Law Times

Page 16 December 3, 2012 Law Times • u The u Bizarre Briefs InsIde story By Viola James RESISTANCE TO FACEBOOK FUTILE WASHINGTON —  It's futile to try to override Facebook's terms of use by posting a copyright notice on your wall, a Washington lawyer says. According to ABC News, messages have been appearing advising people worried about Facebook's supposed ownership of the content on their profiles that they can protect themselves by copying and pasting a notice that declares: "In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos, and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention)." Brad Shear, a Washington-area lawyer, told ABC News the message is misleading because when people agree to Facebook's terms of use, they grant the social media giant a "non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use any content you post." WOMAN IN TROUBLE FOR SEX WITH SKELETON GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Disturbing the peace of the dead isn't a charge you hear about very often. But according to Reuters, that's the offence a woman in Sweden is facing for allegedly engaging in sexual activities with a human skeleton. She could face jail time for disturbing the peace of the dead, a Swedish prosecutor said. Police found a full human skeleton, skulls, and a box containing other human bones by chance after responding to a call saying a shot had been fired from her flat in the city of Gothenburg. They also discovered CD-ROMs titled "my necrophilia" and "my first experience" as well as photographs of the woman engaging in various sexual activities with a skeleton, a court document on the prosecutor's web site showed. "She is interested in the dead," prosecutor Kristina Ehrenborg-Staffas told Reuters. "She has pictures of morgues, churches, and graveyards." The 37-year-old unemployed woman has also been accused of selling human bones to an artist in Uppsala in eastern Sweden this past summer. According to Reuters, she faces a maximum two years in prison if found guilty. ARE CANNIBALISM PLOTS ON THE RISE? NEWARK, N.J. — It seems strange how many cases of people wanting to cook and eat their sex victims seem to be arising these days. First, there was the case of the New York police officer who allegedly plotted to kidnap, rape, cook, and eat women. Now we have the case of a New Jersey man accused of chatting online about his sexual fantasies of kidnapping, raping, and eating children. He has been charged with luring a 15-year-old boy to Pennsylvania for sex, federal authorities said. The U.S. attorney's office in Newark, N.J., said Robert Mucha, 56, met the boy through his mother. In October 2010, Mucha persuaded the boy to visit him by promising to take him to an amusement park, after which the boy would spend the night in his apartment. On the night of the visit, Mucha fondled the boy, the criminal complaint lodged against him said. Mucha, of Newton, N.J., was charged with possessing child pornography in a separate case in July, Reuters reported. Matthew Reilly, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Mucha had been charged with a further count of possessing child pornography on his home computer. If convicted of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity, Mucha faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars, Reilly said. According to the charges, Mucha used a webbased chat service on multiple occasions to communicate with individuals who shared his sexual fascination with child cannibalism. According to Reuters, many of their communications focused on how they might "abduct the children, drug them, roast them, and, ultimately, consume them." LT "James Darnley! Darnley Desman and Farrel entertainment law!" LSUC FEES TO RISE The Law Society of Upper Canada is raising its annual fee by 1.4 per cent. As a result, the fee for a practising lawyer will increase by $25 to $1,851 from $1,826. "This is a prudent budget that takes into account the dynamics affecting the delivery of legal services and the practice of law in Ontario," said law society chief executive officer Law Society of Upper Robert Lapper. Canada Some of the factors affecting the budget include the growth in the number of lawyers and paralegals; increased use of law society reserves; and rising governance expenses. POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, an overwhelming number of respondents agreed with former Law Society of Upper Canada treasurer Gavin MacKenzie's call on benchers to consider leaving articling as is with financial incentives to increase the number of positions. While 77 per cent of respondents agreed with MacKenzie, benchers nevertheless went ahead with the proposed law practice program. LITIGANT RAPPED FOR CUTTING UTILITIES A Superior Court judge has taken a family law litigant to task for leaving his wife in the cold despite an order obliging him to pay the ongoing expenses of the matrimonial home. In Ciarlariello v. Iuele-Ciarlariello, Superior Court Justice John McDermot threatened to strike Alfredo Ciarlariello's pleadings if he defaults on an order to reinstate the household accounts in his name and bring them into good standing after he announced via e-mail on Oct. 24 that he was cancelling expenses for auto insurance, hydro, water, gas, cable, and taxes. Ciarlariello and Annina Iuele-Ciarlariello separated in 2011, according to McDermot's Nov. 15 endorsement. She and the four children had earlier moved out of the matrimonial home but returned following an order confirming that Ciarlariello would pay $500 a week as well as the ongoing expenses of the home. The issues before McDermot also dealt with a dispute between the litigants over the sale of the home after an offer to buy it fell through. "It was entirely inappropriate under the circumstances to take the actions that the applicant did; he had his remedy to deal with the respondent's failure to accept what appeared to be a reasonable offer but instead decided to 'punish' the respondent for her refusal to accept the offer," wrote McDermot in reference to Ciarlariello's actions. For Michael Stangarone, who represents Iuele-Ciarlariello, the case is a lesson for litigants who violate court orders. "Justice McDermot made clear that court orders are not suggestions; they are mandatory and there must be sanctions for breach," said Stangarone of MacDonald & Partners LLP. WILLS' LAWYER ACCUSED OF MISCONDUCT A Brampton, Ont., lawyer is in further hot water over the infamous Richard Wills case after the Law Society of Upper Canada launched disciplinary proceedings against him. The lawyer in question is Raj Napal, whom the law society accuses of a number of acts of professional misconduct. It alleges he failed to encourage public respect for the administration of justice by abdicating his responsibilities as defence counsel in R. v. Wills by taking inappropriate instructions and assisting Wills to delay and prejudice the administration of justice. The law society also accuses Napal of misconduct for advancing allegations of bias against a judge and officers of the Crown "when there was no reasonable foundation for the allegations and when he had no good-faith belief in the validity of the allegations." The law society issued the notice of application on Nov. 21, but the Wills matter dates back to 2007 during Napal's defence of the now-convicted former Toronto police officer. Wills is serving a life sentence for the killing of his lover Linda Mariani. 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