Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars Kid Cuts a Deal With His Tormentors
An anonymous reader writes "Ghyslain Raza, who gained instant online fame as the 'Star Wars Kid' settled this week with the families of the three classmates who posted his two minute Lucasfilm screen test on the Internet. No details were released but the suit sought damages of $351,000. A victory for the victims of cyber-bullying, or missed chance by thin-skinned Ghyslain to cash-in as the next William 'She Bangs' Hung?"
It may not be always obvious what the right thing is to do when you're in a situation like Ghyslain's. How was he to know that the reaction to how he and his parents handled his situation would be overall frowned upon. He had a chance to make something that was embarrasing work out really well for him. But nobody likes a whiner. I only hope that other kids can learn from his situation and make the most of their own problems.
But first get a settlement.
Insert witty sig here.
When in doubt, sue!
Government's view of the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
It's certainly possible to turn the lemons of Internet infamy into lemonade, but it takes a certain psychological makeup to ride that tiger. I'm pretty sure Ghyslain did what was right for him.
I'd like to sit down and talk with the guy, though...
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
That was so long ago. That kid must be like 30 by now.
...if only he'd found an agent or studio wanting him. It's much much easier to become famous if millions are already familiar with you...
You've got to learn how to laugh at yourself.
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Furthermore, I doubt that it will prevent so-called cyberbullying; it will just remind the more intelligent bullies to wreak their mischief anonymously.
When I think of all the bullies I had to deal with growing up, back in the pre-Web days, and the revenge I could have gotten by spoofing them on a website, well, I guess I'm glad I didn't have that opportunity to do something so easy that would haunt me the rest of my life. It would have been fun, though.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
That is the main difrence the kid had this put on him not buy his own choice
I still think got lemons bla bla you know
Did this kid?
Hey, I'm just your average shit and piss factory.
He had been known for his Slash-dotting...they'd cheer "Slashdot Kid Slashdot Kid Slashdot Kid" and every hot chick in school would be all over him like the geek that he is!
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
"At last we will have revenge"
Is the $350,000 for no one paying him to use the video? Or is it for the humiliation?
All I can say is thank you to the guy for making a federal case out of it (not quite literally) because I had never heard about this video heretofore. Inquiring minds want to know... where can you download this video?
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
1. Raise geeky overweight son.
2. Leave him to his own devices with video recording device.
3. ????
4. Profit!!!
"How was he to know that the reaction to how he and his parents handled his situation would be overall frowned upon."
Is there some instance where you think people will be sympathetic to someone filing a ridiculous, frivoulous lawsuit for... *GASP*... embarassment?
This kid wasted the court's time, wasted resources, and made an even bigger ass of himself as a result.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
When you hear what his life was like after the fact. I doubt some of the more mal-adjusted /.ers would have a different reaction to being harassed 24/7 for something you didn't really want anyone to see. Let's not forget he's a kid; a nerdy, overweight kid (Much like many of us were). It's hard to live with that kind of notoriety so soon in life.
For the record:
He had to drop out of school due to harassment.
He still gets approached by people on the streets about it.
His parents had to hire a private tutor for him.
He ended up on anti-depression medication.
It's not funny, don't laugh.
"Anybody who tells me I can't use a program because it's not open source, go suck on rms. I'm not interested." (LT 2004)
for those who would like to experience the fun again, head to the entertainment.
When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
I guess he'll be suing Google video next - They have quite a few versions of the video on there...
I don't think the Internet nature of the prank really makes a difference. It would be the same if he'd left an unflattering photograph of himself at school, which was then copied around by his classmates. Really, the accusation of bullying shouldn't just be levelled at the three 'pranksters', but also at those who did the actual taunting.
On a related note, it will be interesting to see if the 'Fat Asian Kid' ends up suing.
Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
I think it'd be great if the next SW videogame contained a fat kid jumping around with a lightsaber somewhere off to the side. I dunno if doing so would be enough for LucasArts/whatever game maker to be sued by him, but it'd be pretty damn hilarious.
This guy's the limit!
FTA: And whenever he was in a public place, he said, strangers would call to him.
"Hey! It's Ghyslain Raza! Star Wars Kid, hey!"
This would have been a golden opportunity to autograph pictures, make new videos, and sell them online for tons of profit. But maybe the lawsuit would be more lucrative.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
It appears there was something else on the video tape. We think it's a terrorist training film.
The guys who stole (er, "misappropriated" this video and stuck it on the net for the sole purpose of humiliating this poor kid deserve to be punished, IMO, and here in the civilized world the way that people are punished for stuff like this is money; it's not a perfect system, but it's the best we've come up with so far.
They're just lucky they're not in the US -- the MPAA would have come down on them like the wrath of God for messing with this kid's copyright on his original work.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
had made of himself and left on a shelf in the school TV studio
case solved. plantiff guilty or embarrassing himself. we should not reward stupidity or accomdate it. the more accomodation, the more it appears. now this child/moron has learnd when things go against you, sue
"It's no fun what happened here, but that's the problem with the Internet. Things travel fast."
i believe thats a feature, not a problem. if it was as slow as the postal mail no one would use it for what it was designed...to quickly transmit data
at the risk of sounding un-sensitive, life sucks then you die. deal with it like everyone else or fast forward to the end
i don't care
Without knowing terms of the settlement, the fact that he got something (hopefully) makes me feel good. Bullying is not a harmless little fun like the mod seems to think, judging from his comment ("suck it up kid"). It affects people years down the road, causes relationship problems that take years of therapy to fix. I myself was never bullied, but I have close friends who did, and it's a serious issue, not something to be mocked.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
This kid will look back at this some day and realize his missed opportunity. Seriously. Who hasn't done something similar in private? Most of us got a smile on our face when we saw this - not because we thought the kid was a joke - but because we got a glimpse of the kid inside us. There were several ways to cash in on his fame. Now he comes off as a thin-skinned whining kid.
I've got to belive his parents pursued this and convinced him to go along with the lawsuit. There had to be plenty of ways to cash in on this viral video without going to court. This action will effectively end any pursuit of cashing in on his 15 minutes of fame.
FWIW, I would have lauded people calling me "Star Wars Kid" back in high school. Any publicity is good publicity. Leaving school over this? Sheesh... TOTALY WEAK.
Having been a rather akward teenager myself, I can understand why he decided to file suit against them. I don't know anything about this kid or how he feels about himself or even what he went through on an every day basis before this occured but I remember being in high school and feeling invisible to the rest of the world. Suddenly, one day to have myself posted all over the internet and being the subject of laughter, at the age of 15, would have been psychologically devestating to me. It is easy, for those of us who are adults, to be critical of his choices but we weren't the ones treated this way. We never walked in his shoes and never suffered the embarassment that he suffered.
On the outside, since we have no emotional attachment to the situation, it's easy for us to say "I'd ride that money train all the way to the bank" but that fails to give the situation its true weight. Being 15 is tough enough for most kids without having themeselves publically humilitated by their peers just for a few laughs. I'm not a huge fan of law suits in general, but in this instance I am. The action of these kids was not criminal but it was a terrible thing to do and there needs to be consequences.
So being humiliated in front of, essentially, the whole world isn't any different than having a few photocopies hung up around school? Seriously, that's the story you're going with?
He never really had a chance. Note to parents: Start with Bill or George or Steve when naming a son.
If the kid really never got over it, then I feel bad for him, because, as someone already posted, if he couldn't deal with that, life has some much bigger surprises in store for him. If he was just trying to cash in, then I resent him for taking this approach. Some might argue that it's a fine line between using and abusing the system, but I think this falls far towards abusing.
On that (off) note, what ever happened to William Hung? Guess he ran his 15 minutes into the ground, huh?
I don't see any of the goof-balls who got dressed up, waited in line in NYC for the opening, and subsequently got savaged by Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog http://www.starterupsteve.com/video/Conan-Triumph- Star-Wars.html suing anyone. Look... I feel bad for the kid that he had to drop out of school and all, but suing for over 300k?! That's insane. If I sued every bully that pushed me around in high school, I'd be a rich man. Grow some thinker skin and move on.
Fan-boys of the world... SUE!!!
I mean, he hit the big time! He was on American Dad!
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
[Comment deleted to prevent offending /.'ers]
I hope he got most of that cash. and I don't give a damn about whose "rights" were upheld.
Setting aside all of the legal questions, sometimes you just want people to pay for being pricks. And these guys were pricks.
It's even worse when you are already sorta famous! I made this video one time, with my girlfriend, and it was just supposed to be for us. I mean, it was just us driving around, relaxing on the boat and stuff, but then someone stole it, and posted it on the internet. Man, the guys in my band (I don't want to name them because this is embarrassing enough already) made fun of me, I couldn't do a public apperance without someone commenting about my physique... It was horrible.
He should have embraced his fame. He should have learned to laugh at himself. He should have been booked on late-night TV. He could have completely turned to tables on his tormentors and turned this slight into an asset. Self-deprecation turns the attempt to use humor against you and turns it into an asset that helps you. Maybe if he did that he would have made more money, and ended up happier, not on anti-depressants, and would have actually gotten back at the bullies rather than their parent's assets or liability insurers. Acting like a victim NEVER empowers the victim and only empowers the bullies.
The kids who uploaded that video really need to find a more constructive use for their time[video.google.com].
(IF YOU'RE AT WORK, you might want to TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN FIRST.)
[command INSERTWITTYQUIP failed: insufficient wit]
What's this "Lucasfilm screen test" bullshit in the article summary? The kid taped himself "play fighting". Yes, the play fighting was mimicking Star Wars lightsabers. Yes Star Wars is made by Lucasfilm, but how the hell does him goofing around on video tape suddenly turn into a "screen test"? Was auditioning for the part of Darth Sweaty?
You do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
You do it to yourself, just you
you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
This kid doesn't deserve any money. No more than Paris or Pam/Tommy deserve money.
"Kids teased him at school? Him? A fat Star Wars nerd? I don't believe it."
So that excuses it?
"Oh the horror! People... on the... STREET! He might have to talk to them, or worse yet IGNORE THEM!"
Would you mind posting your telephone number? I know a few telemar^Wpeople that might want to talk to you.
He should have sued his parents for naming him Ghyslain.
KIDDING!
If you're a fat white male, don't make videos with yourself jumping around.
From TFA:
He said the situation left him feeling drained of energy, and that he let himself go and no longer lifted weights to keep fit.
Uhh... I don't really recall him looking all that "fit" in the videos I've seen. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly though.
but if he had from the beginning taken the joke better he could have maybe earned some money and even some respect from his peers.
The guy has talent enough to make millions of people want to watch him over and over, maybe what people enjoyed about the video is the honesty it expresses, someone opening himself completely to the camera.
When the kids started showing the video on projectors, "fear my jedi powers" said with a smile is the correct response, not "screw you guys I'm going home".
Hitler's in the fridge.
I live in Québec too, and I'm just as french as the Star Wars Kid.
However, when I was a kid, I went to a private french school, where everything was imported from France: the schoolmates, the teachers, the textbook and the pedagogy:
Whenever you did something wrong, the teachers would encourage the other students to laugh at you. So, not being the first of the class, I was the Star Wars Kid for pretty much all of the school year.
This helps you quickly build a thick skin where you don't give a flying fuck about what other people think of you. For example, since I bike during all summer, I have no problem at all walking in a bank branch or a shopping mall wearing flashy spandex and people staring at my balls and ass (I must say I don't look like the Star Wars kid, though. And there are plenty of chicks who go apeshit with the spandex - at least, they can gauge at first glance the merchandise).
