If you’ve been reading this site over the years, you’re probably aware that we like to write about and parody diabolical Facebook weatherman Aaron Tuttle (pictured above with a bunch of drag queens). The guy makes it pretty easy for us. He’s like the Regular Jim Traber of weathermen. He’s moody, narcissistic, egotistical, right-wing, and best of all, a public figure who likes to post pics like this on Facebook:
Question? Can someone with mad web skills add that photo to the Wikipedia entry on douche bags? I can’t think of a better pic.
In addition to the endearing traits we listed above, Aaron – or as he calls himself when masturbating in front of a mirror, “AT” – lacks a sense of humor and basic knowledge of copyright laws. We know this because last week he filed a DMCA takedown request to our hosting provider. He claimed we were infringing on his copyrights by posting photos like the one above. You know, the ones where he dressed up like a spray tan model for Halloween, posted crying selfies, and auditioned to be a short-shorts model.
Here's a snippet of his complaint that was copied and pasted from a generic legal website, which ironically enough, can probably be considered some sort of copyright violation:
This is a notification of copyright infringement. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) obliges search and internet providers to investigate and respond to complaints by authors about alleged copyright violations.
Copyright owner: Aaron Tuttle
Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:
I am the exclusive rights holder for the photos in question.
These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the URL(s) printed below. I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law;
Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question...
I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as, it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible.
Thank you.
Regards,
Aaron Tuttle
It should be noted Aaron made this move without contacting us, providing a formal cease and desist, or acknowledging he's a public figure and thus open to news coverage, criticism, parody, spray tan jokes, photoshop pranks, etc. He’s also yet to take any official legal action.
Because we're smart, intelligent and don't feel like we've done anything wrong, we were able to work around Tuttle's frivolous, back alley attempt to remove the content. This made Aaron mad. On Friday afternoon, he sent this salty and very public tweet to us:
Never one to shy away from an entertaining Twitter battle, I fired off a series of replies and an all-out Twitter battle began. It can be hard to follow. You can check out the whole thing on our Twitter timeline, but here’s some of our replies:
So, autocorrect somehow turned "dire" in "sure," but whatever, you get my point. Tuttle replied:
And at that point, things kind of died down. Later in the afternoon, Tuttle left the following Facebook status for his 64,000 Facebook fans:
Yes, Aaron Tuttle is looking for a copyright attorney who specializes in that field... as opposed to a copyright attorney who specializes in family law, workman's comp, or gym, tan, laundry.
Call me crazy, but don’t you think he should have done that before filing a wrongful DMCA claim that could open himself up to liability and damages? Oh wait, that would require logic, reason and wise decision-making – things that are not Aaron Tuttle's strong points. I mean this is the same guy who launched a website earlier this year thinking people were actually going to pay a subscription to read poorly written articles about weight loss and bodybuilding.
That worked out really well...
Yeah, he’s just opening up the site to be a good guy. The decision has nothing to do with no sane person wanting to pay money for generic content you can find for free anywhere on the internet. That would work as well as charging for a personalized weather forecast...
I guess I can cross off "Aaron Tuttle to charge for personalized weather forecasts" from my list of "Onion for Oklahoma" headline ideas. See what I mean? The guy is clueless. Can you imagine this conversation ever happening?
"Do you know what the weather is supposed to be like next Saturday?"
"I don't know. Let me grab my phone and check the 7-day on News9.com."
"Wait. I have a better idea. Why don't we simply pay Facebook weatherman Aaron Tuttle for a personalized forecast instead?"
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Anyway, with all this drama, you're probably wondering what's next. Are we going to cave to Aaron Tuttle's demands and remove the content?
Other than filing an open records request with the National Weather Service asking for all of Aaron Tuttle's work emails that include the words "fit club," "weather app" and "spray tan," I'm honestly not sure.
As I've mentioned several times, we strongly feel we have the fair use rights to write about the man, criticize him and occasionally parody his absurd photos by photoshopping his image onto pics of drag queens. I guess we'll just wait for Aaron to hire a "copyright" attorney, pay a retainer, send us a cease and desist, and then sue us. At that point, we'll analyze the situation, smooth it over and let Aaron become an advertiser. He would probably like that. He has tried to be an Ogle Mole in the past:
Until then, we'll keep doing whatever it is that we're doing. In fact, we may even double down on our first amendment rights to free speech. I'm thinking an Aaron Tuttle photoshop contest is due. That could be funny. Also, Louis Fowler is hard at work on a new homoerotic fan fiction series we're starting called "Tuttle Tales." Who wouldn't want to read that while sitting on the toilet? It would probably be more realistic than some of AT's weather forecasts.
I guess check back to the site for more details on all that fun stuff. In the meantime...
Sorry, that last is one is real...
