Here’s A New Blog That’s Already Gone To The Dogs! Ha!

TED, where have you been?  many of you, what, six readers have been asking, or, maybe thinking of asking, over the last month.

And then you continue, You’ve been even more erratic in posting crap no one wants to read here at Ted Whosis Dot Com than you usually are! What gives? What’s going on?  Where ya been?

Well, I’ve been in litigation hell is where I’ve been!

Turns out some jackass who goes by the name “Canis Iratus” – which I don’t think is even his real name! – stole a few images from my website. Oh, believe me, I was as outraged when I found out as you are now just hearing about it!

Seems he snagged the images from my post “Reasons to Leave LA #805 – Dogs In Stores” and then took it a step further by somehow accurately describing the locations, dates and general circumstances of where, when and why I snapped each of the photos. And that’s not all, brother! Then he started a Tumblr account with it, the ridiculously named “Dogs Where There Shouldn’t Be Dogs.”

What’s more, the guy seems to have precisely mimicked my signature style of writing overlong, drawn-out posts where, really, just a photo and a caption would do – that is to say, an image and maybe a brief, short, concise cutline or description beneath would get the message across quickly and efficiently, with an economy, or parsity, of words, yet this guy iterates and reiterates and just goes on and on and on and on and pretty much just repeats himself or goes off on some absurd tangent until you’ve completely lost track of whatever point he was attempting to make.

Where was I?

Ah, yes: If that’s not a blatant ripoff of my signature style, brother, I don’t know what is!

So I got my attorney on it right away who sued the bastard – handsome devil, I’ll say that for this Canis Iratus fellow, anyway – and lost the case!

And somehow as a condition of the settlement, I not only have to talk up his site here, but put a link over there, up on the left, so you can click on his site every now and then and go visit it. The indignity! This guy steals my photographic property and copies my style – and I’ve got to promote his website?!  Now you can see why I seem to be preoccupied with the threat of litigation, if this is how my idiot lawyer does with an open-and-shut case like this.

Before I forget: I’m also required to encourage my few Twitter followers to follow the devious son-of-a-gun as well, here – and I will grudgingly admit that if you like the rapier-like wit of my Twitter feed, well, pal, it’s more of the same with him. What’s most galling is I actually compose my own Tweets, such as they are, and his are auto-generated when he publishes a new post.

99¢ Only store content?! Maybe this “Dogs Where There Shouldn’t Be Dogs” ain’t all bad after all!

Oh, yes – lastly: I’m supposed to encourage any and all of you folks to take photos of non-service dogs you see in stores (or other places where they shouldn’t be) and send them over to him for inclusion on the blog. That is, of course, if you agree with his Draconian worldview. Now, you get into any fistfights (or dogfights) for surreptitiously snapping photos of strangers, you bring that up with him, not me!

Well, that takes care of all the terms of the settlement. Well, except for my 120 hours of community service cleaning public toilets at Lanark Recreation Center in Canoga Park. Which actually set a legal precedent because the whole thing was a civil matter that I initiated over a copyright issue.

But at least I’m avoiding jail time, right?

Posted by Ted on June 6, 2014, 5:32 PM.