Oh. Fuck. Yes. Now this makes sense.

Finally, a lawsuit in which Perez Hilton is not being accused of copyright violations. In fact, the gossip blogger (real name: Mario Lavandeira) is the one suing this time, claiming that a rogue Los Angeles photo agency is unfairly competing against his blog by, among other things, employing a platoon of illegal aliens who physically threaten the paparazzi competition. Filed yesterday, Lavandeira’s Los Angeles Superior Court complaint … alleges that the X17 agency’s owners engage in “illegal and unethical business practices” and that they exploit the company’s photographers, many of whom are “from Brazil or other countries” and are “believed to be illegal aliens.” He also charges that the agency may “employ photographers with criminal backgrounds and/or gang affiliations.” While Lavandeira does not identify any paparazzi by name, X17 photographer Ramon “Twist” Kirk is a convicted sex offender. As first revealed by reporter Eric Longabardi, Kirk spent 16 months in a California prison for the felony sex crime, which involved a teenage girl. Lavandeira contends that X17 has launched a “copycat blog” and, to secure a competitive advantage, the agency exploits its labor pool “through unlawful business practices.

Not only is Perez suing X17 as a corporation, he’s also suing its owners, Francois and Brandy Navarre, as individuals.

You can read the full complaint here.

We’ll be talking about this more later, I promise.

Who’d've guessed that on Paris Hilton Jail Release day, my favorite story would be about an entirely different Hilton?

(Thanks Chris!)

Just posted on Perez:

Notice To All Current And Former Photographers Of X17

Does X17 owe you money?

If you feel that you have not been adequately compensated by X17 for your time (including overtime) or your photographs, please contact us at info@perezhilton.com immediately.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Ohhhhhhhh shit.

This no longer has anything to do with first amendment rights or satire or copyright infringement. This shit is personal, and it has been for a while now.

But it is sooooo much fun!!!!

PerezWatch just got interesting. After all the drama and all the lawsuits between Perez and X17, it seems as though actual changes are beginning to occur.

Perez’s longtime host, Crucial Paradigm, took the site offline yesterday after numerous threats from X17’s legal team. The site was dark for a few hours, and it’s back up now, hosted by Blogads. (Really? Um, does Blogads host anyone else? Because, like, they barely host the Blogads service. If you’ve never had to try to deal with that user interface, consider yourself lucky.) The current version of Perez’s site doesn’t include his archives or allow for comments. That last part is really too bad. Now there’s no place for the world’s intelligentsia to weigh in ever so eloquently on the trials and tribulations of the very famous.

But X17’s lawyers are already hounding Blogads about it and threatening legal action. “It’s a precedent that’s huge,” they say “When we were talking to Crucial Paradigm they were saying they were not responsible, dragging their feet. We had to threaten them and show them they were liable. His new host is Blogads, and we’re contacting them already.”

I have to admit, I’m a regular Perez reader (but you guys knew that), and I’m fascinated to see how this case plays out, and the impact it has on the rest of us.

Since her ex Ryan Reynolds has begun blogging for the Huffington Post (and I won’t get into this in much detail, but his stuff is so overwritten and irrelevant and annoying — we get it, Ryan. You know big words and you’re a famous actor. Big props to you, buddy.), Perez has offered Alanis an opportunity to blog for him!

We’d like to offer Alanis Morissette her own little online outlet to talk about whatever she wants.

Write an essay for us!

Alanis writing for Perez!!!!! I love it. Come on, Alanis. After So-Called Chaos, you owe us.

Also, this is the slowest news day ever.

Perez ran this unflattering image tonight of Sheriff Lee Baca, Paris Hilton’s would-be savior.

Additionally, he ran the quote from Rocky Delgadillo, stating that “justice was served” with the headline: “Justice Was Served.” I’d have expected him to run it as “Justice Was Served?”, but it was suspiciously question-markless.

What happened to Paris’s biggest supporter? Is he pissed that Paris won’t give him any exclusives on this, and he has to get all his updates via TMZ like the rest of us plebes? Is he just sick of being called out on the fact that he always gives Paris a break?

Interesting …

Perez Hilton is a bit boring but he is really on the ball when it comes to Paris’s “will-she-or-won’t-she” show up at the court watch.

Right now helecopters are flying over Paris’s house waiting for her to come outside.

A police car is waiting outside of Paris Hilton’s house to give her a ride to the court ASAP.

She is still inside as of 10:05 A.M. Pacific.

Earlier this moments, her hair and makeup people were seen entering the home.

So Paris is waiting for her people to make her up before she goes out in public. I want them to throw her skinny ass back in jail for 40 days. She was actually thinking of throwing a party and now is getting primped before facing the paparatzzi.

Throw her in jail! I’m guessing a lot of people get anxious and can’t eat when they enter PRISON.

Methinks that Cathy Hilton gave somebody a “gift” and that is why Miss Hilton is having such an easy time.

From X17:

If you’re gonna steal pix, you’re gonna get burned! Mario Lavandeira decided to infringe one of our images, yet again — as he does usually at least a few times each week — but this time we caught him with a decoy …

X17 sent out this week-old pix of Lindsay Lohan to our UK clients and captioned them like this:
First pix of Lindsay Lohan since dramatic crash with her Mercedes SL 65 in Beverly Hills May 27, 2007 carrying medication May 27, 2007 X17online EXCLUSIVE

Mr. Hilton published the information from the caption and the caption’s a FAKE, JUST LIKE HIM! And though he always claims he doesn’t know the origins of the images he uses that are ours — you can see that our captions clearly state that the images are from X17. That’s what you get when you read Perez!

The real, exclusive Lindsay photos from early this morning are coming soon on X17!

In fact, every image of Lindsay that Perez has used so far, to illustrate the story of Lohan’s DUI, is an X17 image. See you in court, Mario!

Here’s the link to the story Perez ran, along with some screen captures for when he pulls it.

It’s funny that Perez seems to have something against X17 specifically. When Creative Age publications called him out on using one of their images for his logo, he removed the logo and changed his favicon. Now this may be, in part, because I think he’ll probably try to make a satire case for his use of X17’s images, and that shit probably won’t fly with his logo (not that it’s likely to fly for the rest of the pics, either). But he uses Buzz Foto’s images with their watermarks, and always credits them. Most of the rest of his pics come from WireImage. Every now and then he’ll steal from Splash or Flynet, but most of his stolen images are X17’s, and despite their lawsuit, he continues to do so. I think this shit is personal.

Jesus Christ, Perez. Is anything on that site owned by you?

TMZ has obtained a copy of a letter sent to Perez (real name Mario Lavandeira) from Creative Age Publications, demanding the logo be removed. In the letter, Creative Age alleges that the picture Perez uses as his logo is theirs, and that it appeared in a feature in the September 2004 issue of Nailpro — a magazine geared toward salon owners, managers and nail technicians.

Deborah Carver, publisher of Nailpro, says, “I’m a Perez fan, but he can’t use our award-winning photos. This isn’t the first time he’s done this. These are proprietary works that take an entire team of people to put together.”

The letter, which is dated today, reads, “Please be advised that our client is entitled to seek statuatory damages for willful copyright infringement up to $150,000 per work infringed.”