May. Therefore, as far as the dialer is concerned in THIS case, it is a moot point and hasn't even been a topic of discussion since the first 2 minutes of the first meeting with the FTC...That is a fact.
3 - The focus of this case has fallen upon fraudulent WEBMASTERS. We have proven our case that we do not participate at all in consumer fraud. To the contrary, we attempt to prevent it. This is all I am willing to say at this point. However, we believe that we have shown to the FTC that we are the good guys. Both sides agree that this case should be wrapped up as quickly as possible. That alone should speak volumes.
The fact that we have a preliminary agreement in place in only 3 1/2 weeks should speak to the lack of evidence in support of the original allegations. We all know that there are a ton of people out there with agendas...And there are still more who are acting like sharks who smell blood. I expected nothing less. But if you want the truth and you want facts, keep it tuned right here and you'll get it as it happens. Don't believe the hype...Max Cash isn't going away.
Brandy Alexandre On The Warpath
Brandy Alexandre has taken the next step toward the courtroom in her effort to stop websites from using her name to attract traffic. Her attorney, who will remain anonymous until court filings due to the stalking and harassment behaviors of people involved, drew up demand letters seeking payment for damages for the infringing use of a federally registered trademark. Demands were sent to over 20 websites that used the name Brandy Alexandre without providing the content such use was promoting.
"I dropped some of the demands based purely on the manner in which the recipients addressed the issue. One of them just because the guy was a Navy vet like my dad. A couple ponied up the money immediately knowing they've been caught red-handed. But it's truly amazing how completely, totally, and unfailingly ignorant some people are with regard to trademark and copyright issues. They conduct business based on what amounts to no more than 'urban legend' knowledge of the law. There's one guy who, no matter what, is going all the way to the courtroom just because of the nasty response he sent that included the weirdest interpretation of fair use I have ever seen."
I asked if it was Bianca Trump and Brandy said, "No, but she's definitely included. I'm sure hers will go all the way, too, because she really is THAT stupid." When I asked how much value she was placing on her name, "I went easy since this was the first notice to most of the people on the list. I asked $1,000 per use. It would be best for BT if she paid the demand. She personally placed a value of $10,000 on my name through trying to auction of the squatted domain, and stated in several places and to several people that she registered my domain name maliciously and vindictively. Any judge who sees that she thinks it's worth $10,000 will make her pay $10,000. And thanks very much to her I have the resources to pursue it."