J.C. Wilmore is an Idiot- UPDATE

Earlier this week you may have seen this post on RK about someone starting a blog called "The Real Richmond Democrat".  An old, crappy blog called "The Richmond Democrat" already existed.  Apparently the old blog was upset the new blog picked a similar screen name.  Now this is kind of absurd- because this is such a generic screen name that hundreds of thousands of people starting a blog in the Metro Richmond could pick it as a screen name.

Lowell then went totally out of line saying this about this new blog "this is a possible copyright infringement and subject to legal action under both civil and criminal laws".  Absurd. 

In case you are wondering where Lowell got that absurdity, here's a copy of an email the old "Richmond Democrat" J.C. Wilmore sent me before he figured out Peter Feddo was running the new blog:

"Hi Ben:

I don't know if you know who is behind this website:

http://www.therichmonddemocrat.com/node/7 

I thought I would pass along to you the fact that it violates copyright and also a federal criminal statute.

If you know who is responsible for this site, you can do them a favor and tell them to take it down.

On Monday morning, if it is not gone, I am notifying the Virginia State Police and the FBI.

If you do not know who is responsible, then please accept my apologies for wasting your time.

Have a great weekend.

--J.C. Wilmore"

What a complete jackass.  But wait--- it gets even better:

J.C. WILMORE LIVES IN GEORGIA AND HAS FOR OVER A YEAR.  HE DOESN'T EVEN LIVE IN RICHMOND!!! 

I don't think he ever did a single post saying he was moving out of state.  So from Georgia he is maintaining a blog called "The Richmond Democrat" implying he still lives here- and has the nerve to send threats out on email claiming that anyone who called themselves "The Real Richmond Democrat" was violating a "federal criminal statute" and he was going to contact the FBI.

What a complete f***ing idiot. And Lowell is not looking a lot better by helping promote it in order to smear Hillary supporters.  Not only is "The Richmond Democrat" not a name that can be protected because it is so generic (i.e. someone can't name themselves "the the" and cry everytime someone "steals" their screen name)- BUT HE DOESN'T EVEN LIVE IN RICHMOND.  If anything, someone starting a blog as "The Real Richmond Democrat" is MORE TRUE and LESS MISLEADING than J.C.'s blog talking about Virginia politics from Georgia.

UPDATE: IS THIS PHONE HARASSMENT FROM AN OBAMA SUPPORTER??

Comments

He pretends to live in Richmond? He could at least pick a decent city like New York to blog about.

L O S E R

[James Martin]

He threatened to sue me a couple years ago (told me to hire a lawyer) for "Libel" because I called him a liar. In the end- he said he wasn't going to sue me because I didn't have any assets.

Seriously- its a totally different breed of 60-year old bully that threatens to sue an 18 year old.

[Not Ben]

The fact that he doesn't live in Richmond is actually more material than one might otherwise think.

First, the Lanham Act holds that a mark "when used on or in connection with the goods of the applicant is primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive" it can never be protected. (16 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(3))

Even if you account for the fact that Mr. Wilmore may have lived in Richmond when he created the blog, the Lanham Act holds that a deceptively misdescriptive mark cannot be protected without a showing that it has become "distinctive." (16 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(f)). I have a hard time believing that Wilmore's blog would meet that threshold.

Beyond even that, Feddo would have a decent (if perhaps not slam dunk) argument that the term is too generic to merit protection.

[Not Feddo]

Not to mention that anyone who has spent time in Richmond politics knows that Mr.Feddo has spent his entire life in Richmond Democratic politics.

He is to Richmond Democrats what Kenton is to NoVa Democrats.

While this J.C douche' came and went with Jim Webb. I don't even remember him helping us try to take back the state houses! What a moron.

[Greg Kane]

Whew! I was hoping Ben could latch onto another compelling cause like this blog scandal .... this Hillary thing has just been going so badly lately.

[Not Ben]

Not that it is all that important, since I don't see too many people checking the cite, but there should be a comma between the (e) and (f) in my third paragraph above.

[Ben Kyber]

You're done Ben. Your relevance in the state party has finally dwindled to zero.

I will never read your blog again. Its like the National Enquirer of Virginia political blogs. I have better things to do with my time than to watch you singlehandedly bring the Democratic Party in Virginia down. You do nothing but foster division. Its really sad to see that someone who has such an obvious talent for analyzing elections like yourself decided to throw all that out for some cheap, dirty tricks form of personal attack politics.

I used to respect you and this blog used to serve a purpose. Now you've gone sadly astray.

Picking between Feddo and Wilmore is like deciding between eating dog vomit or dog crap. However, in this case the vomit (Feddo) seems to be in the right, while the crap (Wilmore) does not.