However, in those days where schools are taken over by psychologists who insist that the kids should not face any adversity at all in their daily experience, it's no wonder that the thin-skinned kids of today will get miffed at the slightest misperception of themselves by others, and the Star Wars Kid case ending in court brilliantly illustrates this fact.
The Star Wars Kid should first and foremost get a life and learn that the most important thing with freedom is not to give a goddammed flying fuck about what others think of you.
You do know he taped the film himself, right? And left it in a public place?
If you don't want to be embarrassed, don't VIDEO TAPE yourself - or at least don't leave the tape laying around.
Whoo, signature!
DesireCampbell.com
I would dare any of these people saying that they've got a thick skin, to post a picture of them, I'd love to edit it on photoshop...
... I would DEEPLY enjoy seeing bullies getting sued for their actions and seeing it stick. The problem lies in the fact that we're already an overly litigeous society and this would only make it far worse. I would like to see true bullies face some serious, life-changing, consequences for their actions, but I'd hate to see some skinny punk-ass kid think he (or his enterprising parents) could go around suing people for causing emotional distress.
I'd also like to lay a [un]healthy amount of blame on this kid's parents. First of all, if he weren't fat, I'd say that this might NEVER have happened. And even if not being obese could have prevented some of it, it's unquestionable that his obesity exacerbated the situation greatly. And whose fault is a child's obesity? Without a medical excuse, it's the parents. And only recently has the media started to actually pay some attention to the problem. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496200/) The damage done to a child who is obese is not just physical, but mental and emotional and the scars last for life. The damage resulting from childhood obesity alone could have been the root cause that made him so vulnerable to being bullied in the first place.
Nothing on the planet will stop all kids from potentially being bullied and/or being bullies themselves. It's actually part of the natural human condition. But adding to it through parental neglect is more than just a shame, it's child abuse and should be addressed criminally just as other forms of abusive/criminal neglect are.
There's not a single law possible to force someone to actually care about the feelings of other people.
There wasn't a single thing in that post that was a troll, you just disagree. Stop abusing your mod points, you're disgusting.
He DID waste the court's time, this lawsuit WAS frivolous, and he engaged in EXACTLY the same behavior that the RIAA does, file suit, wait it out, when the other guy runs out of money or gets tired, propose a settlement because you know your case has no merit.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
First of all, what high-schooler isn't thin-skinned? And seriously, what person aspires to be the next William Hung? Being famous for being completely ridiculous isn't something most people want for themselves, so I don't blame him at all for being more angry than grateful.
The kid missed a huge opportunity. He should have sued for copyright infringement instead, and then marketed himself as the next Chris Farley.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
a victim? He bullied them for their cash. He acted like every victim of bullying MUST act IMO: he fought back with whatever weapons he had -- lawyers, in casu.
It was either that or a kick in the balls. I was a short, skinny kid, and NO bully EVER touched me without being kicked in the balls. They usually learned the first time. One that didn't learned on the second time. Period. If I can't kick you in the balls today, I will tomorrow when you're not looking. Nobody can look over the shoulder all the time.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
For the 2 of you who haven't seen it:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/starwarskid.html
Well? How was he damaged?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
I'm surprised you managed to type most of that faggotry without misspelling most words or spilling your beer, even moreso with your cousin straddling your cock like a rodeo clown while you try to type your opinion on the Internet for it to inevitably be cared about by no-one. Here's an idea -- put your pants on and read a book.
I think he should simply collect the fees like an actor would. If he can't do that because he agreed to the video being published, well bad luck.
I think he "humilated" himself, if it is really humilation, because many other people did similar stunts, not to even mention ST cons. I happily recall the day myself when I was having battles with hockey clubs with that other guy.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Wow...the slashdot crowd never ceases to amaze me. I've only read 1 (yes ONE) comment that has said "Think about this kids feelings". Fuck "thin-skinned", you put yourself in this kids shoes and have the WHOLE WORLD laugh at you...this isn't like your grade school class, it's bigger than that. This is something that could haunt you the rest of your life.
This kid's life had to have been hell since. Odds are it wasn't exactly gravy before either. Why does any child deserve this kind of public humiliation? We should be genuinely proud of him for not taking another approach that some horribly bullied kids take of late: a shooting rampage and suicide. And you wonder why that type of thing happens. It isn't an accident, folks. They weren't fucked in the head to start with. If you torment a child to the extreme, there's no telling what direction they will go - they are too young for this stuff. I have two young boys and I worry about what they'll encounter as they go through school. There was nothing funny about this public humiliation. Nothing at all. Everyone reading this thread should be required to rent the film Welcome To The Dollhouse.
--- What?
You're the Clitoris Guy? That video of you shouting "clitoris!" was hilarious.
Ewen McGregor is now suing George Lucas for publically posting his one-hundred-twenty minute video of Ewen jumping around with his light saber.
This stuff happens, kids get humiliated. It's part of growing up. Your situation is what you make of it. You know, what did he gain by sueing these people? He can't change what happened, so at the end of the day it's a quick way to make some cash off some stupid people, and that's pretty shallow.
Parents should send him money. How many used him as a teaching aid? "Look, this is why you don't record yourself doing something stupid." It's atleast more acceptable than using the celebrity sex tapes as examples.
"He had to drop out of school due to harassment."
No, he CHOSE to drop out of school. He wasn't forced, stop portraying it that way.
"He still gets approached by people on the streets about it."
So what? Ignore them. Yes it is that easy.
"His parents had to hire a private tutor for him."
No, his parents CHOSE to hire a private tutor, because he CHOSE to leave school. Neither of those were anything other than thier choices. And they indicate something subtle you probably missed. They show his parents' acceptance of the idea that shifting responsibility is ok. That running when things get hard is ok.
"He ended up on anti-depression medication."
And this proves what exactly? Isn't this the place where everybody and their uncle screams about "Big Pharma" feeding people drugs to pad their wallets? How are we suddenly using this as justification for anything?
Bottom line, this kid got embarassed, and couldn't take it. How he reacted is his responsibility.
And before the flames start, I think it was probably very hard for him. I have genuine sympathy for what happened (the video) but everything that happened after was his reaction, and therefore his responsibility.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
"You can't blame someone else because of your personal problems."
"Personal problems?" You seem to misunderstand the meaning of the word "personal." At over a million downloads, it became a very public problem.
"He could have appeared on television, done interviews, made lots of money, etc. if only he was proud of being Star Wars kid instead of ashamed."
Simply because some people seek fame and fortune at any expense doesn't mean everybody shares the same desires. It should never be assumed that everybody wants to be famous, lest we lose any amount of privacy we may have left ("Why would you want privacy when you could be famous?").
For entrapment. I mean who wouln't have made this public?
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Well, now we know who the bully at your school was...
Reminds me of a situation at my old middle school. Our teacher reached up to pull down the overhead projector screen and accidentally pulled down the whole unit form the ceiling. She started laughing, so we joined in. All of a sudden, she turns, glares, and yells "Why are you lauughing at me?" One brave soul said, "Ma'am, we're not laught at you. We're laughing with you." to which she replied, "Do you see me laughing?"
I sometimes wonder if she really was laughing or if we just filled it in to justify ourselves. I could also see her initially laughing to counter shock, then realizing that she could have gotten hurt, sobering up, and changing her memories of what she did or didn't do.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Jesus H Christ, what has our society come to. I swear... kids these days.... *obligatory walk-8-miles-through-the-snow-quote*
- tard-of-a-son attitude sued his schoolmates, this kid should have sold the rights to the video to GoldenPalace.com, those guys buy stuff like this up every day... :P
Parents these days are raising a bunch of pussy-whipped allergic-to-everything don't-tease-me-or-ill-sue-you pansies. So you are embarrassed by something you did when you were 15, BIG F'N DEAL, DEAL WITH IT, SIT DOWN, AND SHADDUP..... (classic words of an earlier age's parental wisdom)
Instead of whining about it and complaining to his parents, who then in their over-protecting-I-must-make-the-world-safe-for-my
Chums up, let's do this!
Of course, if he was really smart he would sue AND become famous and happy.
Let's hear it, ladies and gentlemen, for the American vision of happiness: fame and lawsuits!
(Hmm. I'd always thought happiness and fulfillment came partly from the ability to sort of, I don't know, identify and sympathize with other people. Maybe you just didn't get the memo. Sort of like those kids didn't...)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
What bugs me is that I gave money to the buy Ghyslain a new Apple and ipod. People gave over $5,000 in appreciation for the enjoyment they got from his awesome video, including me.
I think taking the money and suing is what bugs me; it would be fine to sue (although I consider it a little socially irresponsible), and it would be better to take the free love from the internet and use your fame for something good like talking about teenage obesity. Doing both just rubs me the wrong way.
and took the pussy way out.
Rather than learn to stand up for himself he will look back at filing a lawsuit to deal with a problem of growing up.
Bullies are a problem and will always be a problem. The solution is to pop 'em in the nose and stand up to them. Take aikido, tae kwon do, boxing, or that fat ass could have just as easily ran a few laps to get somewhat in shape.
For his entire life, he will remember that he backed down from bullies, handled being the "star wars kid" very poorly, and was a big fat pussy.
What the hell? Why are so many of the comments saying things like this? He somehow deserves what happened to him because he wasn't smart enough, wasn't confident enough, didn't take advantage, whatever. Has everyone on this website forgotten what it's like to be a socially inept, outcast 15-year-old? Sure, by and large we've grown out of it, but a lot of us would not have appreciated having something we consider completely humiliating broadcast to the entire world.
You "can't blame someone else because of your personal problems," but what if the problems in question (humiliation in front of a worldwide audience, constant attention from the media and from strangers, drastically increased bullying in school when he was already not the most popular kid around) are in fact a direct result of someone else's actions? Can't you blame them for those actions, especially when they were done maliciously?
Everyone seems to be talking about fame as though it's this wonderful gift. Here's a clue: Not everyone wants it. And not everyone should be forced to want it, just because it's your opinion that he should have seized the opportunity and made a few bucks. Maybe he prefers the lack of fame over any potential profit he could have gotten from it. I know I would hate to be famous. That's not a sour grapes thing, I do have an ego and I would like to be well-respected within my own field, but real fame? Have you seen what the world does to celebrities? It's disgusting, and I'm glad that there's no realistic way that would happen to me.
Should the kid have filed a lawsuit? Maybe not. Personally I would lean towards no. But there's a big gap between "a lawsuit is inappropriate here" and "What's the matter with this kid, he deserves what he got, why is this bullied, insecure 15-year-old acting so insecure and immature? He should just get over it." No doubt he will get over it, but give him a few years -- it took a lot of us that long even without a major roadblock like this.
[END RANT]
I am the man with no sig!
Schadenfreude: The joy of learning from other people's mistakes.
Schadenfreude: Pleasure derived by one person from another person's suffering. In German 'Schadenfreude' is considered to be at best mildly perverse, it certainly isn't something people are proud of.
Even though I can understand his desire for revenge (who couldn't? Most people have some not-so-pleasant episodes in their youth), this is a total bullshit lawsuit and was almost certainly the idea of his lawyers much more than his.
Not that punishment shouldn't be dealt. But the proper punishment for humiliating someone is a solid beating, not the destruction of your financial life for the next ten years.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
You mean...the next in a long line of fat actor comedians to die young due to substance abuse?
Greaaaaaat.
here.
Best regards, A.C.
