The Honor System (2012)
esquire.com
The Honor System (2012)
1–10 of 10 posts
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#2Looking forward to hearing the defense of Bakardy from the apologists for content piracy...
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#3Bakardy's coyness in his writing implies he is an obsessive fan who trying to destroy the object of his obsession so as to acquire meaning from having figured, any way at all, in the life of his target. As though he saw Teller's work and said, "If his story becomes about me, I become like him."
The story to me is less about intellectual property and more about having a stalker. Celebrities, but also just normal people who happen to be attractive have to deal with similar stuff often. If you have something, or even just represent something, you likely develop a vigilence for people like this random character trying to use leverage, blackmail, and other ultimately destructive tactics to weave themselves into your story, so that the story they tell themselves and others can be about you and what you represent, instead of them, and what they know themselves to be. Sad and weird, but also, surprisingly consistent with other variations, just this time with magic.
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#4For anyone curious how it played out: Teller won in a default judgement for copyright infringement; Bakardy "did not participate in pretrial procedures and refused to attend the trial in person".
The judgement included $15k in damages, $30k for costs, and $500k in attorney's fees. Teller had asked for $989,568 in attorney's fees, so it sounds like the only real winner here was the lawyer.
https://www.courthousenews.com/teller-gets-545000-in-magic-f...
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#5Looking forward to hearing the defense of Bakardy from the apologists for content piracy...
I think even the staunchest pirates believe in attribution, something that I suspect is core to this issue. If, upon performing the trick, the entertainer talked about teller and his role in developing it, I suspect very few people would have a problem with it.
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#6For anyone curious how it played out: Teller won in a default judgement for copyright infringement; Bakardy "did not participate in pretrial procedures and refused to attend the trial in person". The judgement included $15k in damages, $30k for costs, and $500k in attorney's fees. Teller had asked for $989,568 in attorney's fees, so it sounds like the only real winner here was the lawyer. https://www.courthousenews.c…
Jesus, $1m in attorneys fees for $15k in damages.
But how did he rack up 1m when it was a default judgment...
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#7Looking forward to hearing the defense of Bakardy from the apologists for content piracy...
I think even the staunchest pirates believe in attribution, something that I suspect is core to this issue. If, upon performing the trick, the entertainer talked about teller and his role in developing it, I suspect very few people would have a problem with it.
That might work for Teller, but clearly not for the other trick inventors in the article who are no longer developing tricks.
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#8For anyone curious how it played out: Teller won in a default judgement for copyright infringement; Bakardy "did not participate in pretrial procedures and refused to attend the trial in person". The judgement included $15k in damages, $30k for costs, and $500k in attorney's fees. Teller had asked for $989,568 in attorney's fees, so it sounds like the only real winner here was the lawyer. https://www.courthousenews.c…
Jesus, $1m in attorneys fees for $15k in damages. But how did he rack up 1m when it was a default judgment...
He had to be served the papers in person, but went completely off the grid. They spent so long trying to track him down (and re-visiting his listed address) that they finally got permission from the court to "serve" the notice by both email and notices in local newspapers running for a month straight.
I'm assuming that Teller didn't do any of that himself and had his lawyers organize it all. This "default judgment" was many months in the making because the guy stayed hidden.
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jesus, $1m in attorneys fees for $15k in damages. But how did he rack up 1m when it was a default judgment...
He had to be served the papers in person, but went completely off the grid. They spent so long trying to track him down (and re-visiting his listed address) that they finally got permission from the court to "serve" the notice by both email and notices in local newspapers running for a month straight. I'm assuming that Teller didn't do any of that himself and had his lawyers organize it all. This "default judgment" w…
I'm kind of a novice/baby lawyer, so I don't want to oversell my experience or expertise, but that's a lot even if there was a service issue like that.
Re: The Honor System (2012)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
He had to be served the papers in person, but went completely off the grid. They spent so long trying to track him down (and re-visiting his listed address) that they finally got permission from the court to "serve" the notice by both email and notices in local newspapers running for a month straight. I'm assuming that Teller didn't do any of that himself and had his lawyers organize it all. This "default judgment" w…
I'm kind of a novice/baby lawyer, so I don't want to oversell my experience or expertise, but that's a lot even if there was a service issue like that.
I have no idea of the actual amount of effort that they went through, but you have to remember that Penn and Teller have a massive show in Vegas, plus television shows, books, speaking engagements, appearances on other TV shows, music videos, movies, video games in the 90's, and more.
So, they're engaged with a ton of different industries, not to mention as stage performers who interact with audience members, they're frequently exposed to the public in risky ways.
They almost certainly have a large and very expensive team of lawyers. What a large team of expensive lawyers would reasonably charge to chase down a defendant across multiple nation's borders over several months, I wouldn't dare to guess.