Star Wars Kid Sues!

[Satisfying Andy Licious]

I just learned about the "Star Wars Kid" today.
It was a moment of unadulterated goofiness, the kind of thing anyone might do with no one watching: A teen from Quebec videotaped himself as he pretended to wield a light saber "Star Wars" style.

But that private moment went public, very public, when classmates at his high school found the tape in a cabinet and uploaded it onto an Internet file-sharing site this past spring.

Now Ghyslain Raza is known far and wide as the "Star Wars Kid," (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6585994.htm) with a fan base that only seems to be growing - even though he doesn't want the attention.
...
"I want my life back," he said in an e-mail interview with the National Post newspaper, a Canadian daily.

Claiming that their son has been humiliated, his parents are suing the parents of the teens who put the video on the Web.
Curious, I googled for "star wars kid" and got numerous hits. But each one I tried said the page could not be found. I wonder if web hosters are taking the lawsuit seriously and shutting down any pages that show a clip.

[Little Nemo]

Couldn't he just tell people it was someone else named Ghyslain Raza?

[KidCharlemagne]

Didn't know about it until this thread. A search revealed this:

http://www.jedimaster.net/

[MrSarcasticus]

There are various rumors swirling. That STAR WARS kid is in a mental hospital and can't even function anymore.

There's also a nice little rumor that a petition is going to cast him as a Jedi extra in Episode III. Sweet.

If anyone deserved a bit of Fuck You play, it's this dude. Cast him!

[kitarak]

I'm going to say 'go for it'. Normally I don't like indiscriminate suing, but the extent to which this video has been spread around and laughed at is downright cruel (I actually haven't seen it myself, only the reactions of others to it).

I hope, if it exceeds, the penalties aren't too harsh, as I wouldn't like the parents to suffer excessively for their kids being thoughtless morons. Maybe an out of court agreement that the kids in question are to be grounded for the rest of their natural lives?

(Yeah, the whole thing strikes a bit of a personal note for me - I get furious when kids are humiliated by others around their age. This is just that on a vastly larger scale).

[Krisfer the Cat]

Subject got pretty much thrashed out last month Andy
Look here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200288)

I doubt there is much else to say... except you're still delicious!

[smiling bandit]

I admit I didn't see what was so funny about the video. Was it some disgusting and perverted sense of voyeurism? Honestly, I can hardly say I haven't done something silly and eccentric alone that I wouldn't even consider if I imagined myself in public. My rare shower singing comes to mind.

[herwono]

'Star Wars Kid' Gets Bucks From Blogs (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58881,00.html)

[Earthworm Jim]

His parents are suing their parents?

There's justice for you.

[KidCharlemagne]

It's a shame the kid didn't just roll with the punches because he could have turned it into something. That damned petition has over 60k names on it.

[KGS]

Hey, Ghyslain (if you're reading this): I am your father. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. You might think the Internet is the only world out there, but no. There is another. Ask your twin sister. Now, go take some diet pills and get a real job or something.

[Chronos]

OK, I feel for this kid. But does anyone else think that he (and his parents) are going about this in entirely the wrong way? He doesn't like having so much publicity... So he sues? Way to guarantee that he'll stay in the spotlight that much longer.

[Troy McClure SF]

The attention wasn't all bad. One of the first sites to feature him had a donation thing set up to buy him an iPod. They collected way past the goal.

[Tars Tarkas]

Originally posted by Little Nemo
Couldn't he just tell people it was someone else named Ghyslain Raza?

I bet his Jedi name is Bill Johnson!

[Satisfying Andy Licious]

Originally posted by Krisfer the Cat
Subject got pretty much thrashed out last month Andy
Look here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200288)

I doubt there is much else to say... except you're still delicious!
Why thank ye, Krisfer.
:::blush:::

Just to add my .02 to the discussion, I really feel for the kid. If I had stumbled on the video while web surfing, I probably would have chuckled, and then been thankful that my own moments of childhood goofing around would never be documented on film.

But I think this sort of lawsuit benefits no one but lawyers. It was cruel to upload it, true, but in doing so they did nothing inherently false. The parody versions would be protected for being what they are -- parodies. And if he claims invasion of privacy, it would be harder to prove that if (as I understand it) he made the tape with school equipment, which is not private.

I hope the Star Wars kid recovers from the initial shock and realizes that a lot of people are laughing with him, not at him.

[Hail Ants]

I have no sympathy for this idiot.

Number one, he was stupid enough to do his little Darth Maul routine in front of a running video camera at his High School! Bad idea? Duh!

And number two, he could've turned his 15 minutes of internet fame into a quick hundred grand if he'd gotten a publicist or agent and capitalized on it. It's happened before.

Instead he sues because his pwecious wittle fewwings are hurt. This only makes it ten times worse. Not only is he a Star Wars nerd, but he's a big cry-baby sissy as well.