I wish I knew what the settlement was so I could contribute some money to the families of the kids that put that video on the net. I think the entertainment provided from it is worth a few bucks from each of us. I want to thank those kids that had the vision to see a net sensation in the making. This should not cost those families a dime.
"When you feel alienated from school and everyone laughs at you, you DON'T CHOOSE to drop out. You HAVE TO."
Why?
I'll be waiting patiently for your answer as to why someone would be forced to leave school because they are embarassed.
And keep in mind, every answer you give won't change that he is reacting to other people.
"Of course, you haven't been ridiculized in public or bullied so what the heck do you know."
Exactly the opposite, actually.
Funny how you responded though, attack me because I'm not compassionate enough for you. Is that how you demonstrate how compassionate you are?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
-1 offtopic: Dude, keep your self ontopic. This is about the skywalker boy at not Intelligent Design versus Darwinism .
Now we've opened the door for the Numa-Numa kid and Brian Peppers to start suing too.
I may be one of the few "nerds" that missed this the first time around. Having seen the end result my first thought is that I think the three miscreants that made the video public do need to be punished in some way. Since this is not a criminal act then civil damages because I figure the parents of the three children have not taught such strange concepts like respect and care of others.
On the other hand, having watched some ofthe resulting videos, chuckling at the creative way the raw footage was altered I would hope the parants this youm man woudl show him that even from initial tragedy, something positive and good can come in the end. Not in the monetary reward, but that his acts inspired others to create, adapt and enhance the original playfulness of the SWK.
As a parent of TSWK I'd want retribution to hopefully show those dimbulbs (and their parents) that making fun of people (by releaseing the video) costs. Time to pay. At the same time I would teach my own child to be strong enough to laugh with one's self. To help him grow the inner character needed along a long hard path of life. 10 years from now it would be great to read that TSWK lost the extra pounds, graduated from a top school, and hired the three amigoes to cut the lwan of his well kept McMansion.
I really loved the Drunken Jedi. Reminded me of the times I enjoyed watching bad Kungfu movies where the best fighter was an old drunken monk. Enjoy the money SWK, but even better, use it to grow the inner self.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
If it was a case where the video was taken at face value, then I'd say he missed out on an opportunity. But remember what happened to this video: the kids who put it on the net edited the video to add flactulence when he moved and the words, "Boy - we're screwed". It was edited and put out there to be nothing but embarrasing. He was made fun of his size and his lack of agility for something that, according to the family, should have never gotten into the public domain.
I know that bullying will never stop, and "cyber-bullying" is still bullying using a different medium. However, I'm glad this was dealt with the way it was. When you're made fun of because of your weight/looks/personality, is shouldn't be tollerated at all.
Oh, and whoever says (as another /.er mentioned) that, "...if he's overweight, he should work out..." knows nothing about genetics or his lifestyle.
It is not our abilities that show what we truly are... it is our choices.
If I was him, I'd have seriously cashed in on it. Honestly, people were laughing at him in good humour, not with disdain. He just feels fat, ugly, and underachieving; therefore has really shitty self-esteem, so he doesn't have the sense to realize it's actually working for him. In any case, he did make other people some money, http://www.jedimaster.net/ anyone?
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
Life ain't easy for a boy named Ghyslain..
My middle school bully used a knife to intimidate me, not a video that I made and that I left on a shelf. I had a kid pull a knife on me; he was 15 and already a foot taller and about 40 lbs more than me when I was 13, and still decided to threaten to cut me in front of about 30-50 kids. Was I able to sue, shit no. Not then, not before we all knew that you could sue anything that moves or possibly breathes. I would have loved for one of the He-Man/G.I. Joe movies that my friends and I made(Some nice stop action and clever voice overs)to surface instead of being physically threatend with a real knife in front of a crowd.
I feel sorry for his manager having to take complaints from his mother about how his co-workers bug him at work.
It gives new meaning to meet the creature night at school^H^H^H^H^H^H work.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
It's not like his pants ripped open and you could see that he was wearing girl's panties. Now, THAT would be different (just purely hypothetical; not accusing him of anything like that).
Embarrassment is what you make of it. I understand that it's difficult for most kids his age to shrug off something like that, an impossible for some, but it's his parents' job to try to help him learn to deal with stuff.
I don't think the fat little fucker should of got a dime. He made a video of himself being a jackass, it's his own damn fault.
I see two lessons to be learned here. First, obviously, if you're going to do something that might embarass you, and record it, keep track of the recording. You might say you shouldn't record it at all, but I think that's extreme...you just need to do your best to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Raza failed to do so, so to an extent he brought this on himself.
However, should you come into such an embarassing video, and think it might be really funny if it made its way onto the internet, maybe you shouldn't do it. There is no doubt the posters had nothing but malicious intentions, and now they're paying for it. Embarrasing a classmate on a global scale doesn't seem as funny when you might lose your college fund or your family might lose their house, does it?
They were bullies. They brought this on themselves. This obviously won't undo the harm that has been done, but a little denention or a "stern talking to" wouldn't even prevent the next bullies from doing the exact same thing. This actually might.
Is it possible to think that both sides got what they deserved?
On a side note, I never thought I'd see so many people who are presumably somewhat geeky defending somebody's right to be a bully. Is it one of those "I went through it so you should have to" kind of things? I just seem to sense a severe lack of empathy here.
I read/searched through all of the comments and didn't see anyone mentioning how this kid managed to get on American Dad. That's pretty famous if you ask me! (and something else he could easily collect money for)
How does it change many dyslexics to take a lightbulb?
I was "gifted" in high school (way above my peers academically), geeky, in the ethnic minority, "economically disadvantaged," had The Smiths on high rotation, but I was NOT stupid enough to videotape myself doing something that would earn me even MORE negative attention. Plus, I am not emotionally scarred because of this, mainly because my parents raised me to understand that teenagers are little shits to each other and that was a fact of life at that age. You may say that it is stupid that we should have to "tolerate" this behavior, but we deal with it in the same way we deal with the fact that we have to lock our car doors when we park outside if we want our stereos to be there when we get back to our cars.
Congratulations to Star Wars kid for cashing in on the suffering that every teenager who's not the Alpha Jock or cheerleader goes through.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
This reminds me of the south park episode where eric dresses up as awesome-o, and he finds out butters has an embarassing video of him. Why is it that someone can act like an idiot, record it, and sue someone who releases it. I feel like splitting my pants in the background of a CNN live air show and sueing them for ruining my life due to embarassment
Better watch out with humor that subtle - you might want to try <humor> tags.
Did a google search on this, and found this site. Star wars kid with special effects and other movies! http://www.screamingpickle.com/humor/legends/StarW arsKid
sig here
http://www.uvm.edu/~nogrizov/pics/vids/Star_Wars_K id.wmv
Your Xerox ad is obnoxious. I can't read what you've written and there's no way to block it. It sucks and your site will if you continue to block readers. Check it out in IE.
Architectural Renderings
He was a minor, embarrassed internationally through the use of technology. Minors who commit crimes are granted more privacy and protection by law in many countries, with anonymity in the media and sealed juvenile records. All I see here are comments about how he should just cop it on the chin and take it as a joke. Trivial entertainment for the masses doesn't make it a matter of public interest to intrude on the life of an individual.
Watch it again and laugh
i d
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=star+wars+k
"bullying the bully doesn't change it"
That is absolutly incorrect. It is well know to those of us that beat the crap out of a bully or two in our youth, that a baseball bat to the head will change things very quickly. If you avoid arrest, the bully very quickly learns that you are not a "fun" target anymore.
Bullies need to be hit where it hurts -- the wallet. Parents of bullies don't care what they do to other kids now...maybe they will start when they just had to pay out $100k for their kid's latest incident at high school.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 SU CK IT MP AA
How come if something doesn't go right in the USA, you sue somebody? This just feels so weird to me. Every time you're unhappy, sue somebody. Spill your coffee? sue MacDonalds. Walk into a lampost? Sue the city. Weird.
Surely there have to be other ways to sort out your problems? I agree this kid had a hard time. Hell, I had a hard time at school, got bullied, I sympathise. But a bunch of kids just stuck up some movies on the internet. A third of a million bucks! You have a crazy lawyer mad society. Isn't there another method of 'conflict resolution' in your country (apart from the obvious second amendment 'get the guns out')?
Yes, the kid was hurt, and yes, the images were distributed far wider than, I don't know, if my classmates had found a stupid photo of me and photocopied it a few times, but really...
Let's make a brave assumption - the internet isn't going away, and digital image reproduction won't either. So either your legal system is going to collapse in a few years and you'll all be indentured serfs to some sort of legal aristocracy because you all sue each other on a daily basis for millions and end up owing the lawyers all your money.... or a more sane method of conflict resolution. Why didn't they just get the kids who put the images up to apologise? get their parents to withold their pocket money for a few weeks and buy the star wars kid some sci-fi DVD movies as an apology present?
rant over , grin!
Funny how his reaction to a little prank turned it into a sad day for humanity.
Seriously, you could become famous just by comitting a horrible criminal act. Everyone remembers Leon Czolgosz (OK, maybe you don't remember him off the top of your head - he assasignated President McKinley). That doesn't mean that you necessarily want to be famous for shooting someone.
Nor do you necessarily want to be famous for dancing around like an idiot (unless you are Steve Ballmer).
If Ghyslain had become famous for a heroic act, he probably wouldn't be upset about being famous.
Ghyslain obviously values his dignity more than "fame". Personally, I think that he has more class than someone who becomes a contestant on a "reality" game show.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I'm sure SWK can use this little event to totally mitigate any responsibility he has in his life to being happy. The fact is that he was a nerdy little wuss boy before the video got released. I can absolutely guarantee you that if he was not the kind of person to attract negativity into him life then the dumb video never would have been a big deal (to him). See the one constant in the entire situation is *HIM*. He made the video, it got out, so fucking what. He can't deal with it cause he's too busy feeling emotionally wounded.
Now everyone in his town probably hates him more because he ruined three families lives because the world laughed a video that he fucking made. That he fucking made. That he made. Oops.
In his belief system everyone hates him. That what he attracts. Now he's just a nerdy wuss boy with money.
I just don't have sympathy for people like that because I was a cool kid in school that hung with with nerds too and just because they are socially inept does not stop them from being *assholes*. Stop sympathizing with him and saying that people hate him because he is fat and awkward. Perhaps he was ostracized in school because he's a *asshole*. It's entirely possible.
Leaving your keys in the car is stupid, but that doesn't mean it's ok to steal the car.
While we shouldn't ignore SWK's own role in this, it does not in any way detract from the role the other kids played in it. Namely, once obtained, the video didn't need to be placed on the internet -- that was their decision. And now they're reaping the consequences of it. The real lesson here is "Don't bully litigious nerds".
Besides, I'm sure that if everyone that enjoyed the film sent the sueees $1 (you couldn't have enjoyed it if they hadn't uploaded it, after all), I figure they'd have enough to cover the settlement with enough left over for college too.
I recently heard a tale about the kid who appeared in the old Connect 4 commercial. After it aired, any time he was able to succeed at anything he was taunted with the phrase "Pretty Sneaky, Sis".
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Seriously, instead of suing those people, he should have used the fame, move from talk show to talk show and laugh it off. Yes, people laugh about him. But, thinking back to my high school years, I could imagine they do it anyway. No matter what he does.
The damage is done. And you can't squeeze some fantastic amount of money out of high school kids. Even if a justice system allows you to try it. And no matter if they ever pay, people will keep laughing about it. So what can you do?
