"I want my life back!"

[Asher]

Valium.

[Shi Huangdi]

I was happy for this kid, that he should have such embarrasing footage of himself embraced by the Internet community and turned into a legend.

Uh huh. I am sure everyone looking at it has just been going "Oh, how wonderful this kids is!" Many people empathize with him, but it is clear that the fun is being had at his expense. On one of the main websites where the footage was posted, many of the comments had to be deleted for being excessively cruel. It shouldn't take a genius to realize the amount of notoriety and humiliation that would come with something like this.

As for any positive effects, again- they don't matter at all. This wasn't something Ghyslain agreed to, and in fact the video was illegaly obtained by the people who uploaded it. As such, Ghyslain is entitled to legal compensation for any harm suffered as a result of this illegal activity.

[Ted Striker]

No DRoseDARs, I think you win the award for Biggest Ass Without a Concience

[DRoseDARs]

Asher, I bloody hate it when people accuse me of bad things, especially horrid things. I'm a good person, never get in trouble, and do everything in my power to stay out of trouble. Accusastions of wrong-doing are an affront to my honor and dignity. Yes, that makes me a goody-goody...guess what...I don't care. My hands are clean.

[Asher]

They were until that post, at least.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
An article about this when it first came to light in the general media, that's what. I don't care enough to find it again 'cause it wasn't that interesting. Besides I never stated that God told me he used that equipment without permission, therefore it must be true. I said it "was my understanding" from that article so long ago.

If you're not willing to back up your assertions, don't make them. I'm just saying I've never seen anything showing he used equipment improperly. As notyoueither pointed out, he was using it as part of a school project. I think you need to be more careful in making claims.

And where do you get off telling me I'm making sh!t up when you start implying everyone on God's green Earth, save a handful, is tormenting and bullying this kid? Baseless conjecture, indeed.

Oh please. What an obvious straw man. I never alluded to such a thing--I referred specifically to the actions of the asses who stole the tape, which is undeniable, and more broadly to the unwanted negative attention it's garnered him, which is what he and his parents claim is happening. None of that entailed my making any conjecture, just reiterating the facts of the case.

Further, HOW F*CKING DARE YOU ACUSE ME OF SUPPORTING HIGHLY ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL VIOLATIONS OF A PERSON'S PRIVACY IN A BATHROOM AND COMPARE IT TO MY STANCE ON THIS KID'S SO-CALLED-PLIGHT!!!

How dare I? How dare I? Ya know, it's this kind of childish, all-caps emotional nonsense that just makes your argument look silly. Do you think you're Dixie Carter or something? Please, as I said, the "moral indignation" line is passe. Why not just try and argue with people without being such a high-and-mighty ******* about it? YOU started off judging people's opinions here with your blanket condemnations of people and trying to shame them for their opinions. What a crock of bullshit.

Let's really compare, shall we: stupid highschool prank vs. objectifying women and turning them into nothing more than pornographic entertainment.

What's the real difference? Do you think that, if this kid suffers emotional distress over this "prank," it's somehow not relevant, like the case would be for those women? Again, bullshit. I know you won't like this comparison, but it's that exact kind of complacent attitude towards such bullying that led to incidents like Columbine. I'd rather this kid be suing that shooting, that's for sure.

A line has to be drawn where we show these creeps they have no right to treat people like they do, and I think fighting back with a lawsuit is about the best way you can handle it in this instance.

Interesting how you quote a portion of my post and bend it to your will to make it say what you want...congradulations Boris, you're an ass.

Well, while I'd like to accept the "congradulations" [sic] for such handywork, I think your hysterical thumbs-downing, all-caps emotional pish-posh has done you in far more than anything I was able to say.

[notyoueither]

Why the sympathy for the victims of the suit, and the anguish that the young man is bringing them?

Surely, the young man did something, and should embrace the consequences. Why should the thieves not buck up and play along too?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Asher, I bloody hate it when people accuse me of bad things, especially horrid things. I'm a good person, never get in trouble, and do everything in my power to stay out of trouble. Accusastions of wrong-doing are an affront to my honor and dignity. Yes, that makes me a goody-goody...guess what...I don't care. My hands are clean.

The only wrong-doing I'm accusing you of is proven by your first post in the thread...namely, your childish shaming stunt:

Shame on each of you for lending support to frivolous lawsuits like this.

That's just patently obnoxious and shows you have no respect for other people's opinions. Shame on you, sir, shame on you.

Oh, and "never getting into trouble" doesn't make a person good. In D&D, I believe there is "lawful evil." You can play by the rules and still be a dickwad.

[Nubclear]

Boris: Cool it. I support your position, but your making people who support your position look like asses.