[dems4dems]

There are too many lawyer and doctor shows on TV coupled with too many TV "news" (but really entertainment) stories that profess to be legal or medical analysis. As a result, every f***ing idiot thinks he or she is a doctor or lawyer.

[Not Larry Sabato]

JC actually claims to be a real lawyer dems4dems, but I have my doubts with some of the emails he sends.

[Charles]

HADUKEN!!!!!!!!!!

[TDH]

Not taking sides here, but just to mention there's a site called www.raisingkane.com

Ironically, I found this limerick on the site:

The pundits opine and expound:
On sheer nonsense they chew and they pound,
Finding meaning in stuff
That means nothing. Enough!
Watch them frown as they wax so profound.

[Anonymous Is A Woman]

"While this J.C douche' came and went with Jim Webb. I don't even remember him helping us try to take back the state houses!"

Then you either don't have a good memory or you have no knowledge, but JC was in fact quite active and helpful to the Virginia progressive blogosphere during the 2007 elections and also in the special election in the 1st CD.

But more important, Peter Freddo - whoever he is - set out to intentionally mislead readers and to steal somebody's brand name.

If you google The Richmond Democrat, the first site that comes up is JC's and the second site is Freddo's bogus site.

Freddo's fake and dishonest site is called The Richmond Democrat. Then elsewhere in the banner it also says Richmond's Real Democrat.

But the email address and proper title are both Richmond Democrat.

It it's not outright infringement, it's deliberately misleading to blog readers. If it's not illegal (and it may not be) it's still unethical.

If you have a blog, you don't want your name taken over by somebody else.

This isn't just about dirty campaign tricks. This is about the integrity of the blogosphere, which has been breached. We are all vulnerable now.

[VA Blogger]

Not a half-bad post, but why do you assume Lowell is doing it to smear Hillary supporters?

Is playing the victim card just a default position for you guys?

[Not Larry Sabato]

AAIW- That is absurd.

[Anonymous Is A Woman]

To me, it's not about Hillary supporters vs. Obama supporters. And I am not sure any campaign official approved this.

In fact, I've since googled Feddo and he isn't a half bad writer. He didn't need to do something like this. And it is unethical.

Again, none of us would want somebody to just slip our blogs' names out from under us this way.

And it is an embarrassment Hillary's campaign doesn't need. It doesn't help her.

[Demo]

While Feddo can be annoying, J.C. is strange, weird and down right crazy.
These folks are basically arguing about a piece of beach front property in Nevada. get over it, and move on.

[Fan of Integrity]

Doesn't this have to do with Intellectual Property? As in, someone stole JC's IP and since JC is for Obama NLS thinks it's absurd he's upset about it?

But that his IP was infringed upon by a Clinton supporter makes it OK?

[The Richmond Democrat]

Ben must really believe Hillary Clinton is in trouble if he's trying to deflect like this.

Thank you Ben for confirming that Mr. Feddo has received my communications. I wasn't sure whether he was ignoring me or if I had the wrong contact information.

You've removed any doubts and have been quite helpful. It was you, after all, who told me to check out Peter Feddo; that you yourself suspected him.

Thanks again, Ben.

[Not Larry Sabato]

JC, I responded to your email and said there was a Peter in Richmond who helped do a Draft Hillary- and was an active Democrat and webmaster. I didn't say I "suspected" him because he did nothing wrong, and I wouldn't use a word like that when he did nothing wrong.

Ben, your an idiot. The house of Billary is burning down and your write about this BS?!?

Clinton campaign manager out

Clinton's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, left the position today, to be replaced by Clinton's former top White House aide, Maggie Williams. The change formalizes a shift in the campaign's power structure that began to set in after Clinton's win in New Hampshire,"

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Clinton_campaign_manager_out.html

[NoVA Moderate]

I guess I am wondering if "Richmond Democrat" is a trademarked phrase?

More importantly, doesn't "Not Larry Sabato" infringe upon the real Larry Sabato, who does, actually have value to his name and could actually say that he is going to realize a loss (unlike either Richmond Democrats)?

Then again, this is pure 1st Amendment stuff - political speech. I don't think the integrity of the blogosphere is hurting too much.

CATFIGHT!!!!

[Not Ben]

NoVA Moderate, you can get a trademark in common law without making an actual registration of the term, but whether this particular instance would qualify is questionable at best.

[Bryan J. Scrafford]

To be honest, the thing that I keep wondering is -- when will Ben be putting up a "Virginia blogs for Hillary" button on his sidebar like Feddo has up on his sites?