You could try to use the fame. Get into comedy, it's a big market and people enjoy laughing about other people. It takes some serious amount of guts. That's a given. But it will take that anyway. People will recognize him. People will go "starwars kid!" everywhere he goes anyway.
The damage is done. Why not make money out of it?
Suing teens is pointless. They don't have money, and they never will when they know that whatever amount they make goes straight to some guy they hate.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
7F23: "When Flanders Failed"
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F23.html
I am not a crackpot.
If you don't like it, quite whining and start metamoderating.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
You're forgetting the fact that the majority of
Are you one of us? Or one of them? O.o
yes you are the only one stupid enough to feel sorry for him.
He made the video at a public school, using the school's equipment. Doesn't that automatically make his "film" public domain?
Yes, he does deserve what happened to him because he lacked confidence and is socially inept. Lack of confidence and ineptitude are BAD qualities in a person and should be discouraged. I have no respect or pity for people with no will power. And I despise those who are proud of these qualities.
:( See how silly it is?
I do not believe that his problems come from the actions of other people. His problems came only from within himself. If they had attempted to bully me, I would not have gotten upset because my attitude on life is different. The difference here is the attitude of the victim not the actions of the provocateurs. Even if he was never bullied this kid would not be happy because of his internal problems, which are his own fault.
If you don't want fame, that's fine. There are still ways to make the most of the situation without becoming a depressed slob. Just have a good laugh at yourself and move on. There are ways to go about it without becoming famous or depressed. Just act proud to be the Star Wars kid instead of acting ashamed. That's all you need to do.
Yeah, I was bullied a bit when I was much younger as well. Apparently so were many others here. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight I can only wish something like this had happened to me then. I can only wish that the me now could have whipped the old me into shape sooner. I realize now that I brought bullying upon myself as much as, if not more than, it was brought upon me. The sooner people learn that lesson, the better.
Non-physical bullying is AOK in my book. Freedom of speech extends all the way up to me being allowed to point at, and make fun of, whoever you want for whatever reason you want. If people who are made fun of are socially deficient, then they will react poorly to this. That attitude only attracts more pestering. People have a right to pester you as long as they don't infringe on your civil liberties. If you are unhappy with your situation, you only have yourself to blame.
Star Wars kid has only himself to blame for his unhappiness. It's a disgrace that some kids have to pay a fortune in money to him for just acting within their rights as kids. When I suggest that Star Wars kid should have sued I meant it as an intellectual property lawsuit, not as an emotional distress suit. If I had my way you would not be able to sue someone else for your own emotional problems. Otherwise I'd be able to sue Bill Gates. His monopoly makes me sad
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
The thing is... it's just not very funny. It's just some poor kid playing make-believe in front of a camera.
The editied version where some creative FX person has transformed his mike stand into a "real" lightsabre (complete with matching sound) is clever... but really, the clip just isn't funny; not even in a "football in the groin" sort of way.
Awkward and painful? Yes. Funny? No.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Look, I don't care about releases and legalistic crap. He taped himself on someone else's equipment and then left it behind. Here's a tip -- if you don't want people to see you, DONT RECORD YOURSELF and especially DONT LEAVE THE TAPE AROUND. If he's upset about this, then he was stupid to do all that, and he has only his own stupidity to blame. It's not like someone opened the door on him in the bathroom or took pictures of him in the locker room. He taped himself.
So yeah, I think if you record yourself and fail to secure the results, that's pretty much giving up control over what happens to them. William Hung signs releases, to other people who record him. When you record yourself, you don't have to sign a release for yourself. Furthermore, the physical tape wasn't his property.
Compare to Mahir Cagri, who was in all fairness ridiculed much, much more than Ghyslain (who as far as I can tell is not widely hated on the Internet), who took the frenzy over his embarassing web page and scored a US tour and lots of women sending him their pictures. Was Mahir "cyber-bullied?"
Cyber-bullying is someone putting your class picture on the Internet and adding pimples and black teeth in Paintbrush (making you look bad), not taking your Star Wars reenactment and adding realistic effects or mixing it into a Kill Bill parody (making you look cool).
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Has it never occurred to you that maturity is a process that takes time? A lot of the torture I went through in junior high would be no big deal to me now, because I'm older and more self-confident and have (I hope) matured a lot. But it was still hell, and it doesn't mean it was my own fault that junior high sucked (at least, not entirely my fault).
Will power and confidence is something that a lot of people lack at that age, even if they later develop it. Why does that make it okay to find the people who don't yet have the advantage of maturity and single them out as terrible people?
I'm not advocating lack of responsibility, I'm just saying people could stand to show a little more compassion -- the kid's reaction may be wrong, but he's still gone through hell, and I don't accept "he made the video" as proof that it's his own fault that other people broadcast it to much of the world.
I realize now that I brought bullying upon myself as much as, if not more than, it was brought upon me. The sooner people learn that lesson, the better.
And you really think bullying people more is the way to teach them that lesson?
If I had my way you would not be able to sue someone else for your own emotional problems.
I don't understand why this keeps getting repeated -- I mean, I agree with your statement, but as I understand it he wasn't suing because he was sad, but because those people maliciously broadcast the video he made to the entire world, which certainly led to a lot of emotional problems for him, but the lawsuit is still a result of specific actions on the part of the other people, not just a vague emotion he happened to have.
Again, I don't really agree with the lawsuit, but I don't understand why everyone is so thoroughly unsympathetic about all this...
I am the man with no sig!
"The kids who posted this without thinking how it would affect his life are the ones who should be learning from this."
Yeah, what they should have learned is this:
"Make sure they can't trace it back to you"
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Comments like yours remind me why I hate internet forums.
First of all, you took what he said out of content. even though he said what you posted. you completely overlooked the main focus of his post, and chose to dwell only what you took issue with - not because it was offensive, but because it hit a nerve with some unresolved issues that you have.
Those kids were just being kids, everyone in that situation would have done the same thing. I would say Raza should have thought how video taping this ridiculous video AND LEAVING IT IN THE SCHOOL TV STUDIO would affect his life. I mean, did he expect no one to see it there?
That would be the point. And guess what? Like it or not, it's true. Young boys have been doing things of this nature for years. Even kids who aren't bullies play pranks on each other sometimes. Not because they're evil - because they're kids. Truth be told, you don't know what the relationship was between the kids. That's today's ultra-sensitive society - everyone's having fun, until someone gets mad, tells their parents, and someone's getting sued. Half of the time the kids intentions weren't even how they tried to depict them as.
But that's not why I hate the internet. I can tolerate views that differ from mine with no problem. What I can't stand is the attitude that's reflected in the comment that you made:
Yeah, I know your type well, if you're what I think you are. How's the gas-pumping business, ya fucking jock?
I take online abuse on a regular basis from people like you, and I wasn't even a jock. Not because I'm rude, because people like you who hold these types of things in. They walk around fine, but the moment they get into a situtation of power, they're hell to deal with. Support forums are full of them all over the internet. You see, after years of being bullied, you have your safe haven where you can say whatever you like to whoever you like, and they just have to take it. Whether their power is in being a moderator, or in having a bunch of friends on the board, they frequently abuse it. They walk around all the time with a chip on their shoulder, making curt and semi-sarcastic, hoping someone says something back so they can let them have it or boot them from a room.
That "Internet John Wayne" crap isn't any less offensive or abusive than the kids that posted a silly dance tape on the internet. At least the kid recorded it himself.
just as a note, civil law != criminal law. we have them both for a reason.
...
personally, i tend to be opposed to the litigious environs we find ourselves in, but i honestly can't be certain how i'd react in that situation. i'd like to think i'd be able to laugh at myself and enjoy the situation, after smacking my forehead for a long time, and maybe even take advantage of the situation, but since it was done out of malice...i don't know. it's easy to stand outside. but as the gp said...it's hard enough being 15. we don't necessarily have the coping skills at that age that are needed for situations like this--especially an overweight starwars geek (and with a name like his).
i don't think i would've done what he did in his circumstances, but since i was only abused in my school system, rather than, i dunno, the entire public world, i can't say for sure.
As far as I understand, he was mostly just the target of endless mockery. I got that, plus constant physical abuse.
Being a teenager was as close to hell as I've ever been. (I dropped out of school at 15 and took the CHSPE, the California High School Proficiency Exam, because I couldn't handle going there any more.)
do you understand it? do you know what he went through? i don't. i wasn't there. i didn't experience his experiences. even if you RTFA and various stories, you certainly don't know how much of the picture they actually paint. to me, it kinda sounds like you're in a pissing contest with a 15 year-old about who's had the worse time of it.
i had some similar circumstances to you--i was 6' by 6th grade, but only exceeded 150lbs once i was in college, at 6'4". i was easily the most bullied kid in my school system for several years (starting my very first day)--it was a relatively small school system, but being teased by 2nd graders when you're in 5th? that seriously sucks. after a few years, people stopped trying to beat me up, and eventually, the bullying all but ceased. i know how much it sucks...
but it sounds like it made you what we call a "hard-nosed bastard."
which is a shame. i don't think it'd hurt you to lighten up a touch. no sympathy? i feel sorry for you. i find that rather sad. and the fact that you say that you would've published it, too...well, that makes me wonder if you learned anything at all from your experiences. did they just make you want to burn anyone else you can, like you got? are you that far gone?
i mean, being a 'fatass' yourself, you don't have any sympathy for being overweight? is it really necessarily 'cause his parents stuffed him full all the time? i mean, could you just not resist eating 12 twinkies every day? is that why you're overweight? i know i'm not slender 'cause i'm anorexic--i eat a lot.
my experiences helped me develop as a person and enhanced my sense of empathy. any i know there are plenty of people who had things worse off than i did. did you grow and learn? or just get angry?
anyway, you're right that it was kinda...dumb? to make the video and leave it lying around, and i generally don't have much sympathy for stupidity, but...hey
lighten up.
And they're not. I don't know what article you read, but you're wrong. The only thing that's listed is the amount of monetary compensation that he was saying his damages were worth.
And that's not the point, either. GP claimed he was damaged, it's up to GP to support his spurious claim or retract it.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
What the hell is the problem with this kid? Im his age, 15, and if this'd happen to me, i'd probably have lots of fun, media attention and earn a lot of money with it, making the bullies jealous. The reaction of this kid just made his whole situation loads worse. I can imagine him being hated everywhere in his school and neighbourhood now. I know i would.
This kid deserves every bit of taunting that he gets.
I've not seen something this dorky from someone over the age of 6. Ever.
Nothing that happens at school will force someone to leave school unless they choose to. Period, end of discussion.
You can try all the ridiculous, inflammatory analogies you want, but it won;t help because you can't answer this question without admitting the kid chose to leave.
Why did he leave school?
And as I've said before, nothing you say will change the fact that he did what he did as a reaction to other people. He chose to react that way.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
The coffee spill is not a fair comparison. McDonalds were sued because they were selling coffee too hot to consume, as a cost-cutting measure. Their coffee gave third degree burns that required skin grafts. Don't be so swift to write of the case as an example of litigation gone mad.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
!. Steal video camera (e.g., "use someone else's video camera without permission"
2. Film self doing something idiotic and potentially embarrassing
3. Wait for someone to post it on that newfangled interweb thingy
4. Sue people who posted your stupidity, counting on those people not countersuing for theft/illegal access/vandalism/whatever other potential charges and damages which may apply
4. PROFIT!!!
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
For those interested, you can find the videos here.
w00t
Columbine didn't do much to stop bullying, did it?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Keeping fit would imply he didn't let himself go and was actually fit at the time of filming. I call shenanigans! At the time of the incident he was already a fatty. What does this fatty look like today now that he, in his own words, has since let himself go?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
1) Videotape self in embarrassing situation (it has to be good)
2) Leave tape in public place and wait for distribution
3) Sue for unauthorized distribution
4) Profit!
