| Marc J. Randazza | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marc John Randazza November 26, 1969 Gloucester, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Journalism, 1994) Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 2000) University of Florida (M.A., Mass Communication, 2003)[1] |
| Occupation | First Amendment Attorney |
| Website | |
| The Legal Satyricon (editor) | |
Marc J. Randazza is a First Amendment attorney and the editor of the law blog The Legal Satyricon.[2]
Contents |
Marc John Randazza was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts on November 26, 1969 and graduated from Gloucester High School in 1987. Randazza attended the University of Massachusetts, where he majored in Journalism. Randazza worked as a journalist and in advertising in Washington, D.C., Palermo, Rome, New York City, and Miami.[3] In 1996, Randazza was inspired to attend law school by the film The People vs. Larry Flynt. He attended Georgetown University Law Center, and graduated in 2000. During law school, he interned for Justice Denise Johnson of the Vermont Supreme Court and for Rydin Carlsten Advokatbyrå, in Stockholm, Sweden.[4] He continued his First Amendment education by attending the University of Florida, where he earned a Master's degree in Communications, and studied under William F. Chamberlin,[5] writing his thesis on vote pairing, which was cited by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.[6]
Randazza's first case was representing a fraternity at Boston University when the brothers of that fraternity were accused of destroying their house and other misconduct. He then began practicing in Florida as a real estate attorney. He quickly returned to the First Amendment and media field, taking on representation of an adult bookstore in Fort Myers. Soon thereafter, he moved to Orlando, Florida where his practice in First Amendment and media law expanded. He started representing defendants in SLAPP suits,[7] pornography businesses, protestors, in often unpopular constitutional law matters.
In 2004, his University of Florida thesis gained attention as vote pairing became a minor issue during the 2004 election. Randazza was asked to debate the issue on Fox News, and thereafter has been a frequent legal commentator on television and in print. Randazza served as a professor of law at Barry University School of Law, located in Orlando, Florida.[8][9] Where he taught First Amendment law, copyright law, trademark law, and entertainment law.
Randazza has a practice that primarily focuses on the areas of First Amendment litigation, adult entertainment, trademark and copyright litigation, and domain name arbitration disputes.[10] He serves as General Counsel to Corbin Fisher, an adult media company.[11] He has represented a number of well-known adult entertainment companies including Kink.com, Bang Bus, and Milf Hunter. He also represents media businesses such as BME and bloggers in SLAPP suits.[12][13]
Randazza has gained notoriety for his defense of the adult entertainment field[14] and for handling high-profile free speech cases. He represented Anthony Ciolli, one of the administrators of AutoAdmit in the high profile case regarding that website, securing his dismissal from that case. He has represented the defendant in Beck v. Eiland-Hall, a case before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) filed by political commentator Glenn Beck, concerning a satire website parodying Beck.[15][16] The WIPO arbitrator ruled against Beck in the case, and in favor of Randazza's client.[17] Citizen Media Law Project assistant director Sam Bayard said of the WIPO arbitrator's decision, "It's good to see that this WIPO arbitrator had no interest in allowing Beck to circumvent the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution."[17] He went on to congratulate Randazza, "Congratulations to Marc for this big victory and for his innovative brief that not only won the case, but also brought 'spock ate my balls' into the legal lexicon."[17]
Randazza runs the popular website Legal Satyricon, which remains one of the most popular legal blogs.[18]
In February 2011 an article published on gay news blog 'Queerty' goes into the posibility of suicide by teenagers who are subject to mass bittorrent lawsuits submitted by Randazza on behalf of his client, Liberty Media Holdings. ([1])
In late 2011, Randazza and his firm effectively killed Righthaven, a company briefly infamous for buying limited rights to copyrighted works for the sole purpose of bringing lawsuits against alleged infringers.[19]
| Date* | Topic | Print/broadcast entity |
|---|---|---|
| September 30, 2006 | Violent video games and the First Amendment | Fox News[20] |
| January 16, 2007 | Online gambling | CNBC[21] |
| April 10, 2007 | Don Imus's Rutgers women's basketball controversy | Fox News Channel[22] |
| June 7, 2007 | The f-bomb | Orlando Weekly[14] |
| July 1, 2008 | Bauer v. Wikimedia defamation case, and Section 230 | WABC New York[23] |
| August 7, 2008 | United States vs. Karen Fletcher (2006) | PC World[24] |
| January 15, 2009 | Natalie Dylan controversy | Fox News[25] |
| March 3, 2009 | The Auto Admit Case | National Public Radio[23] |
| * Nonexhaustive list[26] | ||