Is Robert De Niro a bully?

There are 10 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 600 times. The latest Post (April 8, 2024 at 11:54 PM) was by serafina.

    According to TN, one Duncan Stroud from New York who escaped to Argentina back in 2006, says De Niro is a horrible person and a bully.

    Long story short, Stroud and his partner registered the domain, tribeca.net in 2004 a few years after De Niro had launched the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 following the 9/11 disaster.

    Both Stroud and his partner were sued by De Niro's army of lawyers, the latter dying from a heart attack, the former ending up bankrupt and with heart problems, subsequently fleeing the US for Argentina in 2006 (paid for using a credit card he could never pay back) because he was facing prison time for non payment of alimony to his ex-wife. His US passport was also rescinded.

    He first lived in a crappy bedsit in Constitucion, ended up homeless with heart problems, met an altruistic woman who helped him get legal and thence an operation for stents in his heart and by sheer coincidence, an old mate of his from New York offered him some unspecified work from his office in BA.

    Stroud says of De Nero:

    Quote

    De Niro is a greedy narcissist, a horrible person, a miserable control freak with zero personality. I know him personally: zero personality. During our trial, we met a lot of other companies and ventures that had been taken to court by him just because they used the Tribeca name. And you can't beat him. For that you would need a Donald Trump-level legal force. But time passed: on a human scale, I curse him because he's a horrible guy, but on a cosmic scale, I thank him. Thanks to him I'm here, and I'm not leaving.

    Incidentally, the domain tribeca.net is for sale at around US$34,000 which begs the question, why did De Niro not snap it up?

    It's a fascinating story and I'd like to find out more...

    EDIT

    He's written an autobiography about this and living with autism.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Legally-Blind-Duncan-Stroud/dp/1537461540

    Legally Blind: The Autobiography of Duncan Stroud
    Duncan Stroud is a sixty-year-old U.S. citizen from New…
    www.goodreads.com

    Why would you care about what a thespian gets up to?

    The attention that actors get befuddles me.

    It has to be the most boring occupation in practical terms.

    Learning lines, repeating scenes time after time at the whim of a director. It would drive me crazy

    Ultimately actors are people with a very high tolerance for boredom and repetitive tasks.

    Edited 3 times, last by Bombonera: Merged a post created by Bombonera into this post. (April 8, 2024 at 1:43 PM).

    Quote from Bombonera

    Why would you care about what a thespian gets up to?

    The attention that actors get befuddles me.

    It has to be the most boring occupation in practical terms.

    Learning lines, repeating scenes time after time at the whim of a director. It would drive me crazy

    But that's surely not the point of the story?

    The question is whether De Niro is using his power and vast wealth to bully the small man or woman. It's common practice whether they are thespians or businessmen.

    For me, the burning question is why De Niro's team hasn't grabbed the domain that it went to such great lengths to protect.

    That's the actual story.

    But if a none thespian was doing it you wouldn’t be talking about it. He has your attention not because of what he had done but because he is a thespian.

    I’m simply saying that thespians aren’t of themselves worthy of a moment of anyone’s attention. They yield wealth and Attention in an unworthy way. And I could go on

    Edited 2 times, last by Bombonera: Merged a post created by Bombonera into this post. (April 8, 2024 at 2:03 PM).

    Quote from Bombonera

    But if a none thespian was doing it you wouldn’t be talking about it. He has your attention not because of what he had done but because he is a thespian

    You're correct, up to a point. But what has grabbed my attention is that Stroud managed to flee to Argentina as a safe haven, the domain and the book he later wrote about it.

    Yes, it may well have been a non story if De Niro wasn't behind it. But is he a bully?

    I don’t know. Us humans are imperfect. But you are validating the attention he isn’t entitled to.

    You’re validating attention for someone with a tolerance for boredom

    Edited once, last by Bombonera: Merged a post created by Bombonera into this post. (April 8, 2024 at 2:34 PM).

    In Italy we had a famous case of Armani vs. Armani.

    Mr. Giorgio Armani, the famous fashion designer, sued Mr. Luca Armani, who run his own stamp making factory in Bergamo, over the domain armani.it.

    The less famous Armani was an Internet enthusiast who registered the domain armani.it in 1997 to sell his stamps online. His website was nothing but a form to order stamps, and his business had nothing in common with fashion brand Armani.

    Regardless, Mr. Giorgio Armani claimed that the brand "Armani" was there first, and that the website armani.it was misleading. The dispute, that started in 1998, was settled in court in 2003 in the Court found in favor of the famous Giorgio Armani.

    Mr. Luca Armani was ordered to pay damages to Giorgio Armani (about 15,000 eur) and to de-register the domain armani.it. Mr. Luca went on hunger strike hoping to attract attention on his right to use his last name on the internet. However, the decision stayed and the opinions swayed both in favor and against it.

    Quote from https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/famous-armani-mark-trumps-registrants-right-use-own-surname

    Luca Armani registered the domain name 'armani.it' for use in connection with the sale of stamps. Giorgio Armani SpA, the fashion company, claimed that the domain name infringed its famous trademark ARMANI.

    The court upheld Giorgio Armani's request and ordered that the disputed domain name be cancelled

    It seems that 20 years ago, Mr. Giorgio Armani was sensing the Internet was going to go big, because this was not the only instance where he went after a nobody on the internet. In 2001, another dispute was settled, this time against Mr. Anand Ramnath Mani who had registered the domain armani.com. Mr. A. R. Mani was a graphic designer who was advertising his services as A.R. Mani since 1981.

    Despite Mr. Mani's victory over Mr. Armani, in 2024 armani.com is the website of the fashion brand.

    Can't say I've ever been a Robert de Niro fan. However I get the feeling this bloke is in it for the cash....if there's any going that is. Good luck to him if he is but I'm in no rush to believe a word he says.

    Quote from SpaceNut

    I guess Armani should have registered it first much quickly. The internet really started to take off in 1994

    He was probably busy making money instead of wasting his time on the internet like the less famous Armani.

    Some of the defenders of Mr. Giorgio Armani said that the ICANN first-come-first-served domain assignation is out of date, as it is more likely that someone who clicks on armani.it is looking for the most famous Armani, and not for a nobody-Armani. The second argument is that that Mr. Luca Armani has no more rights over the domain armani.it than the other 930 Armanis that exist in Italy.

    Surely, there is some truth to these words, although I don't consider it a disservice to be "mislead" if I googled armani.it and didn't get to the fashion brand website.