If you leave enough tapes around, eventually this will work.
"It's no worse than Nigel, Alastair, Douglas or Trevor..."
You're right. and all of those names scream "I am gay!!!!!"
Original Story
Mr. Raza's lawyer said in a court filing that the video was so widely circulated that one Internet site solely dedicated to the two-minute clip recorded 76 million visits by October, 2004.
Mr. Raza conceded in his examination that he didn't express much anguish when he spoke to Mr. Mukerji in May of 2003 about his sudden fame.
He said he was cautious because "everything I said was textually reported on the Internet. I signalled in more or less subtle fashion my unhappiness."
Mr. Raza -- who appears on the video as a chubby, ungainly young man -- recalled how other students got on tables and chanted taunts at him. "There was about 100 people in those halls. It was total chaos . . . Any opportunity was good enough to shout 'Star Wars!' "
He said in one class, where a document was shown through a projector, other students scrolled the text, mimicking the opening of the movie, as they sang the Star Wars theme.
And whenever he was in a public place, he said, strangers would call to him.
"Hey! It's Ghyslain Raza! Star Wars Kid, hey!"
He left the school and eventually, got a private tutor.
but then again, I'm the Goatse guy.
Because the US has the highest poverty rate of any western nation. Because everyone who isn't rich is insecure about thier financial future, they see any sort of wrong as a way of "winning the lottery", and ensuring some measure of financial stability in thier lives.
"He had a chance to make something that was embarrasing work out really well for him. "\\
Not everyone wants to debase their self respect just for cash.
I surely can, but I don't understand what crazy time has to do with the subject.
(Note for the humor impaired: I know the OP meant temporary insanity)
--
Worst. Sig. Evah.
There was a scene during the Order 66 montage that originally was supposed to involve Ghyslane Raza, where a Padawan takes out a metric buttload of Clone Troopers before being disposed of. Too bad that never happened and they got another kid for the role.
Certainly that would have been the ultimate vindication for the Star Wars Kid. Show him wielding a sabrestaff and kicking serious butt. I'm sure he would have gotten more than $300,000CA for the appearance. He'd be set for his entire college tuition even if he chose to become Ghyslane Raza, MD, Ghyslane Raza, DDS, or Ghyslane Raza, Esq., JD.
Of course, this is the *real* point behind the lawsuit. Make sure young Ghyslane's college tuition is paid for because the parents didn't save enough.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
"worldwide object of ridicule". Think about that for a minute... this wasn't just his friends messing with him, this was the entire world. That's a lot to deal with if you didn't elect to receive that type of attention. There are people like myself who would kill for that kinda publicity for my art, but that's not what he wanted at all, clearly.
stuff |
...it doesn't really seem to me that those involved wanted to create this. For one they didn't create that, he did that of his own free will. The first guy found it, second guy digitized it, it got spread around a little on e-mail. Third guy says he didn't know the two others, just saw a funny clip passed around and made a website which got insanely popular. No, it wasn't nice. Yes, I probably would have done the same myself (and I got harassed at school so don't go all "you don't know what it's like" on me).
I mean, if these three had been working together to create this, then maybe. But this was more a case of pebbles starting an avalanche. Now I'm sorry the avalanche landed on Mr. Raza, but well... I don't think you should be punished for more than you intended to do, or reasonably could expect of consequences. It would be quite another thing if they were harassing him right up to the point where he freaked. But they dldn't, in fact they were as powerless to stop it themselves. Yes, someone found a funny tape and showed it to a buddy or two. That's not a $350000 offense.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
The only thing listed there that could be considered "damage" is the depression, and that usually not actionable.
In other words, no the article did not list the damages, you simply thought they did because you aren't well versed on civil law.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
I've been a victim of bullying almost my entire life. From grade school to work to the Internet. If some bully cannot dig up dirt on me, they just make stuff up. Now that I am an adult I can handle it better and decide not to be a victim and let it get to me, yet the damage has already been done.
This boy didn't ask to be bullied, and he apparently did the screen test and didn't want anyone else to see it. The bullies stole the video and released it on the Internet, now they are paying for it.
Not everyone can handle bullying, and it puts a lot of emotional and psychological damage on a person. It takes a lot to learn to be a survivor rather than a victim as well. For me, it was well over 30 years before I finally came to terms with it and started to try to be a survivor. Only to suffer mental and physical illnesses so bad that I cannot work for a living. I only hope to heal up and get better and get back to work one day.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
I'm sorry I used my last mod point earlier today. Somebody mod this fucking asshole down.
Why weren't they prosecuted if they were thieves? That's a criminal court's jurisdiction, not a civil court's.
"The little morons took something that wasn't theirs with the intent to cause harm"
What harm? He was embarassed, and frankly, if you think that's worthy of wasting a CIVIL court's time, then I'm wasting my time with you.
Here's what really happened. Rich brat does something stupid, tapes it, it gets out, he's embarassed, rich brat's mom and dad give him what he wants (just like they always have) and files suit. Rich kid's parents have enough money to bleed other kids parents dry, so they settle.
You might not like it, and you can make up all the stupid justifications for why you feel how you feel, but all you've done is support a rich spoiled brat abusing the courts to get something his parents never gave him and can't buy him. Self respect.
And even after it's over, he's the spoiled brat "Star Wars" kid, only now instead of being funny, he's that asshole who sued because he was embarrassed.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
> In case you didn't laugh the first time....
You may have a perfectly-working sense of humour. The video is not funny, it's 100% stupid. Some kid jumping around like a Methed Manatee. Big deal.
What's REALLY funny is his claim in court that "he let himself go and no longer lifted weights to keep fit." That fat fuck wasn't "fit" when it was recorded, so unless he had his stomach stapled between then and when he found out it was on the Internet, he's a fat fucking LIAR.
(Full disclosure: I am also a fat fuck and partial idiot; the difference is that I don't claim otherwise.)
"hypocrisy Audio pronunciation of "hypocrisy" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (h-pkr-s)
n. pl. hypocrisies
1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness."
You did it, I didn't. That was pretty snippy, but it just made you look like even more of a cunt, and even better, wasn't even accurate. Now that you're a little smarter thanks to me, how about instead of being such a dick you answer the question?
Why were you complaining to the mods that I was complaining to the mods?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
Thing is, i finally managed to wake up. I had a few friends who helped me do it, and i silently thank them every day of my life. Some people will say I grew a thick skin, became jaded or what-not, but I learned how to laugh back, laugh at myself and/or ignore it.
You don't HAVE to drop out of highschool because you're being bullied. That's a shitty solution and it's not going to fix the root of the problem. my parents thought changing schools would work, but it didn't. the root of the problem is that the person being bullied is being affected to much, taking it too seriously. if you're predisposed to depression, someone poking fun at you will make it worse unless you choose to fix it.
maybe this kid was predisposed to depression, anxiety. maybe he's chemically imbalanced and needs drugs to fix that. i'll echo another poster by saying if the video had this much of an effect, he probably would've hit something else that'd do him in, too...
some people can self-correct (like i did), some people can't (like some of my friends). that doesn't mean that you're absolved from finding the fix for instability in the first place...
Rise up in the cafeteria and STAB them with your plastic forks!
hmmmm ... now he's the "Star Wars Kid with a Lawyer" -- that's a lot worse than some kid who made a videotape -- now he's a real jerk
the Slashdot interview with the kid?
Something I don't get out of this, was the footage in question Public Domain, because: Under questioning, Mr. Laflamme and Mr. Rheault conceded their role in spreading a video that Mr. Raza, then 15, had made of himself and "left on a shelf in the school TV studio". It sounds like if the video was left in a school TV studio, then the kid didn't care what happened to the video. This is public domain right? It just so happened that someone video encoded it cause they thought it was funny, or perhaps they did it to make a fool out of Mr. Raza. To me, it sounds like Mr. Raza's parents saw it as a way to make a fast buck, so they sued the pranksters. Perhaps Mr. Raza should of erased the tape?!?
You are fat, and got picked on in high school.
You feel no empathy for fat kids who get picked on in high school.
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
He left a potentially embarrasing video of himself lying around in highschool. What'd he expect to happen. Personally as a techie & internet wanderer I think people should be able to post whatever the hell they want about anybody. If you cant take the heat, unplug your computer and move to an ice-cave in antatrica. This is a connected world. Deal with it.
When I was in high school, we had to do reports with video presentations. For whatever reason (I think I just thought it was cool at the time), my presentation involved me and a friend doing a "fight." It was quite laughable... it was obvious that the blows were missing by miles (including an infamous bit where I "hit" the guy and he remembered a few seconds later to react) and we thought we could speed it up. Wouldn't you know it, but it showed up in another (much more well done) student movie at our school, along with credits for me being the "martial arts director" for their film (they had no martial arts involved). You mean I could have sued them for massive amounts of money? Dang...
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
... but on a smaller scale.
When I was a freshman in college I slipped and fell in one of the school hallways and it was caught on the security camera. I worked with the guys that took care of the security tapes and they found the segment where I fell and turned it into an animated gif. This gif made its way on to some school forums where it was then edited and added to by other students (think carefully placed ninjas and shurikens).
Essentially everyone at the school knew it was me and thought it was hilarious. All the while I laughed along because... well... sometimes people fall. If you can't laugh at yourself how can you laugh at all?
And as a side note, it didn't "explode" onto the internet because it wasn't all that interesting if you didn't know the school/building/me etc etc. and it's easy to find funnier videos of people falling.
~ph0tik
This did not happen in the US. It happened in Canada.
Kid uses school equipment to make 'tarded video, leaves video on shelf at school, someone in film dept. finds it and posts it on the web...hilarity ensues.
so who committed a crime?
i can see a possibility where a copyright violation took place...i think as soon as someone creates, the work is copywritten...so posting it on the web makes the poster a copyright violator.
but that's not mentioned in TFA...so i guess the court figures because the losers posted the work illegally, they are responsible for the pain/suffering of the copyright holder.
that makes more sense to me. i wonder if it's illegal to videotape people making asses of themselves at the beach or wherever and then posting that on the web, does a person in public have a resonable expectation not to be filemed/videotaped?
I completely agree with you there. Although it does make me wonder about the Numa Numa guy...
Its worth pointing out that this case happened in Trois-riviers, Quebec, Canada, a province which uses french-derived civil law.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, but idle minds are much worse
Are people seriously this stupid? Wait, it's a slashdot story... Okay, I've been bullied since elementary, all through middleschool and through highschool over a number of things. I've been threatened at gun-point outside of school, I get death-threats all the time. If you can't deal with this sort of crap, you don't deserve to really live. I mean, come on. I read a comment from some guy who said he was so 'physically and mentally ill' from bullying that he couldn't work. What a load of shit. People can only hurt you if you let them. Plus, if I were the kid, I'd fucking play up the movie and get even more publicity. Alright, off to rant about other things. Cshank! AWAY!
let me get this straight. kid records himself on rental equipment. returns equipment with tape still in the recorder. tape gets digitized and distributed on the net. kid gets $300k in damages.
bull.shit.
maybe he deserved an apology, but not money.
"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - R. Feynman
But at least you have a charming personality!
Re-read my post. I said no such thing. I'm sympathizing with him because he went through a terrible experience. I don't think 15 is an age where you can really say "Ah, you're a jerk? Then you deserve to be humiliated before the whole world!" If it were, most of us would have deserved that (or maybe still do).
