Star Wars Kid Cuts a Deal With His Tormentors 865
An anonymous reader writes "Ghyslain Raza, who gained instant online fame as the 'Star Wars Kid' settled this week with the families of the three classmates who posted his two minute Lucasfilm screen test on the Internet. No details were released but the suit sought damages of $351,000. A victory for the victims of cyber-bullying, or missed chance by thin-skinned Ghyslain to cash-in as the next William 'She Bangs' Hung?"
Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Overreaction (Score:1, Interesting)
For all of the privacy advocates on
Self deprecation is a unique quality in that if it's not developed appropriately, it can lead to depression or make existing depression even worse. While Raza certainly still has time to laugh at himself, I doubt the situation he is in is very supportive of such development.
All that said, the video was pretty silly.
Thick skin (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:It doesn't sound so funny.. (Score:5, Interesting)
This reminds me of previous story about the difficulties of employers reading personal blogs and making employment decisions based on what they find on the Net.
We're looking at a medium where what is put up will last for many many years (verging on forever, possibly) and while you can control what you post yourself, you can't control what others share. (You can go retroactively to the courts and get mocked mercilessly for it though.) People (even many here on slashdot) don't realize what a powerful medium it is.
I don't think that many people realize the tremendous potential for abuse that the internet holds. Sure the kid got 15 minutes of fame out of the deal, and he arguably didn't make the best use out of it, but this will dog him his entire life. He's one extreme example of how someone can leverage the internet to abuse someone else and cause irrepairable damage.
My guess is that whoever modded the parent funny didn't *really* understand how serious the problem is.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:2, Interesting)
But I'm not Laughing... (Score:3, Interesting)
Reminds me of a situation at my old middle school. Our teacher reached up to pull down the overhead projector screen and accidentally pulled down the whole unit form the ceiling. She started laughing, so we joined in. All of a sudden, she turns, glares, and yells "Why are you lauughing at me?" One brave soul said, "Ma'am, we're not laught at you. We're laughing with you." to which she replied, "Do you see me laughing?"
I sometimes wonder if she really was laughing or if we just filled it in to justify ourselves. I could also see her initially laughing to counter shock, then realizing that she could have gotten hurt, sobering up, and changing her memories of what she did or didn't do.
Re:Walk a mile in his shoes... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, because he's a little bitch unprepared to deal with the real world. I think we can blame that on his parents, though. Maybe if they'd dialed back the food a little, he wouldn't have been such a tubby little fucker. (I, too, am overweight; unlike this kid, I can handle it.)
Personally, I was anything but invisible. I was six feet tall in junior high, and I was a mama's boy, and I was constantly harassed in most ways possible in a public place; called names, struck, tripped, had posessions stolen, et cetera. But filing a lawsuit? That's ridiculous. The right thing to do would have been (had I had parents who would stand up for me) to go to the adminstration, and then the school board. Of course, nothing can help this kid, since he did something so amazingly lame as to make something like that and leave the tape lying around. I'd have published it, too.
That kid gained so much geek cred that it's literally astounding. Unfortunately, his parents must have taught him to focus on the negative and not the positive, in the only way that matters with kids - by example.
As far as I understand, he was mostly just the target of endless mockery. I got that, plus constant physical abuse. Sorry, but I have only limited sympathy for him, and absolutely none since he decided to contribute to the mountains of unnecessary litigation in our society.
Very true. Being a teenager was as close to hell as I've ever been. (I dropped out of school at 15 and took the CHSPE, the California High School Proficiency Exam, because I couldn't handle going there any more.) But is this really the answer? Now he's adding derision from adults who don't like the overly-litigious nature of our society to the pile on top of him.
If it was not criminal, why is the law involved? That's my basic problem with this whole thing. This whole thing was an opportunity. With a little creativity and some willingness to be mocked (they say that one of the signs of intelligence is self-deprecating humor...) he could have made his publicity into opportunity.
If there should be consequences, they should be limited to suspension from school at the most. Still, the film was made in a public place with public equipment. If the agreement with the school does not provide him with copyright, then the material must necessarily be considered to be in the public domain - at which point, he has no valid complaint.
Complaining about this video being published is like going outside naked and then complaining when people look at you. Don't want people staring at your wabbly bits? Wear clothes. Don't want people looking at a video of you looking like a retard? Don't make one.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:4, Interesting)
Frankly, no. But when you're constantly being hurt, it gets to the point where all that hurt condenses into one very dense lump, threatening to to supercritical at any time.
I never intentionally hurt anyone physicially, and while I have hurt people emotionally, that type of hurting is unavoidable in friendships and relationships. I didn't have fun in those instances. It hurt me as well as them.
But to go out of your way to torment others, for FUN, mind you... just for FUN.. to get your rocks off.. that's when my fantasies would come out.
If you can't see the distinction, then you've never been on the wrong end of the stick.
Ok then (Score:2, Interesting)
Why?
I'll be waiting patiently for your answer as to why someone would be forced to leave school because they are embarassed.
And keep in mind, every answer you give won't change that he is reacting to other people.
"Of course, you haven't been ridiculized in public or bullied so what the heck do you know."
Exactly the opposite, actually.
Funny how you responded though, attack me because I'm not compassionate enough for you. Is that how you demonstrate how compassionate you are?
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Explain yourself mods (Score:2, Interesting)
Obligatory informative Simpsons quote (Score:5, Interesting)
7F23: "When Flanders Failed"
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F23.html [snpp.com]
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:5, Interesting)
/*EndPopPsychology*/
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:1, Interesting)
Now, 20 years later, I can laugh at such garbage. But then? Then I didn't know HOW TO DO IT. Then, all I knew is people hated me. People like you.
