Victor M. Mauro, Jr. is the registered agent and one of two owners listed for JustCircuit, LLC, so I'd say it's a good guess the case concerns some sort of new malfeasance JustCircuit managed to embroil itself in. Although what that would be, and whether it was in any way related to the Chisholm/GayDays scandal, I don't know at this point. All the info I can access online is this very brief summary of the case, which has nothing more than the parties, the courthouse, and the date and time of the hearing.
I'll try to get more information on this from sources close to parties, and will post updates as they become available...
Addendum 6/25/10: I managed to pull the case file:
As you can see, this is a "BREACH OF CONTRACT" lawsuit, with said breach having allegedly occurred between February 6 and February 13, 2010. Noize Magazine is claiming damages in the amount of $3,000, which puts well within the jurisdictional limit of the California small claims court (which is $7,500, IIRC).
The contract that was allegedly breached was attached, and can be viewed here. It seems to be a settlement agreement from a previous legal dispute concerning a pretty blatant act of cybersquatting and trademark violation committed by JustCircuit back in 2008.
Now, if I'm reading this settlement document correctly...it would appear that sometime prior to October of 2008 JustCircuit registered and activated an Internet domain which it had absolutely no right to use, "www.circuitnoizeonline.com," with the intent, I would assume, to illegally steer traffic intended for Noize to JustCircuit. An exhibit attached to the end of the contract that contains traffic statistics of JustCircuit during certain key months seems to bolster this assumption:
And it looks like JustCircuit got caught red handed doing this...and was forced to cave. This settlement required that JustCircuit fork over the cybersquatted domain, and both parties agreed not to infringe on each others trademarks in the future (in particular, Noize agreed to leave parked a domain "www.justcircuitnoize.com" which it had registered but never activated).
So anyways, that's the contract involved in this breach of contract. What's not clear yet is what the actual "breach" is. All I can tell from the filing above is that this alleged breach occurred between February 6 and 13 of this year. I'll keep digging, and see if I can't find out a bit more...
Update 8/24/10: I was able to verify the meaning of those JustCircuit-provided traffic statistics printed above: The 2nd number on each line is the total number of "hits" JustCircuit got in that particular month; for example, in January of 2008 their entire site got a total of 175 hits.
The 3rd number refers to bandwidth (in mb?), which as you can see, was 251187 in Jan of '08.
The 4th number is total number of unique visitors (as opposed to hits) for that month; thus in Jan '08 a grand total of 72 people visited the JustCircuit website, according to their very own internal traffic statistics.
And the 5th number is interesting, that's actually a subset of the 4th number; it's the total number of unique visitors who came to JustCircuit through the Noize-mimicking domains illegally cybersquatted by JustCircuit. For example, of the 72 people who visited JustCircuit in the month of January 2008, 21 of those really meant to go to Noize, but were tricked by the deceptive chicanery of JustCircuit owners Shane Rogers and Victor Mauro.
I'll try to keep you all updated on this as more information becomes available...
Great post Jim.
ReplyDeleteJust Circuit has finally been Just Screwed. Finally, the hero appears on the scene to wipe the riff-raff offa the face of earth. Roots for Noize!
Yeah, like I said I have no clue as to what this is all about, but whatever it is, I'm sure it's an interesting story!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually thinking of driving up to Van Nuys and pulling the case file (which is probably the only way to view the whole thing, being that it's not online). It's about a 2-hour trip from San Diego, so, we'll see...
I'll pay for your gas. It's time Just Drama gets brought down. Being in the business myself and having to deal with them everyday. They arenothing but lies, and drama queens. You never know which personality of Shanes you are talking to.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt you will get threats from them. It's alway interesting when the guilty criminals are threatening the innocent victims.
ReplyDelete"No doubt you will get threats from them...."
ReplyDeleteOh, that's happened so many times already I don't even pay attention to it anymore.
As a DJ that plays dozens of large events every year, I have nothing but distaste for JustCircuit. They have been a thorn in the side of every DJ and promoter for way too long. This is one of the failures that many of us are happy to see finally happening.
ReplyDeleteI think what is more interesting than this whole legal drama you are reporting on, are the statistics that show no more than 21 visits per month to JustCircuit. LOL! I think this blog gets more than that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been puzzling over what those traffic numbers mean, for example:
ReplyDelete#page Hits Bandwidth Visits
/mag/1207/ 175 251187 72 21
Obviously, the "251187" number refers to bandwidth. Therefore I'm guessing "175" is the total number of hits JustCircuit got in that particular month, while the "72" and "21" probably refers to the total number of unique vistors...although what the bold figure means as opposed to the not-bold figure I'm not sure.