I also don't care that some other more well-adjusted person might have taken what the other children intended to be a terrible experience and made it into a positive one. That level of maturity is something we should strive for ourselves, rather than using it as a stick with which to beat anyone who does not yet have it. One of the marks of real maturity is patience with those who do not yet have it. Give the kid a break.
These kind of responses remind me of the more popular kids in junior high who would harrass me constantly, and when I finally broke down and showed in some way that they were bothering me, would be like "Geez, what's your problem? Can't you take a joke?"
No, I wasn't always the nicest person at that age (I think most of us weren't, if we're honest), but I don't think that justifies that kind of treatment, and I don't think it's okay to humiliate someone, then blame them for minding.
The lawsuit is BS, okay, maybe. But grow up and stop hounding people who are weaker than you.
I am the man with no sig!
For those who would like to (re)aquaint themselves with Mr. Raza here's the video: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/swk.php
Uh, no. The US has the richest poor people in the world. By the standards of the world, our poverty rate is exactly zero. The reason we THINK we have poverty is because our poverty line is defined incredibly high.
http://www.jedimaster.net/ in case there is someone who has not seen it
$300k doesn't sound much like a missed opportunity.
I scrolled through all these comments and no one posted an url to the video? Now I gotta go google it myself...
r %20wars%20kid
to save the rest of you the trouble
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NKt4EhTXrCI&search=sta
Bet they wish that kid had just put on a black trenchcoat and brought a shotgun to school one day. . .
You're an idiot, and if the world was just and fair, you wouldn't be allowed to have those two boys because of the fucked up world view that you're certainly teaching to them as well.
GFY.
Here's an article about bullying:
0 0020.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-19950901-0
If you want to seriously hurt your bullies or if you think it's okay to torment weaker people, you need to read this.
Some of the wording is anti-bully, but in reality bullies need caring for too.
Look at all the MySpace kids posting Stupid (is there any other term for it) videos of themselves for "Content" for their MySpace profiles. Had the SW Kid done this 3 years later, my guess is he would have posted it himself to his friggin profile. Might not of helped him with his "friends Request" though.
where's a link to the video?
Maybe if fatty would have worked out instead of playing video games non-stop, people wouldn't laugh at the dork!
Schadenfreude is actually just the joy of other peoples' misfortunes.
/Just sayin //German (dual)citizen
Freude is joy.
Schaden is injury,loss, or misfortune.
What a whiney loser! Maybe she would date him though. That's about his only chance.
Star Wars Kid Cuts a Deal With His Tormentors
You mean he sued Krispy Kreme for the way all those donuts endlessly tormented him?
I wouldn't normally make a cheap fat joke but something in the article got to me:
He said the situation left him feeling drained of energy, and that he let himself go and no longer lifted weights to keep fit.
Watch that video again sometime. Imagine how the ripplingly muscled greek adonis of that video must look now.
Oh, wait... He was a fat, dorky, clumsy idiot before the video ever got distributed. And distributing the video made him a fat, dorky, clumsy idiot?
I'm not saying it's cool that kids get bullied in highschool but one look at him tells you there's probably not a highschool on earth where he wouldn't have been the butt of endless jokes.
He was overweight, had a lousy haircut, was so mal-coordinated he couldn't stand upright when wiggling a broomstick, and was evidently an affirmed StarWars nerd. This is a kid who, whether bullying is acceptable or not, I think we can be pretty certain was bullied long before this video ever came out.
The one thing that changed was he got a degree of celebrity from this one which shifted it in to something OK to wallow in.
Most kids manage something utterly humiliating during their school lives. They wet themselves. They get dumped in public. They get their asses handed to them by a kid several years younger. Their yearbook picture catches them adjusting themselves. Their dad goes to jail. Whatever the case, they become the talk of the school for a couple of weeks. Their parents give them the tough but true advice, "Don't show that it bothers you and wait it out. In two or three weeks, someone else will have done something stupid."
In his case, the net gave him just enough celebrity to truly wallow. Instead of laughing and saying, "Yeah, it was pretty dorky, wasn't it." then leaving it two weeks to quieten down, he was pulled out of school. Instead of weathering it and waiting for it to die down, he gave interviews. Instead of being told, "Yeah, damn straight it sucks but it happens to everyone. You're just going to have to tough it out." this became "The Internet" and he was handed a great excuse to wallow. The really sad thing is, it's the wallowing that's likely done him the most harm.
Yeah, he'd have always got the odd joke about being the Star Wars kid but it would have died down. Instead, being allowed to wallow, he was able to completely sever all ties with normal teenage society. Instead of being allowed to cry at home every night for a week or two and then slowly face it, he was taken to a doctor and given meds, being told it was a reasonable response to be so upset. Instead of slowly accepting that, yeah, life does suck but you have to deal anyway, he was taught that his problems were someone else's fault and so he didn't have to take any responsibility in moving through them and coming out stronger on the far side.
I hate the bullying I faced as a kid. Some of it still hurts a huge amount. I'm also vastly more successful in life now because I had to come back from it and find a way through rather than was allowed to stay home, get home schooled, and wallow in how unfair everyone else was.
And so, when I hear how a fat kid who didn't exercise was so traumatized by his bullying that he "stopped pumping iron and really let [himself] go," I have to question how much of the problem was the same bullying that sucks utterly but toughens up most of us and how much was him getting a damned convenient excuse for many things that were already true.
How many guys out there "could have gone all the way" in their chosen sport before the got some terrible injury. And how many of them, if totally honest, never would have made it and the injury was a damned good excuse to stop trying and instead talk about what they could have been?
Is he any different other than that one video, that almost certainly wasn't the first time he was bullied, gave him a good excuse to stop trying in life and blame someone else for where he was, most likely, going to end up anyway?
FTFA: He said the situation left him feeling drained of energy, and that he let himself go and no longer lifted weights to keep fit.
Must be tough to no longer have the ripped hard body we see in that video.
So say the bullies. What should the victims do to get it taken care of? Fight? Then you get you ass kicked and it's the same tomorrow.
Not really. I was bullied as a kid too. I had a few fights, lost 'em. It didn't stop the bullying, but it did make it less intense. Until one day I lost it and went totally berzerk on the bully on the bus. Broke his nose and jaw by the simple expedient of sitting on him and punching his face into the bus floor. Some jock type had to pull me off of him, or I would have kept going until I killed the guy. Needless to say, I didn't get bullied after that and had a rather pleasant childhood afterwards.
Sometimes, fighting back works.
That you think everyone that is bullied is asking for it is absurd.
He didn't say that they were asking for it. He said that in order to be a victim you have to think like a victim, and there is some truth in that, despite what you believe.
Who's anb idiot? If you're going to correct someone, you should at least preview your post.
Yeah, that's like, what, $300k US?
As a socially aquard individual, my early teenage years were hell. The physical and emotional torture I suffered produced so many nurotic tendancies that I suffer to this day. Not that I would sue any of my tormentors, only because I had no physical proof to take them all to court. My expenses (such as psychotherapy - which in todays RX world is no longer covered by my medical insurance. I dislike medication, and opted for the harsh, and expensive treatment. ) Since it is a lifelong comitment, I will probably spend well over $300,000 (expecting inflation).
Since this kid has suffered to the point of psychological damage, and with proof of cause, if I were him I would sue as well. If only to offset the costs he will endure in the future. If it evolves into a neurosis that affects his ability to keep a job (Like agorophobia), then he will not only need a nest-egg for therapy costs, but also to suppliment his living expenses should a breakdown occur. His life has been severly altered for the worst. Don't preech that litigation is so bad, when it could be the only thing to keep him out of povery later in life.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
To all except parent: My apologies. I misinterpreted TFA.
Ohhh! Pay Dirt! A pair of half-eaten choco-pants!
Because he kinda sucked with a bo staff.
"If you want to seriously hurt your bullies or if you think it's okay to torment weaker people, you need to read this."
I've never understood why "bullying" can't simply be handled as assault and battery. If someone on the street did to you what is accepted in schools, you'd have a clear, simple case to have them charged with a felony, put in jail, and given something they will have to explain at every job interview for the rest of their lives. I'm not understanding what makes it different in a school. Assaults should be treated as such, albeit, with the appropriate juvenile prosecution. If a school administrator turns a blind eye, though, HE should be the one who does time for the assault. Hard time. 20 to life for conspiracy to commit assault, death penalty if the assault could reasonably have put the victim in danger of life or limb.
I'm totally serious.
You'll never again see a school principal laugh off a bully situation if he knows that HE can go to the LETHAL INJECTION CHAMBER for failing to correct the matter.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Seriously. Have him sue each and every one of the websites for copyright infringement. It was Ghyslain's performance to distribute or not. It should also be worth an easy $25,000 from everyone who created an un-authorized remix. Parody exception doesn't apply since they all used the actual video footage. As every GPL spouting Slashdotter knows, derivative works are copyright infringement. In this country we have DMCA to deal with people who violate other's creative works.
Oh wait, he's Canadian...
Nevermind.
You mean the three families' lives that were ruined because of a video that they maliciously fucking posted for the world to see? That they maliciously fucking posted. That they posted. Oops.
Or have we forgotten that the kids from those three families made a deliberate choice, out of malice, that led to this lawsuit? They had no right to post that video on the internet, and they knew it. They did it anyway, because they were assholes.
I guess this whole "taking responsibility for your actions" thing only applies to fat kids who think they are Jedi.
Utter f*ckin bullshit !
Did dey hurt his widdle feewings ?
grow up, fer fuks sake !
Firstly, last I heard, humiliation isn't fatal.(or even physically painful)
Secondly, how you conduct yourself after being humiliated defines your character.( If he had laughed when taunted, and said, "Yeah, it's me, so what ?"
Thirdly, whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
BTW, I used to get beaten up regularly at school, which continued right up until I smacked one of them back. That resulted in a public fight with around 200 kids in a circle watching. I shit myself (not literally) and wasn't going to turn up, but my friends persuaded me to go. Me and the bully wrestled around for a bit and then the park keeper saw us and threatened to call the police, so everybody split.
Result, never bullied again. Not as a result of the fight (if you could call it that), but because I had shown a willingness to stand up and be counted. Suddenly I wasn't the quiet kid anymore, I was a face, and other kids respected it.
This kid just got himself all over the net for christs sake, and he's *complaining*. He should shoot a sequel ...
the kid is a pussy ass little bitch. i had people dub me with a name in high school bat short for blind as a bat i just went with it and now my fucking nick name is bat. this kid could of just took the name and when people bugged him he could say 100 million plus people downloaded my video i don't see you famous on the net. but no he has to go sue people cause they made him famous. i used to go to school everyday and get poked fun at hey its life it happens people will eventually calm down and you can say hey i just got famous and your not.
-BaT420
Sheesh..
What the hell did the school do?
In my school if 100 students acted that way.. they would be rounded up and their lives would be made miserable for quite a while. No need for lawsuits.. the kids that were acting like monkeys would get in big trouble! (especially if parents were involved)
Though I went to a 3rd world country school.. and they were a real pain in the ass usually. At least extreme massive bullying could be fixed by THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION! What the hell are the Principle and Teachers doing?
This seems to be a common pattern in the US and Canada's school systems. They don't know how to handle the discipline side of things. It should never have to go to courts.
Usually just calling the parents of the offenders does the job real nice.
But doesn't he have all the rights for the video?
...
I mean he acted, he made the video.
