| I first had the idea for The Digital
Entertainment Network in 1996 whose concept was |
| to produce a website that would provide worthwhile entertainment on the
Internet. I reserved |
| the logical urls tden.com and tden.net. Initially there was a single product on the website: a |
| CD album I produced and played the piano on called The Great American Ragtime Revival. |
| The album contains various piano pieces composed by important Ragtime composers such |
| as Scott Joplin, James Scott and Tom Turpin. Relevant sound effects are also incorporated |
| into the album. |
| |
| Sometime around the middle of 1998 I started receiving emails from numerous indi- |
| viduals who were inquiring as to when a video called Chad’s World would be available |
| on the website. At first I thought it was some sort of mistake but when the inquiries did not |
| stop I replied to one of the writers and asked her what Chad’s World was. She informed me |
| that there was an article in the L.A. Times that said a company named Digital Entertainment |
| Network was going to have an online video called Chad’s World. Since video on the Inter- |
| net in those days was a new concept there was a lot of buzz about this. I asked her to email |
| a copy of the article to me. Lo and behold everything she told me turned out to be correct. |
| I immediately started searching the Internet for another company calling itself Digital Enter- |
| tainmen Network but I could not locate one. About a month later I received a letter and a |
| six page contract from a law firm based in Hollywood, CA that stated they represented a |
| company calling itself Digital Entertainment Network, that I was infringing upon their trade- |
| mark, and that I should turn over my website and urls to them for the princely sum of $2,500. |
| |
| My first impression was that this was a practical joke being played upon me by one |
| of my friends, a few of who had a history of being pranksters. Upon further investigation it |
| turned out that the letter and law firm were real. The letter made no reference to either their |
| client's mailing address or website url. I did some additional searching on the Internet and |
| finally located their client at den.net. A check with the whois directory indicated that I had |
| reserved tden.com on March 23, 1996, but den.net was reserved on June 28, 1996. There- |
| fore it turned out that den.net was infringing on my trademark and their attorneys had not |
| done their homework. I had also made application to register the trademark The Digital |
| Entertainment Network and they had not. |
| |
| I sent their attorneys a reply explaining the situation to them. Upon further investi- |
| gation I discovered that Digital Entertainment Network had raised $70,000,000. in venture |
| capital from various groups and individuals. Some of their investors were Microsoft, Dell, |
| Chase Capital Partners, and numerous actors and other individuals in the entertainment |
| industry. The CEO of Digital Entertainment Network was Marc-Collins Rector. He and |
| Chad Shackley (hence ‘Chad’s World’) had started Concentric Networks, sold it and kicked |
| in $15,000,000. of their own financial resources to start den.net. Another major player in this |
| company was the actor Brock Pierce. As it turns out these three individuals turned out to be |
| the Unholy Trinity Of Hollywood Entertainment Disasters (UTOHED, my acronym). There |
| was also a fourth player in this fiasco named Dana Giacchetto who was raising capital for |
| the company. |
| |
| Den.net was heavily promoted by various media organizations such as the L.A. Times |
| and the Howard Stern Show. The concept behind den.net was that they were going to provide |
| online shows similar to the way TV series are shown. These shows were geared towards the |
| so-called gen-x generation. What happened to gen-a thru gen-w we will never know but gen-x |
| appeared to be the key for them as a lot of major players were stepping over themselves to |
| get involved in this venture. The idea was sound but unfortunately (for them, not me) the |
| founders of the company had ulterior motives. |
| |
| The company setup a large production facility in Hollywood and created a few series |
| episodes. In doing so however they hired their buddies from other major entertainment com- |
| panies such as Disney and paid them outlandish million dollar salaries.
