posted
Jay Leno actually had a clip up the other night about TSWK. I had thought the poor kid had finally gotten off the airwaves and people would leave him alone. But you do have to admit, all the spoof videos where pretty darn funny.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by sarcasticmuppet: This is a high school horror story. I hope those kids got nailed.
I have a hard time seeing what they did as something illegal. If you want to talk about distributing a private tape online, I don't know the legality involved (but the tape was made and left at school...). Was this intended to have as far-reaching consequences for the kid as it eventually did? I can't see how they could have planned for every college and HS student in America to see the video.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I don't think these kids should be held liable. The SWK shouldn't have left the video where others could get it. Was it in poor taste to distribute it? Maybe so. Something they should be held monetarily accountable for? Nope. The kid needs to let it go.
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
The kids should be disciplined, but I don't see why their parents should have to pay out the nose.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Among other things, what they did is rampant copyright infringement, not to mention a significant invasion of privacy (of which there are several possible torts for a civil suit).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I have a friend whose "friends" got her naked in a game of Truth or Dare, took pictures without her consent, then e-mailed her pictures to just about every boy in the school her senior year.
She didn't sue. But I think she had at least as much grounds as this kid...
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Yeah, once something is on the internet... It's like pee in a pool -- you can deal with it, but you can't get it out as easily as you got it in.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Wendybird: The SWK shouldn't have left the video where others could get it.
My understanding was that he was just fooling around in an empty room, and he had no idea the recording unit was on -- then someone found it later. I could be wrong, though.
Edited to add: Reread article and wikipedia, and I see you were correct, Wendybird.
quote:Originally posted by fugu13: Among other things, what they did is rampant copyright infringement, not to mention a significant invasion of privacy (of which there are several possible torts for a civil suit).
But how is that defensible considering the tape was left out in a public place. Also doesn't SWK have to show damages? He wasn't planning on selling his tape, so there are no monetary damages.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by sarcasticmuppet: This is a high school horror story. I hope those kids got nailed.
I have a hard time seeing what they did as something illegal. If you want to talk about distributing a private tape online, I don't know the legality involved (but the tape was made and left at school...). Was this intended to have as far-reaching consequences for the kid as it eventually did? I can't see how they could have planned for every college and HS student in America to see the video.
It does me sad that the only way they can think to make it up to Raza is through monetary compensation, and the only pockets it'll pinch would be the parents. But part of me thinks their parents should have taught them not to be bullying pompous jerks. That's what really irks me -- They posted it with the intent to humiliate and torment him. Ignorance isn't an excuse -- it probably snowballed out of their control, but the decision was already made to put it in such a public place.
If any of this happened on school property, they should have been expelled. Bullying to this degree is unthinkable to anyone, especially an awkward teenager. Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
An artist can leave a copy of their work wherever they want; there might be a case for the finders to have possession of that physical copy (and all fair use rights to it), but distributing it definitely constitutes copyright infringement. He's entitled to make them stop distributing it (as noted, mostly futile) and likely any profits people infringing it have made.
As for privacy suits, he's got a decent case for a private facts claim and possibly an appropriation one.
In those cases, he could get not just damages due to emotional cost but punitive damages, theoretically.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I don't have an opinion on the lawsuit, but the kid played the situation totally wrong. If he had acted like he did it on purpose, as a lampoon, it would have come across brilliantly. Instead of being an object of mockery, he would have been like Adam Sandler: Sandler almost always plays an idiot, but he is generally not regarded as being his characters, and he is widely popular. This kid showed the misfit's typical inability to make light of a situation and roll with things.
(Not that this makes what his fellow students did okay. I'm just saying that this experience need not have been a horrible one for him.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I felt the same way when I read the article, and his willingness to continue the situation in the public light can't help him look any better. If it had been me, I would have made a few more tapes and released them myself online, so I could make a little college money from the advertising revenue.
edit: Rick Solomon, though I hate to praise him, had the right idea when his and the Hilton creature's tape went online. Since the horse is out of the barn, might as well try and make lemonade out of it.
posted
Canadian law is broadly similar to the US; in the privacy area, citizens enjoy if anything greater protections, so he's likely to have even more recourse there.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Icarus: I don't have an opinion on the lawsuit, but the kid played the situation totally wrong. If he had acted like he did it on purpose, as a lampoon, it would have come across brilliantly.
The sad thing is that kids who are teased seem to lack that skill, which is precisely why they are teased.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:The sad thing is that kids who are teased seem to lack that skill, which is precisely why they are teased.
Which is why it's a skill that should be taught as a way to combat bullying in schools. If you don't act like a victim, you're less likely to become one.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I hate to say it, but that doesn't always make it better. I have been in situations where doing that made no difference, or even made the teasing worse.
I attended some really great schools growing up, with some really horrible kids.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Also some times the defense mechanism spirals a little out of control and kids become super agressive and super depensive to combat their awkward feelings. One of my first college suite-mates (3 rooms, common living room) had this going on with him.
He was one of those people who surprise you by being completely unnable to self-depricate; to such an extreme that he would never EVER be humble or low key or the least bit passive. He was extremely defensive and aggressive socially, pushing people around in conversation and generally acting ridiculous. He had quite a few apparent self-image problems, and this had developed as his coping strategy.