LOL. JustCircuit was promoting on Facebook that they are available in all 50 states! Yeah, sure, you can find it in Montana, Alaska and North Dakota! What a joke. Next they will claim to be available on all 9 planets in our solar system and the moons of Saturn. You would think they could lie better by now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we unexpectedly covered JustCircuit's print circulation fraud in the comments section here. Their "distribution manager" essentially confessed to the fraud as to at least one city (San Diego), and testimonials have been pouring into me ever since as to the complete lack of advertised "distribution points" in what appears to be all but 2 of the 50 states.
ReplyDeleteEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! These guys at justcircuit.com are just total Creeps!
ReplyDeleteI guess justcircuit.com's backside nastiness directed towards Mark Baker is a flop..noticed that in several months Mark's Facebook has about 3400 people and JustCircuit.com's page (which has been around for years? probably) finally broke 2900. Of course people probably appreciate that Mark solicits input from customers on his page while JC would simply delete anything they didn't like. KHARMA
ReplyDeleteJohnny Chisolm still has, well zero
After a month in NYC and Fire Island, I can report than every event justcircuit was involved with was a flop. Especially the ones with Tony Moran. A very reputable acquaintance on fire island said that some advertisers had a class action lawsuit against them for fraud and misrepresentation. Is this the same lawsuit? Someone from justcircuit was on fire island and said that they were declaring bankruptcy to get out of the lawsuits. Sounds just like Chisholm did.
ReplyDeleteThis advertiser lawsuit sounds like a very different case, actually. I'll be happy to try to find it, if you can find me a few clues (ie, what court it was filed at, the parties, etc...).
ReplyDeleteIt was mostly in passing conversation. I think the guys name was Ric who works on Ascension.
ReplyDeleteMust be bankrupt. No magazine on August 1st. Just a cover. Laughable
ReplyDeleteDid you ever get any more news on this? Looks like JustCircuit did not print their issue again.
ReplyDelete"Did you ever get any more news on this?"
ReplyDeleteYes, I did manage to speak with a representative of Noize about this, briefly. Obviously, they couldn't tell me much, as it was a subject of ongoing litigation, but they did say that they hoped the matter could be worked out between the parties in an amicable and professional manner.
And I was able to 100% verify the meaning of those JustCircuit-provided traffic statistics printed above: The 2nd number on each line is the total number of "hits" JustCircuit got in that particular month; for example, in January of 2008 their entire site got a total of 175 hits.
The 3rd number refers to bandwidth (in mb?), which as you can see, was 251187 in Jan of '08.
The 4th number is total number of unique vistors (as opposed to hits) for that month; thus in Jan '08 a grand total of 72 people visited the JustCircuit website, according to their very own internal traffic statistics.
And the 5th number is interesting, that's actually a subset of the 4th number; it's the total number of unique visitors who came to JustCircuit through the Noize-mimicking domains illegally cybersquatted by JustCircuit. For example, of the 72 people who visited JustCircuit in the month of January 2008, 21 of those really meant to go to Noize, but were tricked by the deceptive chicanery of JustCircuit owners Shane Rogers and Victor Mauro.
And I have to apologize here...I've had this interesting new info for a few weeks, and I probably should have posted it as an update, but things have been busy for me lately at my other job (I was recently promoted to Nightlife Columnist for my news service, SDGLN.com), and this sort of fell through the cracks.
I guess I'll go ahead and rectify this omission now...
"Looks like JustCircuit did not print their issue again. "
ReplyDeleteReally? It's difficult for me to tell, because their "magazine" isn't distributed here in San Diego (despite claims in their media guide of having 3 "distribution points" in San Diego), but I have heard other say that there are perhaps one or two locations in Florida where it is physically stacked for free distribution.
Are you in Florida, and saying that it was no where to be seen this month, even there?
Thank you for this stellar reseach job. Justcircuit is a cancer on the circuit, the sooner they can be diagnosed, exposed and excised from the body, the better the long term health of the circuit will be. once again, THANKS!
ReplyDeleteI live in Wilton Manors, FL. I have never personally seen justcircuit in town. I think it is just an online magazine so you might not want to attack them for not printing.
ReplyDeleteI heard they are now bankrupt, going from 6 to 4 times a year, or perhaps not even that. Their radio partner and all the DJs and iphone apps are gone to a new owner.
ReplyDelete