We sure do see a lot of intellectual property abuse around here. This has to be the best one yet. Former South Dakota State Representative Ted Klaudt claims that he has a "common law copyright" in his name, and thus any news organization or other publication that uses his name must pay him a licensing fee of $500,000. (source)
It gets better.
Mr. Klaudt apparently started sending notices of his "common law copyright" to news agencies in order to stop them from reporting on the fact that he is serving time for raping his foster daughters. Klaudt was convicted on four counts of rape for fondling his underage foster daughters in "examinations" that he performed on them under the ruse of claiming that he was going to help them sell their eggs to infertile couples. The sick bastard got 44 years in prison for rape and another 10 years for tampering with witnesses in his trial.
Klaudt's letter to the Associated Press claims that anyone who wants to use his name must "file a written request 20 days in advance," and that he would pursue claims against anyone who violated the notice.
I can't be certain what the motivation for this move might be, but I presume that Klaudt doesn't like the fact that news organizations like to inform the public about sick bastards who molest their own kids -- especially when they happen to be lawmakers (or ex-lawmakers as it were). I guess he figured that this would convince a few people to stop using his name.
Guess what Klaudt, you just made yourself even more famous, short eyes.
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From the reporting on this
From the reporting on this incident, I just figured he was part of the hard right "common law" movement, which makes extensive use of phony legal documents, including property liens, using interpretations of the law that are both highly idiosyncratic and (surprise!) highly favorable to the people asserting them. Here's a quick summary from over a decade ago; it continues. I've seen mention of similar claims before--for example movement menbers claiming IP rights to defeat law enforcement demands to see their drivers' licenses or otherwise require them to participate in the modern ID-seeking state--though I haven't done any investigation to figure out whether this guy is part of any organization, such as it is.
New Effect?
Excellent post Marc. Do you think that Klaudting should become the new moniker for the Streisand effect?