Orange Juice Blog Must Pay $17,000 to TheLiberalOC.com

by Martin Wisckol, Total Buzz - OC Register
(re-posted on The Fullerton Sentinel without permission)

Art Pedroza’s Orange Juice blog must pay $17,000 to a rival political blog as the result of Pedroza illegally using domain names similar to the rival, TheLiberalOC.com, and its principals, according to an order by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter.

The dispute was generated by “childish conduct by both parties,” according to Carter’s ruling Friday. It started when a principal of the TheLiberalOC bought a domain name with “artpedroza” in it. Pedroza retaliated by buying domain names containing “theliberaloc,” the names of several principals, and that of one of the principal’s company.

The last, madison-alexanderpublicrelations.com, was then linked to the website of the North American Man Boy Love Association, which promotes sexual relations with minors, and then to a site about hemorrhoids. The “artpedroza” site, purchased by TheLiberalOC and Madison Alexander principal Dan Chmielewski, was never used by Chmielewski. In the civil case, Carter found that Pedroza had committed trademark infringement because of his use of the domain sites he’d bought, and unfair business practices because he linked some of those sites back to his Orange Juice blog.

Carter dismissed four other claims for TheLiberalOC, including cybersquatting. Carter also dismissed TheLiberalOC’s request for another $600,000 and attorney fees.

“I guess that is good news,” Pedroza wrote me in one of two lengthy emails today responding to my inquires about the court order. “I thought the Judge was going to make it worse. … I only lost this case for lack of a lawyer.”

Pedroza said he may declare bankruptcy. “I may have to pursue that avenue to discharge this judgment,” he wrote.

Chmielewski wrote me in an email, “This was the first of two lawsuits filed by us. This judgment was against the Blog as a business entity. The second one, which has a scheduling hearing set for December 20, is against Art personally. It is our contention we’ll get statutory damages and legal fees awarded then.”

Pedroza offered a long explanation of his side of the story, which I told him I’d post so everyone could see his view of things. But I’ve decided not to since he said he would prefer I didn’t.
“(My) explanation wasn’t meant to be posted verbatim,” he wrote. “I was just trying to help you understand the case, as all you have heard is whatever your pals at the Lib OC have related to you.”

Pedroza has included me in his attacks in recent years, and continued them in his emails today. He believes that the logos on this blog page linking to TheLiberalOC and Red County – the county’s top Democratic and Republican blogs – mean I provide preferential coverage to those two entities. Total Buzz has an agreement with those two blogs – because of their stature and credibility in the political blogosphere – that we’ll prominently link to each others blogs.

Pedroza wrote me today, “Given your close relationship with them, and the fact that you still advertise their Liberal OC blog on your Total Buzz blog, I would prefer that someone else on your team handle this article. I believe you have an inherent conflict of interest. Who is your editor? I would like to discuss this conflict of interest with him or her before this gets posted on your blog. I am copying the OC Register editors I was able to identify on your website.”

TheLiberalOC and Red County do not pay for that space – it’s an exchange. But even if they did, it would not constitute a conflict of interest. If it did, neither myself nor any other mainstream online journalist would have been able to write about Meg Whitman. I gave him the name and contact information of my editor.

Here’s Pedroza’s parting shot in his last email:
“I am sure that the Liberal OC bloggers will crow about this alleged victory. And I am sure you will be happy to carry their water on your blog. I would expect no less. In fact I was just talking this morning to my colleague Sean Mill, and we both agreed that you would be the first – and only – reporter to jump on this non-story. Thanks for proving us right. How long before you end up working at the Voice of the OCEA blog? Will Chris Prevatt help you land over there? I am sure he can put in a nice word with his union boss, Nick Berardino, the guy who pays their bills.”
I spoke to Chmielewski and his lawyer about the court order, and they were fairly subdued – nothing that I could quote that would further enlighten readers of this story.

After our email exchange today, Pedroza took a poke at Total Buzz and me on his blog. Read it here. He says that I pal around with folks at TheLiberalOC and Red County.

I do occasionally socialize with sources, competitors and others in politics and journalism. I don’t so much with those from those two blogs – I may have had lunch with Chmielewski once and Red County’s Matt Cunningham once – but that’s not because journalistic integrity says that I can’t. And it’s also not because they aren’t generally decent and smart folks. I keep in touch, usually by phone, to periodically get their take on things that are going on. That’s how I do my job.

When I came to the Register in 1998, Pedroza was doing Latino outreach for the county GOP and he became an early source. We got to know each other reasonably well as far as reporter-source relationships go. His political activities have shifted over the years – both in terms of his political philosophies and how he engages in the political world. Along the way, I have found less cause to stay in touch. You make new sources, and old ones fade away.

Read the story I wrote when the lawsuit was first filed, which lays out all of the allegations.