I didn't know how to do this earlier in life either, but I accept it was my responsibility TO know how to do this.
Maybe this is a good lesson for all parents and parents-to-be on what we need to teach our kids. Instead of teaching our kids to react negatively (and litigiously), maybe we should be teaching them how to deal with conflict in a more positive manner.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Walk a mile in his shoes... (Score:3, Interesting)
A) School sucks. People ridicule you. You get embarrased. Then you grow up and realize that apart from the education itself, none of it matters AT ALL. If there's one thing I'm going to pound into my kids' head as they're growing up, it's this. I learned this, everybody learns this. Granted, this is on a different scale, but it's the same principle. (And I doubt that now he even looks anything at all like he did three years ago so he can't fall back on that, "but I'm ruined for life" excuse.)
B) Just what do you THINK is going to happen when you make a tape of yourself being an idiot an leave it lying around for anybody to find? He should sue HIMSELF for negligence. My friends and I made plenty of tapes JUST LIKE THIS and far worse when we were teens, but in our case, we showed them off to family and friends who laughed at us for being dorks. We laughed with them, because it was true. If Star Wars Kid can't laugh at himself, he's always going to have major confidence issues and $300,000 of someone else's money isn't going to fix that.
C) Why hasn't anyone yet brought up the fact that he had to have used the school's studio equipment WITHOUT authorization? (I'm dead certain he never asked a teacher or principal if he could use the studio to record himself being an idiot for a few minutes.) In most schools these days, one can easily get suspended and expelled for expressing an original idea, but apparently not for deliberately misusing the school's taxpayer-provided property to entertain a childish fantasy one boring afternoon.
Bullying is not right no matter what the age (Score:3, Interesting)
This boy didn't ask to be bullied, and he apparently did the screen test and didn't want anyone else to see it. The bullies stole the video and released it on the Internet, now they are paying for it.
Not everyone can handle bullying, and it puts a lot of emotional and psychological damage on a person. It takes a lot to learn to be a survivor rather than a victim as well. For me, it was well over 30 years before I finally came to terms with it and started to try to be a survivor. Only to suffer mental and physical illnesses so bad that I cannot work for a living. I only hope to heal up and get better and get back to work one day.
Re:How can you be so arrogant and so wrong? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lets see. Hmmmm. I can't find a damn thing that says that if a criminal act is committed it precludes a civil suit. Next non sequiter please.
What harm? He was embarassed
He spent time in mental institutions. Yes, some peoples grip on sanity is that tentative. That doesn't give the morons that did this some right to do it. Besides, it wasn't their video. they did not have a legal right to use it in any way, and simply for that they should be punished.
frankly, if you think that's worthy of wasting a CIVIL court's time, then I'm wasting my time with you.
Obviously you are wasting your time then. Also, the lawyers for the defendants must not have thought it was a waste. They weren't able to get the charges dismissed, and they settled out of court. If there was no case they would have simply carried it through. I doubt it would be cheaper to settle than get an aquittal, but can't say for sure since the settlement is sealed.
You might not like it, and you can make up all the stupid justifications for why you feel how you feel, but all you've done is support a rich spoiled brat abusing the courts to get something his parents never gave him and can't buy him. Self respect.
You have your opinion, and I have mine. I don't need to make up any "stupid justifications", my opinion is just as valid whether you like it or not. Apparently our difference of opinion comes down to the fact that I feel that they were in the wrong and deserved to be punished for their actions, and you think it was funny and cool.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:3, Interesting)
The Paritisan Grandma's approach is much more productive ultimately.
You don't take crap. You make it very painful for others to try and dish it out. You end it quickly so there is none of this festering and simmering that ultimately leads to some mass shooting.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:3, Interesting)
No. You just send out the message that it's OK to torment people to the point to suicide. There are no consequences. You're victim and you will have a big group hug in 20 years time at the reunion. It made him stronger see.
They should never be forgiven. The best thing that can happen is for them to realise what they did and be consumed by regret for the rest of their lives, just like their victims. That's not being bitter; that's being just.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:3, Interesting)
I can only base my opinion on my own personal experience and what I've heard from others, but I think you went down the list of options almost to the letter.
Verbal or physical retaliation seem to work well for most people I've talked with about this. I have a knack--that I'm not particularly proud of--for verbally destroying people, and when I learned to stop pitying myself and dish it back out, I stopped having problems.
Physical violence is never a good solution, but it's definitely a way to show you mean business. I think the downside to it is that when it comes to verbal retaliation, the worst outcome is that your comeback falls totally flat... with physical violence, you may end up with a meathead who's absolutely willing to follow through and beat the hell out of you.
But! A real point I'd like to make, and this is really the sad point for this kid, is that a lot of it depends on who you know. We seem to believe as a subculture that jocks are inherently bad, and we fuel the jock/geek feud as much as they do. As adults, it's easy to get past this, but it's absolutely possible to get past it in high school as well. There's nothing written in stone that prevents a practially defenseless nerd from being friends with the toughest son of a bitch in the place. I can't stress what an important lesson it is to find common ground with everyone, and how important it is to be loyal and protective of your friends, especially those who might not to be able or willing to protect themselves. Your friends may be able to stop bullying better than you can on your own.
But, you have a real point. My personal situation doesn't dictate potential outcomes for this kid or for anyone else. Some of us end up in situations where things stay like that, and it's really unfortunate. I just hate to see people so frightened when they haven't even tried to properly defend themselves.