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bootleg posting
this is truly beautiful. this chick deserves a spunk
award, or something.
A Judge for Sale on EBay, Shipping Included, Isn't
Laughing
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 13, 2004
When Jerald R. Klein, a Manhattan housing court judge,
got a call from a reporter yesterday morning, he had
no idea why he was being bothered at home on the
weekend.
He did not know that his face was all over eBay. He
did not know that he was for sale.
"What are you talking about?" he said. "Yes, I am a
housing court judge. But I'm not for sale."
Advertisement
According to a posting on eBay, an online auction
house, the 55-year-old judge would go to the highest
bidder. After four days, the best offer was $127.50.
The eBay advertisement, titled "Judge for Sale,"
showed a picture of Judge Klein sitting in a courtroom
and grinning at the camera, and then listed a number
of accusations criticizing the way the judge dispenses
justice.
Free worldwide shipping was even included.
Judge Klein has spent 22 years untangling
landlord-tenant disputes in New York City Civil Court.
As he suspected, a disgruntled litigant was the behind
the advertisement, which had eluded eBay authorities.
That litigant is Janet Schoenberg, who is being
evicted on Thursday from her studio apartment in the
East Village. She said she created the ad after
exhausting all other avenues to attract attention to
her case, which she said was being improperly handled
by Judge Klein.
"In today's world, this is how people who are not
celebrities can get their voice heard," said Ms.
Schoenberg.
Ms. Schoenberg, who said that she had never sold
anything on eBay and that it was "ridiculously easy"
to make the ad, maintained that the listing was
intended as a joke.
"I didn't expect anybody to actually bid on this," she
said. "It was satire; it was parody."
Ms. Schoenberg posted the ad on Wednesday. By 10:18
yesterday morning, the site had drawn 6,400 hits and
21 bids, which Judge Klein did not find funny.
"I'm outraged that eBay would post this," the judge
said from his home on Long Island. "I'd like to know
their rules for this. I'd like to know what
investigation they did before they put this out
there."
EBay conducted no investigation before posting the ad,
according to a spokesman, and it never does. Because
of the volume of trade - there are more than 30
million listings on eBay, with 3.6 million listings
added every day - the company cannot screen
advertisements before they are posted on the Internet,
said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.
"We rely on our traders and the public to point these
things out," Mr. Durzy said. EBay is an Internet
intermediary between buyers and sellers, for
everything from baseballs to Texas ranchland. Mr.
Durzy added that the company did use computer filters
to identify improper items and advertisements, but
said they were not foolproof.
Strange things have surfaced before on eBay, some
getting sold, others eventually getting pulled: a
grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin
Mary burned into it; a ghost; a vote from Ohio; even
the Internet itself.
But Mr. Durzy said eBay, which is the world's largest
Internet retailer, even bigger than Amazon, had never
had a judge for sale before.
Within seconds of looking at the ad, Mr. Durzy rattled
off a list of rules he said it violated: misleading
title, misleading description, unauthorized use of a
photo, unauthorized use of a name, illegal product.
"You're not allowed to sell human remains or human
beings on eBay," Mr. Durzy explained.
Mr. Durzy also said Judge Klein was listed under the
wrong category, maybe a small thing, but another
violation nonetheless.
Ms. Schoenberg listed her advertisement under the
heading "Sporting Goods, Archery, Arrows,
Shafts."
"Shaft has multiple meanings," explained Ms.
Schoenberg, who said she once worked as a comedy
writer. "Again," she emphasized, "this is parody."
But Mr. Durzy said eBay was no place for parody.
"It's a place for people to buy and sell goods," he
said.
Ms. Schoenberg countered that the judge himself was
never for sale. In fine print after the list of
complaints, in which she accuses Judge Klein of lying
and breaking the law, she explained that her posting
was a "work of art" and that what was actually for
sale was an audiocassette of the judge's proceedings,
which are public record. She said the tape proved that
she was being wrongly evicted from her rent-controlled
studio, where she has lived for the past six years.
But eBay did not buy it.
Within 90 minutes of learning about the ad from a
reporter, eBay officials removed it. "It is a thinly
veiled personal attack," Mr. Durzy explained.
But before the ad was removed, it had already been
posted on dozens of Internet-based message boards,
including dozens of sports Web sites, advertising
"Crooked judge for sale."
Devereux Chatillon, an expert in First Amendment law
at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, a New York law
firm, said that even though the advertisement was
gone, it could still spell legal trouble.
"It doesn't look to me like a parody," Ms. Chatillon
said. "It looks like angry commentary. And if it's
based on statements that are wrong, it could be
libelous."
Ms. Schoenberg said it had never occurred to her that
what she was doing could get her into trouble.
"I really didn't think of that," she said.
Judge Klein would not comment on the potential libel
issues. He said he was going to discuss with his court
administrators what to do next.
"Judges are ill equipped to fight eBay," he said,
clearly frustrated yesterday afternoon, before the
advertisement had been pulled. "How do I fight
eBay?"
edit i've since been informed mr. klein is actually a bit popular among the judges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/nyregion/13judge.html?oref=login
http://www.bugmenot.com
award, or something.
