Legal news, some illegal. All of it interesting
1. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas – Venezuelan Version
Venezuelans, crying deception, accuse Nicolas Maduro of rigging elections. They’re protesting and fighting over no power or lighting. What can a dictator do? He could order them not to be blue. The army is his after all, and his heart is two sizes too small. Instead he got a wonderful, awful idea for a cultural panacea. He’d steal the season of Christmas so people forget the reason they’re listless! By national decree and quite sober, Maduro announced that Christmas starts in October. Deck the halls early, he cried, and forget that election so squirrely. But yule tide cheer didn’t flow, Venezuelans all groaned. Keep the hypocrisy, they say, all they want Christmas Day is democracy.
It came without ribbons, it came without bags, here…
2. Ding Dong the Snack Is Dead in California?
Here’s a zinger for school kids in California. State lawmakers have doused the fires of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and other highly processed, fluorescent snacks by banning schools from serving them. Supporters Frito Lay out arguments that Cheetos and the like are more than just dangerously cheesy. They say the dyes in these products have been caught red-fingered worsening behavioral issues in kids with ADHD. The governor still needs to sign this first-of-its-kind ban. Fear of a children-of-the-corn style uprising stopped him from signing a similar bill last year. Critics call the mandate nothing but creamy filling that demonizes consumer brands and costs schools and families money.
Twinkie, Twinkie, little star here…
3. Zillow Gone Wild Listed as Infringer
If you’ve seen the UFO house in Kansas City (with UFO parking) or the Royal Caribbean cruise ship listed for $10M – there’s nothing better than an ocean view, on the ocean – you’ve probably seen Zillow Gone Wild. The social media account highlights Zillow’s most outlandish listings. Now there’s a new listing – Photographer Done Filed. A photographer accuses ZGW of copyright infringement, claiming it used two of her images without permission. She wants $300K. The account creator says ZGW doesn’t bring in that kind of money – $240 a month on X. Experts are split level on whether this is straightforward infringement or whether it can be flipped as fair use.
4. Silver Medal for Shooting, Gold for the Pose
Olympic competitors in air pistol shooting often wear headgear with blinders and eyeglasses equipped with mechanical irises. Unless you’re Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec. Then you walk up, nonchalantly put your hand in your pocket, and fire, like you’re aiming at beer cans in your backyard, not vying for an Olympic medal on the world stage. And then you oh-so-casually win the silver. But yeah, mechanical irises. His stance went viral as victorious athletes all over the Olympics struck the pose. Now Dikec has applied to trademark his stance. Think of him as a trademarksman. He says he took the action after discovering a bunch of other people had attempted to register his pose.
Not a victim of circum-stance here…
5. Adults Who Disney, Dissed and Dismissed
An Arizona couple wasn’t Mickey Mousing around with their love for Disneyland. They visited 80 times a year, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, including $30K to belong to the exclusive Club 33. But their dreams went Splash Mountain in 2017 when Disney brought the Big Thunder and revoked their membership. A certain mousketeer, the husband, was allegedly drunk in public. The couple sued claiming hubby wasn’t pirates of the Carribbein’ drunk, he had a migraine. But Disney said, oh really Pinocchio? Club 33 forbids public intoxication. An California jury sided with the Mouse House. But the couple says without Disney, their life’s a Haunted Mansion, and they’ll keep fighting.
