Mencia/Rogan dispute

[MalaCloudy Black]

Source: Techdirt

Another day, another convoluted DMCA claim. Earlier this week, one of the hot stories getting passed around was how comedian (and Fear Factor host) Joe Rogan had confronted comedian Carlos Mencia at a comedy club in LA last weekend. Rogan's complaint was that Mencia, who has a hit show on Comedy Central, constantly uses other comedians' material as if it was his own. Rogan posted a video of the incident and interspersed the argument with additional clips proving all of his claims against Mencia, and disproving many of Mencia's claims. It is an entertaining video no matter how you look at it. Now, given our position on intellectual property issues (especially when it comes to plagiarizing), some might think that we'd support Mencia using other's jokes. However, we also have no problem with Rogan then exposing Mencia's failure to give credit where it's due. The fact is that when Mencia started using other's jokes, the risk (or price) he paid was that he might be exposed some day for it -- and Rogan has pretty damning evidence, which clearly hurts Mencia's reputation. In other words, it's not that we don't think things like plagiarism are bad -- but, rather that many people use it creatively to expand the art -- and those that don't risk harm to their own reputations (as is the case with Mencia).

So what does this have to do with technology? Well, Kevin writes in to to point out that he noticed the video on YouTube that Rogan originally pointed to from his blog has been taken down following a DMCA request from... Carlos Mencia. The video is still available elsewhere and Rogan is offering up various mirrors for downloads -- so it will likely keep appearing. However, it does seem ironic that Mencia is claiming copyright violations to takedown a video that pretty clearly shows him using other's material. It's difficult to see how Mencia has a DMCA claim at all. The video material was mostly taken by Rogan's associates -- so he holds the copyright to it. The short clips he used from other sources to prove his point are pretty clearly fair use. Either way, it seems pretty ridiculous to claim copyright infringement on a video revealing evidence that you used someone else's material without credit.

Anyone direct us to a video of this? Sounds interesting.

[Ruckus]

God bless Joe Rogan.

Edit: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1742125/ Is this it?

Edited February 16, 2007 by Ruckus

[apsham]

I fucking hate Mencia. Just thought I'd put that out of the way.

[Guest Ringu]

In the words of the Superficial, if Mencia steals jokes, then why is he still not funny? I wish Rogan would have gone MMA on him.

[Gene Kiniski]

Is there anything that Rogan doesn't do?

[Mysterio2000X]

Rogan would fuck him up.

[gunnar hendershow]

Joe Rogan is pretty much awesome.

Ned, on the other hand, isn't funny in the slightest.

[Gene Kiniski]

I think the Ned part had to be the best for me. "Your name is Ned!". It's kind of like "Dude, even if you were original you would still fail because, come on, your fucking name is NED".

[ACCBiggz]

Rogan posted on his MySpace about him getting dropped by the agent firm or whatever, they represented both and chose Mencia over him. Rogan said he was going to leave anyway after they told him to apologize. Rogan thought it was funny, and I too dislike Mencia, he isn't funny.

[GhostMachine]

Mencia is not only not that funny and a thief, but he's also too damn stupid to realize that Rogan knocked him the fuck out in that argument.

[GoGo Yubari]

Mencia is not only not that funny and a thief, but he's also too damn stupid to realize that Rogan knocked him the fuck out in that argument.

On the contrary, I think if he didn't realize that Rogan completely humiliated him he wouldn't have made those power plays to get Rogan banned from The Comedy Store and set the events in motion that led to Rogan parting ways with his agent.

[GhostMachine]

Mencia is not only not that funny and a thief, but he's also too damn stupid to realize that Rogan knocked him the fuck out in that argument.

On the contrary, I think if he didn't realize that Rogan completely humiliated him he wouldn't have made those power plays to get Rogan banned from The Comedy Store and set the events in motion that led to Rogan parting ways with his agent.

[bob saget]

.

Edited March 3, 2021 by bob saget

[Tarheels.]

Well they kind of mentioned that on the video. Either way I didn't like Joe Rogan before this, but afterwards I have to say that I do. He just flat out owned Mencia who simply either said "Bullshit" or flat out denied the claims when others were blatantly saying that he had stolen them from him.

[ACCBiggz]

Jim Breuer Unleashed on SIRIUS is trying to contact Rogan right now, if you have SIRIUS you should tune into Raw Dog.

[Scruffy The Janitor]

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Carlos_Mencia...ng_a_stolen_bit

Mencia gets called on stealing material again.

[apsham]

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/...ey_Show_Podcast

Carlos's response, saying that the original people pitched him the idea. Jesus christ. Just listen to it at the end when he's like "Oh my gooood, it's such a coinnnncidence, I thought it was irroooooonic..."

EDIT: And um... why was there smoke in midtown Manhattan?

Edited February 19, 2007 by Apshamignokt

[Tarheels.]

It's almost funny to just hear him try to defend himself and do such a terrible job of it. "Oooooh, what a coincidence". The bottom line is he steals jokes and now that people are actually calling him out for it he doesn't know what to do.

[MalaCloudy Black]

This is getting better by the day.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

This is the first time I've ever even heard of both Mencia and Rogan, and from what I've seen in the video and heard in that interview, this Mencia guy is digging his own grave, so to speak. I just love it when guys like him are outed. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.