Dave: just stop. you’ll do and say anything to get what you want. even lie. even delete previous messages and reverse your opinion.

http://eyeonwiner.org/archives/2008/dave-winer-is-loren-feldmans-puppet

http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/davefeldman.png

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/13/the-rules-apply-to-everyone/

you have no integrity. you have no core ethics. it’s just all about you all the time.

This latest blowup began when Winer questioned Arrington’s integrity because TechCrunch is one of the suggested users recommended on Twitter. Winer sent a direct message to TechCrunch writer MG Siegler telling him to “stop fucking with RSS” because of an article arguing that RSS is dead. (Note that the article was by Steve Gillmor, not Siegler — Winer is a fucking genius.)

As you can see, Arrington is using Eye on Winer as a resource to document Winer’s hypocrisy. We compliment him on his good taste. They were best bros going back to the early days of TechCrunch — Arrington once served as his lawyer — but Arrington seems to have figured out why so many people in tech will never work with Winer.

If you know anyone else who hasn’t learned this lesson, send them to us.

I understand Ms Hartwell’s point of view. I hate it when people copy a whole post of mine and paste it into theirs. But then I grab bits of images and put them on my blog and people rarely complain. The blogosphere is built on being loose about copyright and fair use. … Bloggers are supposed to be radicals when it comes to fair use and copyright, but that generalization doesn’t work with many creative people. Hartwell’s position in some ways is like the RIAA or MPAA, who bloggers often dismiss as clueless.

It’s worth pointing out that the “father of modern-day content distribution” has used the entire web as his free stock image library for years. He’s grabbed hundreds of icons and photos on Scripting News without crediting the sources, such as this lederhosen photo that he used without credit.

Winer’s actions don’t come close to fair use because he’s not making comment on the graphics in any manner. He’s just using them as decoration to make his blog more visually interesting. This doesn’t make him a radical; it makes him a leech. The rationalization that it’s OK because no one complains is interesting. Since he doesn’t link to the creators and he hosts a copy of the images on his server, how would they find his infringement?

• WhyGoogleSucks.Com
• WhyAppleSucks.Com
• NextMacQuestion.Com
• CloneTheGoogleApi.Com

Eye on Winer recently caught him squatting the name of a critic, an obnoxious stunt that inspired ValleyWag to call him a “crusty old web wanker.” (You’ll get no argument from us.)

The whois records for the domains show that Winer dropped them before they were set to expire. Did Google and Apple put the screws to him? Google’s attorneys have gone after hundreds of cybersquatters in domain name arbitration for using “google” in their names, winning every case.

Because Winer is class all the way down, he didn’t just rebuke Irelan on his site. He registered the domain name NickIrelan.Com:

Domain Name: NICKIRELAN.COM
Registrant:
Scripting News, Inc
2 1/2 Third St
St Augustine Beach, Florida 32080
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Created on: 24-Jan-07
Expires on: 24-Jan-08

Administrative, Technical, Billing Contact:
Winer, Dave dave@scripting.com
Scripting News, Inc
2 1/2 Third St
St Augustine Beach, Florida 32080
United States
(206) 369-0687

Registering someone else’s name in bad faith violates the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Winer could face fines from $1,000 to $100,000 plus attorney’s fees if found to have broken the law. Irelan’s not a public figure — he’s a college student according to his LinkedIn profile — so Winer can’t defend his actions by claiming he intended to use the domain to comment on him.

Irelan tried to add Winer’s cybersquatting stunt to his Wikipedia entry, but it was quickly deleted by other editors, even though the proof’s right there in the WHOIS database.

If anyone knows a lawyer who could help Irelan get his domain name, please comment here. I’ve sent Irelan a link to this blog.

Update [~EoW]: After this story got picked up by ValleyWag, Dave wrote in (to VW) to say that he’s released the domain. I’ll believe it when I see it, but apparently the heat was a little too much for him. Score one for the good guys.

At the risk of stating the obvious: something new happened. Most likely, Dave ran up against an unfavorable term of his mediation settlement and now wants to bitch. But let’s take a look anyhow.

A few weeks ago I found myself in a room with a half-dozen lawyers, I was the only non-lawyer present, and guess who was paying for all those lawyers’ time?

Now… his mediation was more than “a few weeks” ago, so either he’s being sloppy, or Dave has managed to get himself in trouble again. It would be interesting to know which. Also worth noting: odds are that at least one of those lawyers was supposed to be representing him. If not, he showed up to a gun fight with a kitchen knife. Big surprise he didn’t like what he got.

You don’t dare criticize them for fear they’ll send you a subpoena and tie you up in court for the rest of your life and take everything you have.

Enter: self-contradictory statement.

When I talked with another lawyer about it, in a social context, she suggested I shouldn’t seek revenge. That’s how lawyers think. I wasn’t seeking revenge (although inside I do admit I enjoy the fantasy of decapitating an imaginary lawyer). What I want to do is fix the system.

You might notice that Dave never really tells us what’s wrong with the system or how to fix it. Anything tech related and he’d have covered both of those things straight away. Instead he decided to just hurl insults. But nooo… he doesn’t want revenge.

I say that in a deliberately challenging way, because I’m sure there are some lawyers who care about the lousy way their profession deals with the rest of us.

Frankly, I think our profession does a fine job of policing its own behavior. So does congress (otherwise they’d have started doing it long ago). I doubt that Dave has made any complaints to the Bar association for this alleged unethical conduct. If someone broke into your house and stole your belongings, would you call the police, or would you go on the internet and berate society for allowing it to happen to you?

We need to reform the legal system in the US. But no reform will take place until it’s possible to take a lawyer up on ethics charges without having to be represented by a lawyer.

Amazingly, this is already possible. File a complaint with the Bar. Go to the local law library and study up to represent yourself in court. I’m really not sure what more he wants than that.

If a lawyer sues you, sometimes just saying This Lawyer is Suing Me is enough to get them to think again.

Only in Dave’s world does a law suit cast a greater shadow on the person suing than the person being sued.

It all goes back to Dave’s Grand Unifying Theory: that he can do no wrong. Look at all of his posts through that filter, and they start to make sense. Frankly, I think Dave ought to put up or shut up. Speaking in vague terms about supposed “problems” with the legal system is pointless. It’s the lazy way out. How about defining what those problems might be?

If Dave thinks his method is so good, maybe he should try going into a doctor and saying: “There is something wrong, and I think you ought to fix it.” Then, when the doctor probes for more details, be evasive and insulting. See how long it takes him to diagnose the problem.