If Ted Alvin Klaudt had his way, we’d owe him $500,000 for the first clause of this sentence. The former South Dakota state representative has sent a notarized letter from prison — where he is serving time for the rape of two of his foster daughters — notifying several news organizations of a “Common Law Copyright” on the use of his name.
The AP is among the organizations that got the letter from the state prison in Springfield, South Dakota. Klaudt’s copyright notice, which demands $500,000 per unauthorized use of his name, was notarized and includes a seal indicating it was filed with the register of deeds near Klaudt’s family ranch, the AP reports.
We should note that the Argus Leader is reporting that Klaudt has threatened a $2 million — not $500,000 — penalty for each unauthorized use of his name.
His daughter confirmed to the AP that the copyright notice is authentic but declined to elaborate on Klaudt’s motivation.
Remarked the AP’s counsel for intellectual property: “There is no legal substance to these claims.”
Finally, here’s how the AP describes the charges against Klaudt, a Republican who served in the state house from 1999 to 2006 and pushed for tougher restrictions on sex offenders:
Klaudt was convicted in 2007 on four counts of second-degree rape for touching his teenage foster daughters’ breasts and genitals in phony examinations he said could help them sell their eggs to infertile couples. He was sentenced to 44 years in prison for rape and 10 more years after pleading guilty to two counts of witness tampering.
