Perez Hilton is an annoyance. Not because he's loud or obnoxious or tacky or any of the things that usually annoy me. He's an annoyance because he's in a position to make a GOOD name for bloggers everywhere, yet chooses to do the exact opposite. There's nothing I despise more than hearing "Oh, like Perez Hilton?" when I tell a new acquaintance of my endeavors in the world of gossip blogging. No. NOT like Perez Hilton. I don't discriminate and leave certain celebrities off of my chopping block simply because they bought me a drink once. I don't consider doodling on a stolen picture to be content. And on that note, I don't steal. If a picture comes along that Sug and I can't afford, guess what we do? We don't post it. We point you toward a legal place on the big ol' interweb where you can view it and then return when you are done. Maybe it's an inconvenience for you guys, I don't know. What I do know is that the top ad on Perez's site goes for $9000 a week. A week. For one ad. Perez can afford to purchase pictures from x17. He can afford them AND that supercool new blue hair dye. There's no reason for Perez to have gained a reputation for himself (along with the rest of the gossip blogosphere) as being someone to look down upon. So, it is with great pleasure that I announce that something is finally being done about it:
In what may be the first hit against bloggerazzi star Perez Hilton's empire, his main webhost has dropped Perezhilton.com.
After numerous warnings against Hilton's (aka Mario Lavandeira) use of copyrighted celebrity images, the Oz-based Crucial Paradigm took the site off line; it was dark for a number of hours before it returned to the Internet with a different host.
Not to be outdone, x17 has contacted Perez's new host:
"It's the first victory, and we put a lot of work into trying to get this to happen," said Francois Navarre, co-owner of L.A.-based X17 agency. His company has filed a suit against Hilton, claiming that Hilton has been using X17 images for nearly a year. "It's a precedent that's huge. When we were talking to Crucial Paradigm they were saying they were not responsible, dragging their feet. We had to threaten them and show them they were liable. His new host is Blogads, and we're contacting them already."
Good on you, x17. There are a lot of things I can tolerate. Not being funny is one of them. So you're not funny. That's OKAY. You're not entertaining at all? At least you're trying. You're stealing copyrighted material? HEY NOW. I'm sure it happens to everyone once or twice. You find a picture you want to use. You try to find the source or the credit. You dig and dig and dig and finally you just post it. What's the worst that can happen? If you can't have it, you'll receive an email asking you to remove it and then you WILL REMOVE IT. Right? Well, right for the rest of us. Unfortunately for the rest of us, there's one great big bedazzled annoyance that won't play nice, and he's finally about to get his ass handed to him. I hope you've sold enough adspace to pay for this lawsuit, Perez. If Jesus loves me as much as my singing angel bear says he does, you are going to need it.
Source: Variety
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