On July 25, 2006 Steve Barnes' attorney filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for copyright infringement and defamation against Fred Toucher, Jimmy Baron, Leslie Fram, Cumulus Media Partners (the owners of 99X) and Unihost (the owner of American Pie.) According to the complaint, Barnes and the production company of his independent film No Witness are asking for actual damages or:
statutory damages in the total sum of three hundred thousand dollars for Defendants' willful infringement ... [$150,000] for playing numerous audio clips from [No Witness] without permission and [$150,000] ... for screening the film without permission.
Further, Barnes alleges that Toucher, Jimmy, and Leslie "engaged in a promotional campaign to promote the 99X radio station and to denigrate Plaintiff Barnes and the film." Providing insight into Fred Toucher's Friday blog, Barnes' complaint lists as an example of Toucher's alleged defamation:
Barnes is "captain back acne" (along with showing a man with severe, disfiguring acne on his back -- the photo is positioned in the website to leave the impression that it is a photo of Plaintiff Barnes, but in fact is not a photo of Plaintiff Barnes.
For the defamation, Barnes is asking for actual damages and punitive damages in the amount of $750,000.
One more interesting tidbit is that a buzzed, yours truly was "Random Guy" in the transcript of the American Pie No Witness screening used as an exhibit to the lawsuit. Apparently No Witness producer Michael Valverde surreptitiously recorded the screening and as well as a conversation between me and "Random Guy 2" at the bar.
Update August 1, 2006 2:24 PM
Made several grammatical and punctuation changes and enhanced readability. Added clarification that plaintiffs in suit are both Barnes and No Witness, LLC.
Update August 1, 2006 4:22 PM
Upon closer review of the No Witness screening transcript, it turns out that the transcriptionist uses "Random Guy" to refer to a number of people in addition to me. I say that because I don't really want to take credit (nor get blamed) for a lot of the heckles that were captured on the tra'nscript.
Developing...
