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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2008 : 11:40:46
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Some of you may already be familiar with the dishonest creationist turd known as VenomFangX. A self-professed follower of Kent Hovind, VenomFangX rose to notoriety by posting a series of factually challenged creationist videos on Youtube. These videos are a strange mix of insanity and gross error delivered in a tone of smug self-righteousness. But because VenomFangX never allowed anything but pro-creationist comments on his videos, many people were left without a forum to correct his numerous errors.
This led another Youtube user named Thunderf00t to create a video in counter-response: Why do people laugh at creationists?, which skewered VenomFangX on some of his sillier claims. While Thunderf00t has gone on to use his series of videos to tackle a wide range of creationists, VenomFangX has always remained a favorite target.
Now this is where things get interesting. Apparently these two have had a good little feud going for quite some time. While I have not followed it from the beginning, I am more than pleased to be able to report its conclusion. Apparently VenomFangX, morally upright Christian that he is, was falsely reporting to Youtube that Thunderf00t's videos violated the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a serious offense that leads Youtube to take down the offending content. But see, here's the rub. VenomFangX lied. There was no copyrighted material in Thunderf00t's videos, VenomFangX was just improperly using the DMCA to pull videos he didn't personally like, a gross violation of free speech. But furthermore, and something VenomFangX apparently failed to consider, filing false DCMA reports constitutes perjury and is considered a criminal act subject to civil penalties. Basically VenomFangX left himself wide open for a lawsuit, and Thunderf00t had every intention of prosecuting VenomFangX to the full extent of the law.
And as much fun as that would have been, it seems an out-of-court settlement between all parties has been reached instead. Ostensibly VenomFangX has learned his lesson and will never again try to use copyright laws to suppress free speech he doesn't like. But beyond that, he was forced to make a video apologizing to the internet for his horrible behavior. And yes he was forced to admit, on camera, to the world, that he is a lying scumbag.
And while every honest person knew this already, my god does it feel good to hear him have to admit it. So hats off to Thunderf00t for demonstrating that sometimes good does triumph over evil, and that in the end creationist dishonesty will always lose out to the honest truth.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
Edited by - H. Humbert on 10/11/2008 13:01:08
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2008 : 12:24:23 [Permalink]
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How sweet it is.....
I wish we could cajole VenomFangX to come in here to argue. It's been a long time since we've seen a dedicated Hovind freak, and they are always fun.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 12:38:27 [Permalink]
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Wow! I know that we've posted about these two and their videos here at SFN before. I had no idea that VFX was such an... industry, but it's great that he's shown to be as dishonest as this.
That said, his "apology" was pretty weak. Did he write the script he was reading, or was he told to read that by Thunderf00t? |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 12:56:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
That said, his "apology" was pretty weak. Did he write the script he was reading, or was he told to read that by Thunderf00t?
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Yeah, I know, the apology was a bit "legalistic" in tone, but he does state in no uncertain terms that he lied, "deliberately and repeatedly," which must have killed him to admit. And I really don't know who composed the text of the apology. I'm guessing that Thunderf00t instructed VenomFangX as to what needed to be in the apology, but let VenomFangX compose it himself, although I'm really not sure.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 10/11/2008 13:01:26 |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 13:26:02 [Permalink]
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I am a big fan of Thunderfoot myself.
That he won a legal on top of the intellectual one (that he won the minute he posted his first video) is amusing although Venomfang spiralled into utter cretinism a while ago.
Anyway, yeah, the text of his apology suggest that he only regrets being caught rather than his actions. But then, many 'liars from Jesus' have little care for human laws and values are they are 'working for a higher purpose'. By (their) definition this purpose is fair and trump anything else; hence justifying any of their action.
This is why religious fanatics, no matter how well attentioned they might seem, are so dangerous...
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 19:48:22 [Permalink]
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| Why wasn't the apology posted by VenomFangX himself? Letting Thunderfoot post it allows VenomFangX an "it's possible to fake all sorts of videos" excuse. As terms of the settlement, I would have demanded that VenomFangX post it himself under his own name, and ensure that comments on it are forever allowed. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 22:23:49 [Permalink]
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| Part of the agreement was for VFX to delete his account for one year. I am not sure what would happen to his video then. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 22:45:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Simon
Part of the agreement was for VFX to delete his account for one year. |
Ah, I missed that. Nevermind. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2008 : 23:16:15 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by Simon
Part of the agreement was for VFX to delete his account for one year. |
Ah, I missed that. Nevermind.
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Yeah, I didn't know that either, but my esteem for Thunderf00t just rose considerably. Which is saying a lot, because it was already quite high. So VenomFangX is banned from Youtube? What will he do with himself? Well, there's always GodTube.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2008 : 13:58:31 [Permalink]
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PZ has picked up the story on Pharyngula.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2008 : 22:40:25 [Permalink]
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| It's so nice to see VenonFangX eating crow and not looking smug, for a change. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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VenomFangX defanged