Alright:

1. This kid deserves compensation for the emotional distress. The school deserves compensation for the theft of the tape. AKA: The (as NYE put it) bullying tw@ts deserve everything thats coming to them.
2. The kid should not have made the tape in the first place.
3. This kid being phototaped is NOTHING like recording women releasing urine. This is extra-standard highschool fare.
4. Boris: You are in no position to be chewing Drose out for not showing respect for other peoples opinions, considering the temper tantrum your throwing.
5. Drose: You need to not take things so personally. Boris was obviously trolling you and you obviously fell for it. Now shut up.
6. Boris: D&D has no place in a debate and is simply a red herring.
7. People need to calm down, lest Ming come and put you in time out.

Thats all I have to say. For now.

[notyoueither]

That was quite a bit, for now.

I do however, have a problem that people should not do something, like make a tape, because they do not have an expectation of privacy when they guard the private bits.

The kid did this. He made the tape, he stored it properly, in a private place. Some other idiots actually broke the law to get the tape, and then published it.

Where is the wrong here? If you say it is with the maker of the tape, you have a serious problem with the concept of a civil society.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Boris: Cool it. I support your position, but your making people who support your position look like asses.

Alright:

1. This kid deserves compensation for the emotional distress. The school deserves compensation for the theft of the tape. AKA: The (as NYE put it) bullying tw@ts deserve everything thats coming to them.
2. The kid should not have made the tape in the first place.
3. This kid being phototaped is NOTHING like recording women releasing urine. This is extra-standard highschool fare.
4. Boris: You are in no position to be chewing Drose out for not showing respect for other peoples opinions, considering the temper tantrum your throwing.
5. Drose: You need to not take things so personally. Boris was obviously trolling you and you obviously fell for it. Now shut up.
6. Boris: D&D has no place in a debate and is simply a red herring.
7. People need to calm down, lest Ming come and put you in time out.

Thats all I have to say. For now.

Boris has been perhaps too harsh, but then considering what Drose has said he certainly invited it. But I definitely am with Boris on this thread and I don't feel he has made people who share his position look like asses.

[Kaak]

everyone wants to sue people for something because nothing is ever their fault. MORON.

[Nubclear]

MORAN

[MichaeltheGreat]

I don't know how tort laws work in Canada, but in the US he's done several things that would undermine his case. First, in not even attempting to enjoin publication, but also in giving interviews, even to the point of implicitly accepting offers of gifts by others. His lack of strong objection to it at the time, and his interviews, really undermine the notion that he was seriously psychologically injured.

He would have a virtual certainty of winning a suit under US tort law, but the problem is that he doesn't appear from his past actions to demonstrate anything that would make him eligible for more than token damages.

[notyoueither]

This is Canada. There are almost never 6 0's at the end of any such judgements.

OTOH, I doubt the judge will hold the legal newness of he and his family agianst him. Enjoining? Good joke when something gets on the internet. Haha.

Accepting gifts? Where is that reported? I see a lot of people trying to jump on the publicity band-wagon by offering, I see no reports of the young man accepting anything.

[Spiffor]

Besides, the emotional distress may have come progressively. At the beginning of the Star Wars Kid Fashion, it may just have been a joke in the highschool, with little impact on Ghyslain's friendships and self-confidence. As time passes, it is very possible that he became only known and talked to in the light of this video by his colleagues. And systematically ridiculed accordingly.
As such, he may have changed his mind as time passed, and as the situation became more rotten.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Boris: Cool it. I support your position, but your making people who support your position look like asses.

I see...so he starts out making "SHAME SHAME SHAME!" judgments on people who happen to agree with the kid, as if anyone who disagreed with DRose was a nasty, horrible person, yet I am somehow making you look bad? Please. Be more concerned with how you present your own arguments, not others.

3. This kid being phototaped is NOTHING like recording women releasing urine. This is extra-standard highschool fare.

Well duh, it's not the videotaping that was the point, it was using someone's image when they hadn't authorized it. If it's legally okay to splash the image of someone across the net without their knowledge or permission in this instance, why not in any other?

4. Boris: You are in no position to be chewing Drose out for not showing respect for other peoples opinions, considering the temper tantrum your throwing.

What the hell? Temper tantrum? Wherein did I throw a temper tantrum? I just responded to DRose's inane comments with a little scorn. He started out by disrespecting me (and everyone who didn't share his view), and I think my response was actually demonstrating restraint. Especially since I didn't make blatant moral condemnations of the opposing point of view.

Boris was obviously trolling you and you obviously fell for it. Now shut up.

Well duh!

6. Boris: D&D has no place in a debate and is simply a red herring.

what the hell are you on about here? It was just used to demonstrate how once can follow all the rules but still be a jerk. In other words, never getting in trouble doesn't prove one is a good person in any way.

[Tuberski]

First off, the tape was being used for a school project.

Second, his Jedi fighting abilities were not part of the school project.

Third, he used school property for personal use and then didn't even have the brains to erase it.

