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The Bizarre Billings Multi-Million Dollar Copyright Story
July 23, 2009
Byrd Billings had a plan — copyright the names of his children and charge anyone, including the government, millions each time they used one of the names.
The legal papers were filed in both Escambia County Circuit Court and United States District Court Northern District of Florida. Billings’ rambling writings on the court documents detailed his plan. Billings served as his own attorney when filing the documents.
He would copyright the name of a child. Anyone that used the name of that child in any form would owe him up a million dollars per occurrence. Simply using the name, according to the documents, was an agreement to pay.
Billings even demanded payment from the Florida Department of Children and Families. Each time DCF used a family member’s name in a letter, Billings would fire off a bill back to DCF, often demanding millions of dollars for copyright infringements.
DCF acknowledges that after several attempts to charge the state agency, DCF sent a letter back to Billings warning that the state could take legal action if there were additional demands. After DCF wrote their letter, DCF said Billings’ copyright infringement claims ended.
Wednesday, Billings family attorney Crystal Spencer said she did not believe that Billings’ copyright claims were an attempt to get money, but rather an attempt to protect the privacy of his children.
“I think that he was given some incorrect advice,” Spencer said of Billings’ reasons for filing the court papers.
“I would not call them bizarre,” she said of his filings. “I would call them different…It was to protect the privacy of the children.”
To read two of the documents obtained by NorthEscambia.com, click here and here.
Comments
20 Responses to “The Bizarre Billings Multi-Million Dollar Copyright Story”
No matter how odd a fellow is, the bottom line remains, a terrible crime was commited and two people lost their lives. several children are without parents now and a torn apart family is strugling to hold onto reason. I hope justice is served and the truth comes out. I pray for all involved.
I hope these children wasnt loved so much because of money. children are pricless. yes and also think that all children should be handled with care and love.
Does this matter have any impact on the fact that two people, who were willing to take on children that most people turn their backs on were MURDERED, burtally in THEIR home? This appears to a smear tactic by the defense to divert attention from the facts of the case. These perps allegedly committed this cirme not the Billings so why drag their name through the mud. Who is to say that Byrd was strange, by whose standard? God is he only one that can judge, we all need to keep that in mind.
so was this a business of family? meaning the buisness improves as the family grows? I don’t know anything about social security or disability payments so please explain what could have been going on or how this type of scam / racket works? does this mean special needs kids who are adopted bring their own monthly income with them when they get adopted? do they get medical coverage as well?
Please no school busses for these delicate children. Ashley can drive them herself or Blue.
Those children should be handled with kid gloves for the rest of their lives.
Byrd Billings had three dead children. Look into insurance money.
Disabled children geat a LOT of money each month from Social Security Disability.
To A.Davis…….oh yes,there is somebody that knows why this happened!!! They are all sitting in jail with the exception of one ….and if truth be known,she knows the reason,also!!!
Well, people can say whatever they want to about how great B. Billings was, but I think he was just plain weird. Copyright the names of his children? Crazy.
This lawyer gives me the creeps!
this man is strange very strange. i hope he school buses pick the children up at the end of there driveway like they do with other children with problems. That makes me sick to think that so many children was on that property the night of the murders. I hope Parents think about that, noone knows the reasons behind this are who else was involved. and why did morgan say gonzalez worked for byrd and then the Billings said not true? WHO was wrong?
All is so strange but when school starts back will the bus still go onto the Billings compound? Kind of scary children going there when no one knows whats really going on. Maybe they can be picked up at the end of there driveway like other children i know of that are special needs. I hope all kids can be kept safe. this case is so strange.
I guess i will continue to go by weed, unless i get sued because someone has already copyrighted my name. I seem to recall coming into this world with nothing, and i still have most of it, so good luck with any law suite trying to take it from me. (for those who might be concerned about me, this is in jest and by no means serious) what is serious is this bizzar murder case and the odd things coming from the investigation. I am not sure what to think at this point. I hope the children are doing as good as can be expected. this really is a sad sad tragedy.
Very peculiar.. Has anyone heard of the 1st amendment.. If so,, you cannot copyright your name unless you belong to the Screen Actors Guild.. Then it is a matter for film etc.. I can call myself Marlon Brando but not on film.. Silly
why is this being printed?what does it have to do with a brutal murder?/Just muddy a memory ??
Mr Billings is starting to sound like a scam artist.
And – If the child writes his/her own name can they be sued???
So….if my last name was the same as his, which it isn’t, then I couldn’t name my child the same as any of his children???? What about someone that has already been born and has the same name as one of his kids? That’s just stupid……and everyone knows it. You can’t copyright a person.
Maybe I should copyright my own name and then sue someone who was born before me because they share the same name. (lightbulb!!!) OR – maybe I could just sue myself. I could set up the copyright, insure my name, and then sue myself…..that would be just as stupid.
I agree, Weed! Who also would keep 100,000 dollars in a safe at home? Was it to keep from paying taxes? The murky waters are getting deeper and deeper.
This leaves me to wonder why DCF needed to correspond with Billings. If the correspondence were routine letters regarding providing special needs services to the foster/adopted children, Billings wouldn’t have responded with these bizarre letters. Afterall, they would be support service drive letters. All of this leaves me to wonder if there was there a DCF child abuse/neglect investigation.
The PNJ reported that an older adopted son of Byrd’s is “believed to have committed suicide.” It’s the first I’ve heard of that, but it’s very interesting and extremely tragic, if true.
Very likely, the copyrights were BECAUSE of the state contacts. This was an oppositional, defiant measure, of somebody who wasn’t about to allow the state to tell him what to do. He was tired of the correspondence, and this was his way to fight back, in my opinion. FL isn’t allowed to tell us what THEIR letters said, because of “privacy issues,” though they might be allowed to reveal the extent of Byrd’s FIGHT BACK position.
If he had just stashed his cash in a safe deposit box at a bank they wouldn’t have been a target at all. Then, though, the gov’t could have access to secrets that were NONE OF THE STATE’S BUSINESS, I imagine, in Byrd’s opinion.
very odd. who secures a copyright on their childrens names?