X. profit
When people solved problems with bullies with good old fashioned violence.
Seriously, though... I know it's not politically correct to say that violence is the answer, but when dealing with bullies it usually is. The primary reason why things get this bad is because teachers and parents often tell kids that "violence is never the answer," or "use your words" in a situation where that clearly will never win the respect of any peers or gain any satisfaction for the bullied child. All that happens is that bullied children are forced to repress their rage, and bullies are left unpunished and learn that their behavior will be tolerated.
For members of the younger generation, whatever your parents might tell you, in some situations you are better off standing your ground and getting into a fight.
Methed (sic) Manatee.
Now *that* is the funniest fucking thing I've heard in a long time.
He should have sued them for copyright infringement and put the RIAA on the case.
You're probably right, I'd imagine plenty of people here feel like they had a shitty time in school, maybe bullied or had crap treatment from other kids or teachers.
I don't know if its exactly a lack of sympathy though, so much as people thinking, "when I was in school, the legal system didn't come rushing to help me out, why is everyone so concerned about this guy's problems?" Maybe that's not a healthy attitude, I don't know, but it could be why so many people don't like the way it panned out.
We've all been tormented. It's agonizing. We've all tormented. The dorkiness of others brings out the "righteous" malice in us.
0 0020.html
It's a basic social tendency, but it's unhealthy. On one side you have the promotion of groupthink, the creation of cliques, the fostering of a mob mentality where correctness is defined by conformity. On the other side you have the demolition of perfectly valid, even great individuals, and sometimes they pull a Columbine.
The right way to act is to start with values, like the well-being of people, and to promote those values with what you do. Tormenting others does not help. Fostering mob rule does not help. Conversely, hating yourself does not help.
Amazingly, I've seen a few individuals make the change. I don't know if halting the bullying or if recovering self esteem is harder. Neither is easy at all. It's just easy to get into the ugly dynamic in the first place, especially with how public education is set up. And just because you understand this doesn't mean you'll change. But it can only help:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-19950901-0
Keep in mind that bullies are victims, too. Sounds like rhetoric, but check this out: A person's natural inclination is not to give pain to others. A bully experiences enough grief to ultimately break down their good behavior. We know it's not right to hurt others, but it makes us feel better to do it.
We all make mistakes, failures of various kinds, all the time. It's weakness not to stand up to bullies. It's weakness to dominate others to feel good. It's easy to make mistakes, but what's more important is that we care and that we try hard to do what's right. And that takes strength.
If we get to the fact?
;-)
Someone recorded a video manipulating a light saber like in star wars.
Some others people get their hand on the video and sent it to the internet.
And that is the end of the world.
People that over-exagerate on those kind of thing are not helping people to grow. Seriously.
I feel it is the kind of thing that only create conflict, bad atmosphere, etc. Going nuts about those things is negative and force people to restrict themself (and not only for the good).
I was picked on, I will be picked on (some people will bash this thread because of my way to type or my non-english tone). I like to play joke, I like to laugh, and I am not an evil person, nor do I strive to be one. I am often available to help people with difficulties, etc. However I dislike (hate) it if I have to restrain myself from having some fun (without any ev0l intention) just because there is people that will whine at insignifiant thing out there.
If someone pick on someone, be really evil, steal his lunch, etc. Ok... but just posting a video... a picture, common. And it too often take ridiculous proportion.
I just saw on TV, they talked about it and their lawyer I think said something like those kid should do something better, like concentrate on school.
Yeah, life is just school, and it is just work!
Anything else is worthless.
Having fun, laugh, etc. is GOOD. Nothing is wrong with it!
I remember back when I was young, one of my friend's mom, each time he was laughing in the basement, she seemed to suspect something bad.
Is laughing a crime?
Thanks, guys. You definitely put a smile on my face with this little sub-thread.
FWIW, I followed the above-provided link and viewed the guy's video, which I'd never actually seen before(!). Pretty gay. What is somewhat interesting, though, is that someone else had roto'd some light onto this kid's double-edged sabre in another video, and seeing that version made the whole thing look considerably less gay. Still gay, but less gay. If there had been decent sound effects added in, it would've "worked" even more (though still being pretty gay).
I guess my point is that roto and sound fx make a HUGE difference in how these sorts of shots come off... more so than I would've thought, actually. (I bet Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen would've looked pretty lame, too, without the accompanying fx... though not that lame, of course.)
Oh, well. It still must be pretty hard to live this down.
Perhaps -- it wouldn't bother me as much if people were just complaining about the stupidity of the lawsuit and/or legal system (though I don't feel like it's a wholly black-and-white situation even then). But instead, a disturbing proportion of the posts seem to be saying it's the kid's own fault for making the video, or that he should just get over it and not let this bother him, and he shouldn't be such an insecure nerd... I mean... hello? Slashdot?
A lot of the posts really hit home for me, since they aren't really addressing the lawsuit, just the basic pre-lawsuit situation, and end up completely attacking the kid -- but I remember how I felt when I was that age, how terrified I was of, say, giving a presentation to the rest of the class, or doing anything that involved calling attention to myself. Something like this would have crushed me. (Even now, I can't imagine it would be terribly pleasant.) And when the posts are portraying him as a nerdy whiner who deserves to have the world laugh at him if he can't take a joke... bleh. Gym flashback.
I am the man with no sig!
Lucas Films should have just paid for the kid and his parents a weekend at the Skywalker ranch and given him a canned tour of the operations and maybe some extra memorabilia--something nice enough so his friends would be jealous of him. It would have been great cheap publicity, and the kid might feel glad that his video got him the popularity that allowed him the opportunity for the tour.
Sorry, but saying he should have cashed in like the ADULT William Hung is ridiculous. The kid was likely traumatized for weeks, then months about what happened. I'm sure this kid was tormented at school long before he made his tape, and those kinds of damages are hard to repair. How would you guys feel? I'm sure most people who frequent this site can relate to being a little ostracized in school, and wouldn't want to relive that times 1000.
> I bet Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen would've looked pretty lame
:)
Actually, I've seen footage of them doing part of the volcano-planet fight (not a true SW geek, don't remember the name) in front of the green screen. While it wasn't as dramatic as the movie, they were still well choreographed. With a choreographer, Raza G. probably would have looked considerably better (not that that is the point). With that in mind, the flamebait mods on my post were probably justified
The thing you are forgetting is that most people on /. are STILL 15 years old, or in the vicinity. They are emotionally immature or stunted themselves, and really haven't grown up.
Slashdot isn't the great tech site you and I want it to be. It is overrun with dickheads, trolls and teenagers - and they are the ones who can't seem to grasp that the "Star Wars Kid" suffered emotional trauma for no reason than it got some bullies a bit of fun.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-948692585 540352689&q=star+wars+kid&pl=true
This one's far more better.
"Gay"? Are you in second grade?
Reading some of the comments on here, it's painfully obvious that too many Slashdotter are zit covered nerds, empathising with this guy's plight. Most rational people, on the other hand, see the reality of the situation, and aren't willing to accept this guy's "woe is me! I'm a victim!" claims.
I feel no remorse for this kid, I was bullied from kindergarten to highschool and only now in college do I feel like I have friends I can depend on. however, thats no excuse for not just toughing it out, he was given bad cards but he never fought him so tough shit
The other difference?
You don't go about wielding air-lightsabers...
Do you?
With that amount of money he could probably get this girl: http://www.oneluckyboy.com/ She has been known to read Slashdot.
incase not: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NKt4EhTXrCI&search=star %20wars%20kid
The original video is certainly an unfortunate thing to have been discovered. But some of the parodies are pretty good and seem to me to offer a compliment to the Kid. Most of them are just stupid and lame. But somebody put a lot of work into the "Episode III: Drunken Jedi". The lightsaber effects deflecting blaster bolts and even making sparks fly when the Kid hit the curtain behind him at one point, actually made him look cool. And whoever made that Matrix clip out of it, with the Star Wars Kid being Neo fighting off the army of Smiths, is God. Or Chuck Norris.
In my opinion, it's not his fault that what happened to him did. However, a lawsuit is perhaps going too far... but then again, maybe not. But I would have aimed at a lesser, more like 50-100k, settlement.
And then I would have taken that money, got plastic surgery, lyposuction, a name change, and move to the middle of freaking nowhere (with high-speed internet).
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
As far as you can trust the Wikipedia, the videotape was owned by the person who posted on the Internet. What rights to privacy do you have if you videotape yourself on someone else's tape without their permission?
"The cassette was left in a studio for a few months. On or around April 19, 2003, the original owner of the tape discovered Ghyslain's recorded acts and immediately shared it with some friends."
1) Make a dancin' fool of yourself on tape and leave it somewhere inconspicuous
2) Await the magic of the Internet
3) Show parents and convince them of your trauma
4) ???
5) Profit!!
Dude, my stack overflew. Use some ')'s, man, or a few points here and there :).
To do list for Windows
Okay, after reading several comments here and thinking about it, yeah, this kid basically had his life ruined. And, inflicting some sort of distress was certainly intentional on the part of those who released the film.
What I can't get past though is the idea that this consequence should have been in any way foreseeable by a reasonable person. Who knows what the next great internet craze will form around? Flying cats? Obscenity-spouting hedgehogs? Christmas lights? How were those that released the video to know what would happen? It's not like skipping standard safety procedures in storing a dangerous chemical, where you can reasonably guess some of the outcome. In order for SWK to become the net phenomenon it did, you require additional independent action by thousands of others. At the time SWK took off, how many internet crazes like that had there been?
Who added the first set of sound effects? Without those, the SWK video never would have taken off. Did the bullies have anything to do with that bit? Did they promote the SWK video to others at the school? Did they push it to world-wide stardom, or set up any of the domains based on the video?
As I see it, this kid has had his life ruined bit-by-bit by millions of strangers. But the legal system can't exactly go collect a penny from everyone who contributed to making his life hell, as would perhaps be the ideal solution. I don't understand though why the bullies are on the hook for any of the effects after the SWK video became a self-sustaining phenomenon.
Of course, we don't know the settlement amount either.
You're right, it doesn't always work. Doesn't mean you shouldn't keep trying. There was a time when the United States kept mostly to itself. Not anymore and never again. Besides, we're still pretty new at this whole sovereign nation thing. I can think of plenty of older countries that have conquored their way across the world and back for nothing more than money. But to call the United States a bully (i am assuming this was your target nation)? American politicians are damn pansies. Forever compromising. Always afraid of this and that. We put a president in office that wanted to flex some muscles. Oops. Atleast we've all learned a little from it. Oh, come on.. bully? Cocky, maybe. Young and stupid, more likely.
Maybe it's that the US is the most aggressive nation at the moment. That makes us a target to naysayers. Give us a few hundred more years to catch up with the rest of the world's nations in maturity. Heck, only recently has preservation of buildings and lands become an issue. You won't find 600 year old castles on hilltops here. At best a pile of wooden planks that was a shack with D. BOONE carved into a piece. Or an old brick building with cannon balls still lodged into it from our Civil War. Though, i mustn't forget native burial grounds either. Anyways.. i'm rambling, back to the point. So, take your bully argument and shove it up your ass. Have a good day.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
I see.
We all deserve huge lawsuits cause we had shitty childhoods.
What I'm saying is the kid is going to grow up to be an adult that everyone hates because he mitigates responsibility. He's the one that going to be unhappy, and he'll have some money. I guess he can buy a beamer and spend the rest on therapy or something.
My point is that three families are poor and the kid is still a loser.