Fourth, the kids stole it from the school, the school should hold them responsible.

Fifth, Star Wars kid should be held responsible for using school property for personal reasons.

The fact that the tape was stolen in no way absolves Ghyslein(sp) from his share of the blame for this incident.

Simply put, he put the tape on public record by using a school tape and storing it at the school.

If, it was his own tape and they stole it, he would have a chance, but it wasn't.

ACK!

[jdd2007]

He's 15, so he should get over any 'emotional distress' soon. I have no sympathy for him, because it would be cool to be famous like that. If he can't shake off the laughter or turn it around, then maybe he should have already been taking therapy.

[Spiffor]

jdd :
Have you ever been ridiculed by a whole highscholl ? I've nearly been. I happen to have a rare first name, that was ridiculed in a series called "[first name] is stupid". Except for a few real friends, about every social relation I had in junior high with other students was plagued by this 'joke'. The specificity of this 'joke' over other highschool ridiculing is that I had no control at all about it: everybody knew about it, and I could do nothing against. The same applies for Ghyslain.
It was extremely difficult to bear, and still today I have a deadly grudge against the legion of *******s who bullied me over my first name.

You can say "that's because you're weak, you could have got over it". That may be true, but being strong in front of the whole frigging highschool isn't precisely easy at the time of uncertainty that is teenagehood.

I had the luck to have a few real friends towards whom I could turn and forget about the other morons. I don't know if Ghyslain is in the same situation. But if he isn't, he's most likely experiencing something you'd really really hate to experience. I don't think it is valid to give lessons of "get over it" when you have no clue of what he is experiencing

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Enjoining? Good joke when something gets on the internet. Haha.

Sometimes, the reason it's called law and motion is because the law expects you to at least go through the motion.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Spiffor
You can say "that's because you're weak, you could have got over it". That may be true, but being strong in front of the whole frigging highschool isn't precisely easy at the time of uncertainty that is teenagehood.

That's why you pick one of the louder ones, and make a point of spreading his DNA over as much of the pavement, gravel, lockerrooms, or whatever hard, unpleasant objects or surfaces are handy in the school environment.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
That's why you pick one of the louder ones, and make a point of spreading his DNA over as much of the pavement, gravel, lockerrooms, or whatever hard, unpleasant objects or surfaces are handy in the school environment.

Yeah, but did you see Ghyslains' skills at martial arts ?

[MichaeltheGreat]

I was talkin' about you, Spiffor.

Between 7th and 8th grade, I came down with a nasty case of meningitis, was in the hospital for a bunch of days (in isolation, no less, but that's what got me interested in politics, because the Senate Watergate hearings were going on), and when I got out, I was completely messed up. Weak as hell, absolutely no endurance, totally easy "prey" and going to a new school with more than it's share of *******s.

At first, a lot of the losers low on the food chain decided to play with me, because they could always thump my ass, but I worked on correcting that, and by the end of the year, nobody messed with me unless they were real motivated or real stupid.

Bullies are almost invariably yellow bastards (although this school had one who was simply psycho. I'm sure he never managed to breed though, so the genepool is safe from that, at least), so if all they've got is slamming you around physically, you can get in shape enough and overcome your fear enough that you're not a useful target for their chickenshit.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
so if all they've got is slamming you around physically, you can get in shape enough and overcome your fear enough that you're not a useful target for their chickenshit.

or, you comit suicide, which more than a few kids do when subjected to endless ridicule and abuse by their peers.

Sorry, I got no patience for the 'pick yourself up by the boot straps and be a man' brigade when it comes to youngsters killing each other or killing themselves because of the crap we foist on them and the total failure we have been in protecting them from crap by each other.

Many of the reactions to this case are clear examples of what is wrong. It is the victims fault. The bullies and those who ridicule a child are not at fault and should not be held accountable.

Well, it's bloody well time we held the ****** accountable and at least tried to make the lives of youngsters a little more bearable.

[Ted Striker]

MTG has a nice habit of blaming victims.

[Verto]

I don't believe MtG was blaming the victims; he was giving the advice of, beef up and fight back.

Of course, bullies and the degenerates/dilinquients that fill the public school system need to be dealt with, instead of merely slapped on the wrist.

[Az]

That's why you pick one of the louder ones, and make a point of spreading his DNA over as much of the pavement, gravel, lockerrooms, or whatever hard, unpleasant objects or surfaces are handy in the school environment.

That's gross, Michael. Not all of us are into such kind of stuff.

[Spiffor]

I don't quite understand why the "fight back" crowd is opposed to the trial. After all Ghyslain is precisely fighting the bullies back with his available weapons. Since he most likely sucks at combat, he uses a trial. I fail to see what is wrong with that

[Ted Striker]

If it were me I'd be throwing down AND suing their asses.

Make a nice little list and start crossing off names. Cause I'm ****ing crazy like that.