Is Robert De Niro a bully?

It wouldn't be much of a story if he said de Niro was a really nice guy.

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.

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

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

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.

Quote from https://swanturton.com/armani-v-ar-mani/

Mr A.R. Mani recently scored a victory over the fashion house Armani under the dispute resolution procedure set up by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The panel dismissed Armani’s complaint that Mr Mani had cybersquatted the address Armani.com.

Under the terms of the ICANN Policy (para 4a), Armani had to prove three distinct elements in order to establish a claim to Armani.com:

1. The domain name was identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark in which Armani had rights.
2. Mr Mani had no legitimate interest in the domain name.
3. The domain name had been registered and was being used in bad faith.

There was no dispute that Armani owned trade mark rights in the Armani name to which the domain name was identical. With regard to the second and third elements, Mr Mani was able to show that Anand Ramnath Mani was his real name and that he had been legitimately operating his graphic design/illustrator business under the name A.R. Mani since 1981. The case was not one of the many in which respondents adopt a name with an opportunistic motive to provide legitimacy to a domain name registration. The panel therefore ruled that Mr A.R. Mani was not using the name in bad faith.

The success or failure of most ICANN cases is based upon establishing bad faith. The ICANN procedure has proved to be particularly effective in clear cut cases where bad faith can be established and the applicant does not have a registered trade mark in the name in question. (See our early warnings on the Jeanette Winterson and Sting cases.)

Although cases resolved through the ICANN procedure are economical ($1,500 to file a case against a respondent for up to 5 domain names with a 1 member panel) and fast (estimate of 45 days from notification of dispute to resolution), the outcome is somewhat limited. The panel can only order that the domain name be cancelled or transferred. There is no appeal mechanism and parties are not always given an opportunity to answer matters of fact or allegations put in issue. Further, unlike litigation, no injunctive remedies or awards of damages are available. Therefore, where the applicant has a registered trade mark it may be preferable to issue legal proceedings for trade mark infringement as this may provide a more certain and effective remedy for successful claims.

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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.

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

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.