Teen Who Created OMGFacts Twitter Feed Sues, Claiming Swindle (Exclusive)

A story of the times: Teenager creates Twitter feed, OMGFacts, which publishes titillating tidbits about celebrities and pop culture. His tweets become so popular that he's approached by a digital development company that wishes to transform teenager's millions of followers into a lucrative entertainment channel on YouTube with merchandising potential. Now, the mother of the teenager is suing, saying OMGFacts' creator, Adorian Deck, has only gotten $100 for his efforts, while the company,?Spartz Inc., has grabbed control of the intellectual property.

In the years that Twitter has burgeoned into a popular social media platform, it has also become a good place for creative people to showcase their talent, leading to one Hollywood development deal after another.?No surprise then that the "Twitter Gold Rush" has prompted the same kind of copyright and accounting battles often seen in La-La Land.

According to a complaint filed by the Deck family in federal court yesterday, Adorian Deck, who turns 21 next month, created?OMGFacts?in 2009. The Twitter feed is now approaching 2 million followers with amusing factoids like, "J.K. Rowling chose the unusual name 'Hermione' so young girls wouldn?t be teased for being nerdy!" and "Weezer's first gig was opening for Keanu Reeves' band."

The Decks say that in February 2010, they were approached by?Emerson Spartz, who?sought permission to commence running a website and YouTube channel utilizing?the trademark. The parties signed a joint partnership agreement, which Deck now says "turned out to be nothing more than an?artifice of self-dealing."

The deal is said to have entitled Deck to profits for merchandising and a share of YouTube revenue, but allegedly didn't require Spartz to disclose those revenues. The contract is also said to have assigned Spartz Inc.??any copyright in any existing or future works" for OMGFacts.

Having only gotten a paltry $100 for his efforts, Deck is attempting to cancel the contract as "unconscionable and unenforceable," particularly because Adorian Deck was a minor. Deck is asking a judge for declaratory relief plus damages for unfair competition and false advertising.

Spartz hasn't responded yet to requests for comment.

E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com

Twitter: @eriqgardner


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheHollywoodReporter-Technology/~3/H_hawG5uXbM/teen-who-created-omgfacts-twitter-182620

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States ask U.S. court to overturn health overhaul (San Jose Mercury News)

ATLANTA -- More than two dozen states challenging the health care overhaul urged a U.S. appeals court Wednesday to strike down the Obama administration's landmark law, arguing it far exceeds the federal government's powers.
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Truffle-Hunting Dog Finds Jackpot in Unexpected Place

A specially trained dog may have discovered the latest refugee affected by climate change: Truffles.

?Buffo? the truffle-hunting dog discovered his bounty while roaming the forests of southern Germany. That region is seeing milder winters and changing weather patterns, and isn?t known to grow Burgundy truffles ? a subterranean fungal delicacy that can fetch $1,800 per pound. It, and other rare European varieties, typically grow in Mediterranean forests at least 100 miles south and west of Buffo?s find.

The discovery, described April 4 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, will certainly interest truffle-hunters and gourmet chefs. But it may also hint at ecological instability.

?Fungi such as truffles help plants absorb water and nutrients. Without fungi, plants don?t work,? said fungal ecologist Lynne Boddy of Cardiff University, who wasn?t involved in the study. ?We know climates are changing and that fungal habitats are shifting. What we?re not certain about are the effects.?

Symbiotic fungi, including truffles, soak up water and nutrients, and deliver them into the roots of plants. In exchange, fungi get sugars from the plants. Some varieties of truffles are prized for their taste, yet are difficult to find because they grow underground on tree roots. Pigs and Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, however, can smell oils secreted by truffles? bulbous spore-spreading fruiting bodies.

Ulf B?ntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, was out with Buffo when he detected the Burgundy truffle mother lode.

?This wasn?t a small find, but a big and expensive truffle with lots of smaller ones around. It was strange to find it in an area where, so far, this truffle?s existence has never been reported,? said B?ntgen, leader of the new study. ?The season, early November, was also unusual. This led us to ask, ?what is driving truffle growth here? Is it connected to climate???

Over the last century, harvests of Burgundy truffles have declined by a factor of hundreds in their traditional Mediterranean habitats, possibly because of unusually long and severe droughts. Over-harvesting may also be responsible. The reluctance of secretive truffle hunters to share their own data makes it harder to untangle cause-and-effect.

However, the case for climate impacts on truffle habitat north of the Alps seems stronger. These typically cool regions are seeing milder winters and more precipitation, and the presence of truffles there seems to be on the rise. Boddy, who has studied the response of fungi and their plant hosts to climate change, said she wouldn?t be surprised to know climate change is largely responsible for the shift in truffle habitats

B?ntgen and his colleagues say it?s too soon to be certain why the truffles? range is shifting. They see the new study as a starting point. ?Very little in general is known about truffles because of their high price. It makes people very secretive,? he said. ?So, we?re spending a year to nail down everything we can about the conditions they require and how different climates affect them.?

According to Boddy, a change in fungal ecology could very well have ripple effects. ?When you change the environment, you change a fundamental balance for plants,? she said.

Image: Buffo, a Lagotto Romagnolo dog, owned by Ulf B?ntgen?s friend, Willy Tegel. His nearly 1-pound Burgundy truffle discovery sits in front. (Willy Tegel)

See Also:

Citation: ?Truffles and climate change.? Ulf B?ntgen, Willy Tegel, Simon Egli, Ulrich Stobbe, Ludger Sproll, and Nils C Stenseth. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, April 4, 2011. Vol. 9, Pg. 150?151. DOI: 10.1890/11.WB.004

Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/climate-change-truffles/

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Robots learn to share, try to repair bad rep (video)

Altruistic Robot
We've been told time and time again to fear our mechanical friends, so imagine our relief when we heard that some Swiss scientists had a batch of bots that displayed altruism. What's more, these little two-wheeled foragers weren't programmed to share, they evolved the trait. Researchers at EPFL infused Alice microbots with digital "genes" that mutated over time as well as color sensors that allow them to navigate their environment. The robots were tasked with collecting "food" and given the option to keep it for themselves or split it amongst their silicon-brained relatives. The more they decided to give to others with similar genetic makeup the more those virtual genes were passed on to future generations -- including the one for altruism. The experiment is an example of Hamilton's Rule, an evolutionary model for how the seemingly counter-intuitive trait of selflessness could arise through natural selection. Don't let your guard down just yet, though -- the robots are only sharing with each other for now.

Continue reading Robots learn to share, try to repair bad rep (video)

Robots learn to share, try to repair bad rep (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 05:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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