Remember, this entire |
| operation was being financed by venture capital and had not generated one penny of actual |
| revenue. Then things got really ugly. The company was going to go public with a $75,000,000. |
| IPO at the end of 1999 but allegations of improper behavior on the part of Collins-Rector, |
| Shackley and Pierce surfaced. It appears that they were drugging and intimidating male teen |
| actors who were auditioning for parts in their series in order to have sex with them. Then |
| stories surfaced that their financier Dana Giacchetto was spending the capital he had raised |
| for the company on his own lavish lifestyle. In other words, den.net turned out to be a typical |
| Hollywood operation. |
| |
| In the interim, I was involved in ‘negotiations’ with their attorneys regarding rights |
| to the name Digital Entertainment Network. The reason negotiations is in quotes is because |
| when you are dealing with individuals of this caliber do not expect them to be acting in good |
| faith. After reading about all the capital they had raised, one would have thought that they |
| would be seriously interested in wrapping up the trademark rights to the name Digital |
| Entertainment Network. Considering their financial position, I felt that $2,000,000. was a |
| reasonable price tag for the exclusive rights to the mark. Interestingly enough, after they |
| found out about my website they started adding ‘The’ to the name as it definitely made more |
| more sense. The highest counter offer I received from them was a non-specific amount in |
| the 5-figure area. It was an improvement over their original $2,500. offer but not quite good |
| enough. Just when I was about to call my attorneys to investigate the possibility of filing a |
| trademark infringement lawsuit against them, the dirt hit the fan. Their IPO was cancelled, |
| lawsuits by injured parties were filed against the company and arrest warrants were issued |
| for UTOHED and their financier Dana Giacchetto. |
| |
| You have to keep in mind that all this was happening during the era of the dot-com |
| craze. While everyone else was raising millions of dollars to create a website with their |
| grandmother's picture on it, I was locked in business combat with these
clowns of creation |
| who had raised millions of dollars in venture capital by usurping my trademark and funda- |
| mental ideas. However, as Shakespeare said, all is well that ends well. |
| |
| UTOHED fled to Spain where they were arrested in a house that contained enormous |
| amounts of child pornography. Collins-Rector was extradited back to the U.S. where he |
| served some time in a Federal Prison and is now a card-carrying member of the Florida |
| Sex Offender Registry. I believe he and Shackley are somewhere in Europe engaged in yet |
| another Internet venture. I have no idea what happened to Brock Pierce but a few inquiries |
| have been made through my website from various collection agencies as to whether I knew |
| of his whereabouts. I explained to them that they had the wrong Digital Entertainment Net- |
| work and referred them to the attorneys that were on record at the time. Dana Giacchetto |
| was convicted of fraud and served 3 years in a Federal Prison. He has been released and |
| has promised to be a good boy. |
| |
| After the IPO was cancelled the company could no longer raise capital for obvious |
| reasons and was forced into bankruptcy. The assets of the corporation were put up for |
| auction by the bankruptcy court and were sold to the highest bidder for a total of $105,000. |
| In order to avoid further problems and trademark conflicts I called the purchaser and ex- |
| plained to him that the rights to the name The Digital Entertainment Network were not part |
| of the package. He agreed and to this day we have had a cordial relationship. |
| |
| When den.net was heading down the tubes I contacted the media outlets that were |
| hyping them and attempted to receive equal publicity for my website. The L.A Times |
| outright refused to write anything about my company. Howard Stern had one of his |
| lackeys call me back but he never aired the story or invited me on his show. I guess my |
| boobs weren't big enough for him. But the boobs who ran den.net obviously were. The |
| NY Post however wrote an article about it and you can read it here. So after 12 years |
| The Digital Entertainment Network is still up and running at www.tden.com. The web- |
| site has come a long way and is pretty much close to what I had envisioned it might be. |
| When you get a chance I suggest you check it out. |
| |
| There is a moral to this story: Do not let bullies push you around because given |
| enough time they will ultimately self-destruct. It's Don Corleone who pulls the strings |
| and there's a horses head ready for anyone in Hollywood who thinks otherwise. In any |
| case now we know why there are more horses asses in the world than horses heads. And |
| if you happen to know where Brock Pierce is, kindly inform the nearest collection agency. |
TDEN The Digital Entertainment Network Story
©1996-2008 The Digital Entertainment Network®