Bruce Dean

New campaign aims to discourage retail theft

on March 18, 2022 Retail

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Serial shoplifters have been able to avoid being charged with more serious crimes because of the $950 threshold in California Proposition 47.

Now, there is a new campaign aiming to change that.

We have seen the images and videos of retail stores being hit by groups of thieves across the Bay Area, with seemingly nothing being able to deter them.

“I went and talked to everyone that I could to try to figure out a solution on how we could turn the corner on this rampant theft that we are seeing in our state, and this is what we came up with,” Rachel Michelin, president of California Retailers Association, said.

It is a campaign by the California Retailers Association called Californians for Safe Stores and Neighborhoods.

One of the four primary aims is to deter retail crimes by eliminating the misdemeanor threshold and making repeat offenders eligible to be charged with felonies.

“This means that you have stolen multiple times in order to meet that $950 threshold, which really means you’re a serial shoplifter. So, what we’re bringing back is the ability to aggregate those crimes,” Michelin said.

Speaking by phone, KRON4 ran the idea by a San Bruno jewelry store owner who chased four thieves from his store at gunpoint.

He says he doesn’t think the deterrent goes far enough.

“No! To prevent that, we have to change some sort of a law. They have to do something because the police definitely can’t be everywhere,” Maaz Jewelers owner Usman Bhatti said.

Law enforcement representatives say they support aggregating retail theft crimes but point out what they say is another loophole in current California law – zero bail schedule.

“The larger issue is that folks commit felonies, particularly here in Oakland, gun crimes, and they come back the same day. They commit multiple shopliftings. They come back the same day. What we have to do is that when you commit felonies, you need to stay in jail, or you have to have a bail schedule that’s consummate with the level of crime you committed,” Officer Barry Donelan said.

“That’s not our fight. Our fight is about retail theft. That’s what we are trying to solve,” Michelin said.

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on March 12, 2022 Business

As the 26th highest grossing movie producer of all time, Ryan Kavanaugh has dealt with his share of critics and trolls. Even so, the founder of Proximity Media and Relativity Media and co-founder of Triller could never have anticipated the malicious backlash he would receive from Ethan Klein and H3 Productions. Klein, a podcast host, YouTube personality, and owner of H3 Productions, lashed out after Kavanaugh and Triller Fight Group tried to hold him accountable for proven piracy.

Piracy and Pay Per View Live Sports

As a Triller shareholder, Kavanaugh has a vested interest in helping the company secure and broadcast revenue-generating events. This is exactly what happened last spring when Kavanaugh worked with Triller Fight Group management to obtain the rights to broadcast a live boxing match between Jake Paul and Ben Askren. After months of hard work and millions of dollars invested in the boxing match, Triller Fight Group premiered the event on April 17, 2021.

Kavanaugh and Triller management knew what to expect in terms of revenue and views because they had successfully broadcast a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, Jr. in November 2020. When their revenue projections and paid views fell fall short of predictions, they knew immediately that several people had pirated the fight without paying the $49.99 fee. They just never expected to discover that Ethan Klein diverted more than four million paid views away from Triller Fight Group, costing it more than $100 million in the process.

Klein was not the only one who committed piracy against Triller, but most others were single individuals who paid the fee when presented with evidence of what they had done. He was in a league of his own regarding how much he stole and his actions after receiving Triller’s lawsuit.

Intellectual Property Rights of Online Entertainment Companies

Ryan Kavanaugh likens Triller protecting its intellectual property the same way a brick and mortar store would. The only difference is the methods used to acquire the protection. Physical stores typically use security cameras, security guards, and safes to protect inventory from theft. Unfortunately, it is easier for online thieves to steal the hard work and content of others despite the protection the intellectual property owner has in place. The onus is usually on the victim to prove that piracy has occurred, as Kavanaugh quickly discovered when reporting Klein’s theft to YouTube.

Klein’s Behavior After the Piracy is Even More Troubling

When confronted with proof of his piracy, Klein initially appeared willing to cooperate to resolve the matter and then quickly changed his mind. He decided to engage in malicious attacks and smear campaigns against Kavanaugh and Triller instead. From posting videos full of false information to redirecting Kavanaugh’s website traffic to his own website, Klein somehow decided that he was the victim and not Kavanaugh and Triller. His actions quickly escalated, including egging on his millions of YouTube and podcast followers to lie about and threaten Kavanaugh along with him.

Ryan Kavanaugh decided he had enough on November 30, 2021 and filed a personal lawsuit against Klein and H3 Productions.