One dollar is the minimum amount that is considered "consideration" in contract law terms.
It just seems to me that other people are adopting a vindictive attitude because they got picked on in school too.
I'll bet that secretly you wished you were cool too and if you had the social tools to pick on them back again you would have.
I don't have sympathy because I don't think giving sympathy helps people be happy and well adjusted. People with persecution complexes interpret everything as persecution because that is their belief system. 'The problem is *you*, a whatcha gunna do'. I have a buddy that got picked on in high school and he's 30 and he's still depressed about it. The great thing about the past is that it's happening to you any more.
Good lord, what is with people that they keep believing this nonsense? Why do extroverted people insist on believing that introverted people are deeply unhappy about their state, and would be able to have a normal happy life if only they could learn to socialize the way all the extroverts do? Why is there this persistent myth that if only we could learn to socialize and act normally, we would be popular and happy, too? Many of us are happy with our lives and our friends, and don't want to live our lives like you. People like different things. Go figure.
To answer your accusation: No, I did not secretly wish anything like that. I wished, and not at all secretly, that the popular kids would leave me the hell alone.
I'm not ordinarily bitter about my experiences back then -- they were terrible at the time, but I'm over them. If I sound bitter, it's a product of these threads, which are reminding me again that people really don't (care to) understand what a lot of kids go through.
In any case, I can function socially these days, and have on the whole recovered from my "awkward stage" -- I'm even comfortable giving talks in front of crowds, something I understand even "normal" people often dislike -- but I am not an extrovert and have no wish to be, and I will never be one of the cool kids. This is fine with me. I wish people would stop thinking that people like me would be happy if only they could fix us.
I am the man with no sig!
If I read correctly, the settlement easily could have been in that range -- the higher amount was just what they were seeking in court, right? A settlement would invariably be lower, if only because it saves the trouble and expense of following through on the court case. Or maybe it actually mentioned the settlement amount and I just didn't read it carefully enough.
Though I don't know how one puts a realistic price tag on something like this, either way...
I am the man with no sig!
But yes, you're right ... he certainly doesn't appear to be skinny in the video. However, he does jump around with considerable gusto, so he couldn't have been that out of shape.
Schadenfreude: "Oh look, that Jew fell down."
Yeah, the reason some people are bullied is because they dress differently than their peers. Or act differently. Or are smarter. Or are just unlucky enough to piss some asshole off.
Sorry, but no. Nobody has ever been bullied because they are different or smart or fat or thin or what-the-hell-ever. Those are excuses, not reasons.
The reason people are bullied is actually quite simple: They're easy to bully.
Bullies aren't looking for a challenge, you know. They're looking to impress their peers, like everybody else on the playground. Being a bully impresses athe other bullies. It's almost like a group building exercise. Peer pressure and all that.
But the reason they focus on one individual is because that individual is the least likely to fight back and probably the least likely to win such a fight in any case. If the victim fought back, then there's a possible chance for the bully to be humiliated in front of the peers he's trying to impress.
The actual "reason" you're talking about is an excuse. It's not the real reason they pick on the victim, it's just something to latch onto and make fun of. It's a way to hurt the victim verbally/emotionally. EVERYBODY at that age has something along these lines that can be made fun of. There are no perfect children out there. The choice of victim is based on instinct mostly, and humans have evolved to see weakness pretty well. Bullies pick their specific victims because they're most likely to get away with it with that victim.
Simple, really.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
However, he does jump around with considerable gusto, so he couldn't have been that out of shape.
Momentum != gusto...
Others would have reacted in a much more graphical way against their tormentors.
Hey did anybody notice the dates:
- When video was made: November 8th, 1 day before Dylan's birthday, reversed
- When video was pilfered: April 19th, 1 day before Dylan's and Eric's day of death
- The (planned) start date of the suit: April 10th, 1 day after Eric's birthday
Groovy!You have some pent up sexual frustrations. Why don't you try browsing around on http://www.gaydar.com/ - it might help you. If you admit your friends you might be surprised at how supportive they are. But first you have to admit your sexuality to yourself. Whether you tell your parents will have to be up to.
Best of luck. I hope it works out for you.
I would hope to go down as the person who got over it and not the person who was broken by the "tragedy"
We expect a lot more from people than this
> Momentum != gusto...
My thoughts exactly.
Maybe now all the kids from "America's Funnies Home Videos" can grow up and sue their parents.
Must be great to be a lawyer in the USA. I wonder if it's too late for me to go to law school?
Being forced into a difficult situation IS bullying
Were his parents then bullying him by calling him Ghyslain?
How does that work buying (oral contract) $0.25 items from the cheap-ass-quarter-dollar-items store? Or, like, bubblegum?
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
You can handle it just technically, using the law. But that fails to address the underlying problem. Not all bullying is illegal. Adding laws isn't going to help, either.
Bullying is a serious psychological problem. Understand the dynamic first.
Did no one read the article? Out of all the bullies and victims on Slashdot?
There is explicit authorization (assignments) and there is implicit authorization (if it's not in assigned use and you provide the consumables, have fun, just don't break anything). The making of this tape could easily (and I would think probably did) fall within implicit authorization. I know in our high school animation department, you most certainly did not have to get explicit authorization to use the equipment. You had to sign it out so everyone knew where it was, and if you weren't using it for an assignment, you had to yield to someone who would. But outside of a couple weeks a year where everyone had to complete assignments (including you, unless you were already done), there was never an equipment shortage.
Whether you used film, videotape, celluloid, or any other medium, you were expected to provide or pay for it yourself. You were expected to take care of the equipment in your control at all times, and keep people informed where they could find you (and the gear). But you were NOT expected to report what you were doing with that equipment, you just did it. You would be wise to keep your shoots on your person or in your locker, however -- if only to keep someone else from inadvertently recording over it thinking it was an unused tape. There was a crate full of lightly-used videotapes that got bulk-erased from time to time which you could borrow to practice with, and any unmarked tape in this general vicinity was fair game. If you chose to keep one, you bought it.
So if his operation ran anything like ours, he was well within his rights to record it. If he left it lying around carelessly, the other students were well within their rights to watch it before presumably intending to erase it. They did not have the right to publish the contents of a tape they did not make without consulting the creator (who they obviously recognized), and that is where this became an actionable case.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
> Not all bullying is illegal.
Oops. That's going to butt up against the school of thought that anything not expressly forbidden is mandatory.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
...has watched that video way too many times. Seriously.
Read my short stories - You won't regret it.
Yes, I found this to be the case. A couple of things happened in high school which stopped me being bullied:
1) In woodwork class one of the 'lesser' bullies tried to take 'my position' at the table I usually stand at. What I did was simple: I hung on for grim life to that clamp on the table. Eventually he had to go back to 'his' place because the teacher was watching.
2) Woodshop again. One of the smallest (155cm or so) bullys decided to 'leg up' me. This is where you jump into another person with your knee and score them from thigh upwards. When this bully did it to me I did it right back. He couldn't _stand_ after that. I left pretty quickly but didn't hear from him or his 'friends'. I assume either he didn't tell them... or he told them and they decided not to try again.
3) Woodshop - AGAIN. Standing in line. One of the bullys decides to lean over and punch me in the arm. Teachers walk out to take us into the building. I just looked at him. I was thinking 'I can't do anything - the teachers are watching'. I realised later that it got through to him as 'hit this guy and he'll just ignore it'. My brother did that with my step father - no matter how much he was hit with a leather belt on the ass he just took it, didn't cry, didn't say anything. (only later did I learn that the emotional damage is worse).
4) I was bullied by someone 1 head shorter than me. I learned lots from this. In order they are:
- Sometimes it is perfectly fine to smash the crap out of someone shorter than you. They start a fight.. you damn well finish it - FAST
- Ignoring a problem won't make it go away
- Don't put up with it for an entire year
- Don't let others get involved. If one person picks on you, go after them. Not the others. Ignore the others. Deal wih them later.
If someone takes something of yours (the old throw-it-around game) then walk up to the person with the object, they will throw it to someone else, turn around, keep turning (back to them) and do what you need to do. Single punch to the head? fine. Beat the snot out of them? sure. THEN go to the next person... staring meanfully at them. If need be - let them know they are picking a physical fight.
When faced with a group of bullies it's a good idea to get the hell out of there. Yhere is NO reason at all to take a GROUP of people on. Find them later. Alone. There isn't really a need to fight them. Turn up to their house - talk to their parents. 'Ah, well, Billy and 5 of his mates tried to beat me up earlier. I wanted to discuss it with him. You are welcome to hang around and listen in'.
- Don't get mad. Get even. Just do not let them know that someone is waging war against them. Locker trashing is always a good one - don't get caught.
Don't be afraid to get into a physical fight. You may only have to do it once.
Weapons are not a good idea. I took a tonfa to school once. I would have been expelled if the teachers had found it.
some kids started packing "butterfly" pocket knives... especially the bullies liked to flash them around when the adults were not looking. I went downtown and got one too. One bully flashed his to me and I flashed mine out, and said "I hope you are willing to go to jail for murdering me, because _I_ am willing to go to jail for murdering you if we start to fight. I will punch you in the heart." The guy backed down and the word got out. No one _ever_ touched me in junior high.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
--seems to have turned out poorly for the old man.
--I guess there's no victim.. unless you drink it. or pay for it. or refuse to pay for it.
--no victim here, no, no, no..
--i guess it's victimless... if you do the whole wedding inside..and don't believe in symbolism..but then you'd be trapped inside.
--victim: you. you have fewer dollars/drachmas/boogabooga chariot wheels
who would've thought
--well if you took the advice there'd be no pain.
--He must've died instantly, so no pain there
--You're FIRED!
--smoker's suck anyway they deserve to be frustrated and irritable.
--at this point we're all the victims...
--I guess she could have an affair.. oh wait. there'd still be a victim then.
WWAAAAHHHHHH!!! A video of me being a dork that I left in a public VCR got posted to the internet! WWAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
(Sorry, just in one of those moods)
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
How the sum total of your posts are either outright fabrications or useless drivel.
Why is it that the only thing you can think of to say of any value here is either derogatory toward someone else or made up?
I caught you making shit up, and now the best you can do is toss around insults. Who is really behaving like a child there, litlle fella?
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
"Oh yeah this guy's great. I just got through spanking his juvenile ass in another discussion."
Really, that's funny, I though you were the one resorting to juvenile comments about pubic hair, while I was giving sources and quoting facts.
But I do finally understand how you gauge the efficacy of your posts.
The less accurate, more hyperbolic, less coherent, and more inflammatory the better.
And if it goes over with the mentally retarded demographic, or the 8 year old boys, you apparently think you're golden.
Now let me educate you AGAIN.
Facts win arguments. You have yet to provide a single one. 'Nuff said.
But really, pandering to the brain injury crowd isn't something you want to continue, although it may be beyond your ability to do otherwise...
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
fair call, apologies. Still seems crazy!
Therefore, we shouldn't punish the bullies, muggers, murderers.
I didn't say that at all. If you're simply going to make shit up, then there's little point in attempting to have a conversation with you.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I'm still alive, and so are all the people that did their best to drive me over the edge.
Trust me, if it weren't for being able to laugh at it/ourselves, a lot of us wouldn't still be here.
Yes I do believe that Ghyslain Raza is an unhappy kid. I think that's completely reasonable. Just like I don't think you liked getting picked on in school and that made you unhappy too. Obviously you still maintain a belief system that some people get picked on. You think I'm hounding you and define yourself as a weaker person. You want to be left alone but you do things to provoke a response.