A Judge for Sale on EBay, Shipping Included, Isn't
Laughing
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 13, 2004
When Jerald R. Klein, a Manhattan housing court judge,
got a call from a reporter yesterday morning, he had
no idea why he was being bothered at home on the
weekend.
He did not know that his face was all over eBay. He
did not know that he was for sale.
"What are you talking about?" he said. "Yes, I am a
housing court judge. But I'm not for sale."
Advertisement
According to a posting on eBay, an online auction
house, the 55-year-old judge would go to the highest
bidder. After four days, the best offer was $127.50.
The eBay advertisement, titled "Judge for Sale,"
showed a picture of Judge Klein sitting in a courtroom
and grinning at the camera, and then listed a number
of accusations criticizing the way the judge dispenses
justice.
Free worldwide shipping was even included.
Judge Klein has spent 22 years untangling
landlord-tenant disputes in New York City Civil Court.
As he suspected, a disgruntled litigant was the behind
the advertisement, which had eluded eBay authorities.
That litigant is Janet Schoenberg, who is being
evicted on Thursday from her studio apartment in the
East Village. She said she created the ad after
exhausting all other avenues to attract attention to
her case, which she said was being improperly handled
by Judge Klein.
"In today's world, this is how people who are not
celebrities can get their voice heard," said Ms.
Schoenberg.
Ms. Schoenberg, who said that she had never sold
anything on eBay and that it was "ridiculously easy"
to make the ad, maintained that the listing was
intended as a joke.
"I didn't expect anybody to actually bid on this," she
said. "It was satire; it was parody."
Ms. Schoenberg posted the ad on Wednesday. By 10:18
yesterday morning, the site had drawn 6,400 hits and
21 bids, which Judge Klein did not find funny.
"I'm outraged that eBay would post this," the judge
said from his home on Long Island. "I'd like to know
their rules for this. I'd like to know what
investigation they did before they put this out
there."
EBay conducted no investigation before posting the ad,
according to a spokesman, and it never does. Because
of the volume of trade - there are more than 30
million listings on eBay, with 3.6 million listings
added every day - the company cannot screen
advertisements before they are posted on the Internet,
said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.
"We rely on our traders and the public to point these
things out," Mr. Durzy said. EBay is an Internet
intermediary between buyers and sellers, for
everything from baseballs to Texas ranchland. Mr.
Durzy added that the company did use computer filters
to identify improper items and advertisements, but
said they were not foolproof.
Strange things have surfaced before on eBay, some
getting sold, others eventually getting pulled: a
grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin
Mary burned into it; a ghost; a vote from Ohio; even
the Internet itself.
But Mr. Durzy said eBay, which is the world's largest
Internet retailer, even bigger than Amazon, had never
had a judge for sale before.
Within seconds of looking at the ad, Mr. Durzy rattled
off a list of rules he said it violated: misleading
title, misleading description, unauthorized use of a
photo, unauthorized use of a name, illegal product.
"You're not allowed to sell human remains or human
beings on eBay," Mr. Durzy explained.
Mr. Durzy also said Judge Klein was listed under the
wrong category, maybe a small thing, but another
violation nonetheless.
Ms. Schoenberg listed her advertisement under the
heading "Sporting Goods, Archery, Arrows,
Shafts."
"Shaft has multiple meanings," explained Ms.
Schoenberg, who said she once worked as a comedy
writer. "Again," she emphasized, "this is parody."
But Mr. Durzy said eBay was no place for parody.
"It's a place for people to buy and sell goods," he
said.
Ms. Schoenberg countered that the judge himself was
never for sale. In fine print after the list of
complaints, in which she accuses Judge Klein of lying
and breaking the law, she explained that her posting
was a "work of art" and that what was actually for
sale was an audiocassette of the judge's proceedings,
which are public record. She said the tape proved that
she was being wrongly evicted from her rent-controlled
studio, where she has lived for the past six years.
But eBay did not buy it.
Within 90 minutes of learning about the ad from a
reporter, eBay officials removed it. "It is a thinly
veiled personal attack," Mr. Durzy explained.
But before the ad was removed, it had already been
posted on dozens of Internet-based message boards,
including dozens of sports Web sites, advertising
"Crooked judge for sale."
Devereux Chatillon, an expert in First Amendment law
at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, a New York law
firm, said that even though the advertisement was
gone, it could still spell legal trouble.
"It doesn't look to me like a parody," Ms. Chatillon
said. "It looks like angry commentary. And if it's
based on statements that are wrong, it could be
libelous."
Ms. Schoenberg said it had never occurred to her that
what she was doing could get her into trouble.
"I really didn't think of that," she said.
Judge Klein would not comment on the potential libel
issues. He said he was going to discuss with his court
administrators what to do next.
"Judges are ill equipped to fight eBay," he said,
clearly frustrated yesterday afternoon, before the
advertisement had been pulled. "How do I fight
eBay?"
edit i've since been informed mr. klein is actually a bit popular among the judges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/nyregion/13judge.html?oref=login
http://www.bugmenot.com
no subject
no subject
parodies cannot be ANGRY
That article is very funny. Judges don't appreciate the finer jokes of life.
Re: parodies cannot be ANGRY