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FROM THE DESK OF MEGAN MCCARTHY — Lawyers at Barnes and Thornburg, the law firm representing news aggregator Digg, have sent the proponents of rating site DigaSVGirl* a cease-and-desist letter concerning potential trademark violations. Digg CEO Jay Adelson explains:

We don't want to shut anyone down and we're not suing digasvgirl.com. Digg, like all companies, simply wants to be able to continue using its trademarks. When a company provides a similar service (online voting) and has a similar name (i.e. dig in the name), we risk losing our trademark if we don't ask them to alter the violation of our mark.

*Disclaimer:

Yes, my picture is on that site, and I've been willfully ignoring it for about a week now. No, I did not submit myself. No, I'm not particularly flattered by my inclusion, and definitely not flattered by the picture they used. Yes, I know that the people who created it meant the site to be tongue in cheek. But it's hard to keep your tongue in cheek when you're visibly drooling, isn't it, boys?

Yes, it could be considered hypocritical to disparage a shallow rating site when I've had my fair share of superficial moments, but at least I stand behind all of my catty judgments. Heck, HotorNot cofounders James Hong and Jim Young put up a giant billboard of their naked bodies, along with the ratings users had given them.

Apparently the people behind DigaSVGIrl want to stay anonymous as "part of the fun." Hey, kids, judge not lest ye be judged. What are you hiding? I'm not sure why they're staying anonymous, unless they're embarrassed by the site, which I certainly understand. The joke failed. Everyone knows that the only scorecard around here that matters is the bank statement.