Edit: Think of those car salesmen (or such types, wallstreeters, etc) you occasionally meet who you at first think are doing some elaborate impression of a blowhard. Then you realize it isn't a joke, its real, and they have ZERO sense of humor.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Yeah. By the time I was in Jr. High, I was completely unable to take a compliment seriously; I was sure everyone was being sarcastic whenever they said anything nice about me because they had turned on me so many times before. It's not an uncommon thing to happen to kids who are tormented constantly.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I sympathize because I was the same way, quite defensive as a middle-schooler. I was also way too sensitive for my own good, and kids that age can smell fear.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
It's a recent revelation that a lot of kids previously passed over as geeks actually have some developmental disability such as high-functioning autism. Social skills, including putting out cover stories and other such sophisticated methods of addressing bullying, have to be explained and taught to these kids. They don't have the skills to come up with them on their own, and may not even understand them when explained, as their thinking is different than the vast majority of the population. Not saying this kid is autistic, though, he could just be unlucky and not good at fast comebacks.
Posts: 91 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I think if you combed through the phychic depths of every individual, I think you could easily find a frightening disorder of some kind in every child. Even the normal ones suffer from a penchant for cruelty, I know I did, and I wasn't really that normal.
Not showing off, honestly, but I was simply much much smarter than alot of the other kids in my school. (That isn't saying much, if you'd known them). I didn't act it, or try and use it against anybody, but I was also unnable to think like the other kids. So when I didn't "get it," I often felt self-conscious. I was one of those kids who was constantly trying to keep up with conversations having to do with trivial childhood drama, while I was buzzing past the other kids in intellectual persuits like reading and writing. I would get impatient and incredulous at the ignorance or lack of insight some other kids had, and that really showed, so I never had alot of friends who really liked me that much.
Part of me wishes I could have had a "normal" childhood, but mostly I am happy where I ended up. Truthfull I still lay awake nights and recall conversations and interactions I had where I didn't get the other kids or what was going on, and I remember being very frightened and confused alot of the time. So with all that in mind, I am glad I have that kind of experience base to draw from, at least its something to keep me thinking years later.
These days I am known as a really friendly and personable "character" at the music department, because I do lots of impressions and always keep up with lots of people. But all those interactions are based on academics, so when I am called on occasionally to attend a party or go to a bar, I once again feel like an astronaut observing the scene from the safety of my space helmet, complete with the air rushing in my ears and the awkward movement... I just don't GET parties.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Poor kid, he just got publicly outted as being a geek. The video is funny, but it's an uneasy laugh for so many of us, for we're no different from him in our moments when we think no one is watching.
He just had all of our personal nightmares at that age played out across the world stage. It was like waking up from that dream of being in class in just your underwear to find out that you really are living it.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Why is it not wrong to take a video that isn't yours and put it up on the Internet, even if the video was left in a public place? It's probably not worth prosecuting if the victim doesn't want to press charges, but who would like it if their private moments were suddenly displayed for everyone to see?
As the tape is just silly and not pornographic, I think the kid is overreacting and doesn't deserve $160,000. Maybe the kids could be forced to pay a few thousand dollars and earn the money by doing some kind of drudge work for the community?
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I don't think most people are saying it's not wrong, Omega; I think most people are saying just about what you're saying. On top of that, I just think the kid could have handled it better. And kq, I know laughing at yourself doesn't work in every case--I just think it could have been effective here. Not with the kids at school--because I'm guessing this kid's social issues go back much further than this video. Everything I'm reading screams "outcast" at me. But with all the other exposure, this kid could have milked it, rather than acting humiliated, and I believe it would have worked. But of course, this is academic, because clearly everything else we see about his life from this article indicates this was not within his ability.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I gotta add that I haven't seen the video in a few years, but I ran across is randomly today, and I am just amazed. Icarus is so right, It looks like the kid is doing a goof on himself, he almost dances with the bar in a few of the clips, as if he were Chris Farley or something
posted
In Ontario, there is a Safe Schools Act in effect. The act is pretty recent, though. Under it, students who are found guilty of bullying in any way can be suspended or expelled, and the term "bullying encompasses just about everything that people can do to harm other people. If only, if only.
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
I don't know what that kid was thinking when he filmed himself doing that, but he was asking for trouble. There are all sorts of mods of the original video, one matrix themed, one with actual lightsabers in it, and one with clip of him doing the best parts over and over again. I still remember walking into my music teacher's classroom and seeing him watch the video. The reason the video was such a big hit was because people like the Star Wars kid make viewers feel better about themselves, I mean weren't you glad you're not geeky enough to film yourself doing star wars re-enactments. I've seen some messed up videos on the internet these days and if you ask me the Star Wars kid falls into the 'Just Asking for Trouble' category.
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:I just think it could have been effective here. Not with the kids at school--because I'm guessing this kid's social issues go back much further than this video. Everything I'm reading screams "outcast" at me. But with all the other exposure, this kid could have milked it, rather than acting humiliated, and I believe it would have worked. But of course, this is academic, because clearly everything else we see about his life from this article indicates this was not within his ability.
*nods* Like the "Numa Numa video" situation. He was all upset afterwards-- we all thought the video was awesome, and that he shouldn't feel bad about himself!
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
These kids might've bullied him before, and this could have been the last straw.
Like you, kq, I tried to play it off when I was picked on in middle and high school, but my peers just kept at it. The few times I DID snap back at them, they were completely taken aback and left me alone for a while. It was as though they'd forgotten that I had feelings, or something.
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