I think I first heard of Marc Randazza when one of the other bloggers around here started calling him a “First Amendment Badass,” and that’s how I always think of him.
I didn’t really encounter him, however, until Jon Katz posted this bit about Randazza a few years ago. I took the opportunity to poke fun at Marc in the comments about the absurdist severity of his blog’s terms and conditions. I suspect that much of it is unenforecable, and he knows it, but it looks like he had fun writing it. For example, he’s got a wonderful blacklist of people who aren’t allowed to quote from his blog, including any member of the KKK, Stormfront, or the Nazi party, a bunch of politicians, the American Family Association, and a variety of named persons he finds annoying, include Joe the Plumber.
Marc responded in the comments, poking fun at me for some of the things in my blog’s Terms and Conditions. We then exchanged a few emails, in which he gave me a little free legal advice and offered to help me register the Windypundit trademark. (I haven’t actually taken him up on that, however, because one or another of us has always been busy. I should probably get around to it.)
Now, he might not like me suggesting that Marc Randazza will help you for free but, well, he just might. For example, Randazza and Ken-at-Popehat recently teamed up to give free help to a science blogger who was being hassled by a quack.
The fun thing is that Marc Randazza doesn’t just win cases, he wins them with attitude, as when the copyright trolls at Righthaven were demanding the domain names of everyone they claimed had infringed on their intellectual property. Not only did Randazza beat the crap out of them in court, but his actions forced them to auction off their own domain name.
In case you didn’t notice, today is kind of an informal let’s-celebrate-Marc Randazza day in the blogosphere. Other celebrants include:
- Marc Randazza: First Amendment Badass.
- Marc Randazza, Hero.
- Marc Randazza would support me, right?
- Righthaven, Liquified
- Marc Randazza: The Mark of Excellence
- Marc Randazza: 1st Amendment Lawyer Exemplar
- Marc Randazza: Super Lawyer, Super Blogger?
- Marc Randazza, First Amendment Lawyer, on the Rush Limbaugh Fiasco
- Marc Randazza: A Sentinel For Free Speech
So Good Luck, Marc Randazza. You’re my first call if I get sued for anything I write in my blog!
Thanks all… -MJR