TMZ obtained the cease and desist letter sent by Francis’ attorney threatening legal action if Madonna sings her new song “Girls Gone Wild” at the Super Bowl halftime show. It should be pretty clear what he’s basing this threat of legal action on, but here’s what’s detailed in the letter:

Mr. Francis and Girls Gone Wild have worked tirelessly for an excess of two decades to build his brand and to protect his trademark Girls Gone Wild.

Obviously, your misappropriation of my clients’ trademark will not to be tolerated.

Girls Gone Wild’s trade identity and trademark are extremely valuable assets which my clients protect vigorously.

My research indicates, and numerous news articles have mentioned, that Madonna plans to perform publicly the song entitled Girls Gone Wild at this Sunday’s Super Bowl on February 5, 2012. It is clear Madonna is making unauthorized commercial use of Girls Gone Wild’s trademark.

Your attempt to “free ride” on the valuable consumer goodwill and brand recognition of my clients’ trademark constitutes, inter alia, unfair competition, and false designation of origin, trademark infringement, and trademark dilution.

The letter goes on to demand Madonna and her “co-conspriators” perform a few actions if they wish to avoid “costly and extensive litigation.” First, they must agree not to perform the song at the Super Bowl. Next, he wants Madonna to negotiate an immediate licensing agreement. Lastly, he wants her to go back and count all the times she’s already used the phrase to promote her song and pay up.

Madonna released her new video for “Give Me All Your Luvin” earlier today on YouTube. Any ZZ Top fans will recognize that she’s skirting close to the line on that one too.

Francis is also framing the lawsuit as a First Amendment struggle, accusing Panama City authorities and opposition lawyers in the 2003 case of working "in cahoots" "to extort a ransom for Francis’ release from a Panama City jail, where he spent nearly a year. Francis says his imprisonment was the result of a Bay County Courthouse "cabal" resulting from "shady backroom deals stemming from a civil lawsuit filed by several coeds," which led to his imprisonment without bail.

"Panama City officials began their persecution of Joe Francis with open deception, continued with perjury, and concluded with illegal imprisonment," said Robert E. Barnes, attorney for Francis. "That may be what counts for justice in Panama City, but it’s not American justice."

In his web video on MeetJoeFrancis.com, Francis echoes those sentiments, warning Panama City’s justice system of their inability to hide from him now that he’s out of jail. He also warned viewers they weren’t immune to injustice. " "We’re fighting back against judicial and government corruption," he said. "If this can happen to me, it can happen to you."

Francis said the settlement with the coeds, who were underage at the time they were filmed, was "coerced by duress and the improper conduct of the women, their parents, and their attorneys."

It becomes a First Amendment issue, he indicated in the video, because government authorities infringed on the citizen’s right to read, hear, or view whatever they choose. Putting someone in jail for eleven months without bail in a civil matter, he contends, is also unconstitutional.

Francis joins scores of others who’ve taken their causes to the web, either in the form of web video, or in the attempt to establish grass roots support for various causes. Google did this recently with its appeal to write the FCC in favor of the use of white spaces for wireless broadband. Also recently was the LetOurCongressTweet campaign, an online coalition to rewrite outdated communication laws regarding legislators.
 

Dupre’s attorney said yesterday that Ashley was just 17 when GGW filmed her, a month before her 18th birthday.

Why then, are the videos still advertised on the GGW website? According to reports, Francis talked it over with his lawyers and found out that in Florida, 17-year-old girls are in some kind of weird legal limbo nether region—okay to film nude, so long as there’s no sexual contact.

Francis, knowing a golden ticket when he sees one, says the videos will be released with that information now known. The only problem is that in earlier statements, Francis said more happened than just stripping.

There was not only underage drinking, but also lesbian encounters, and that Ashley involved the GGW cameraman during her weeklong stay on the GGW bus. Francis said he put her on a Greyhound bus after the crew caught her drinking. Dupre’s attorney, though, claims he knew she was 17 at the time.

Somewhere, somebody’s lying. Either Francis exaggerated the footage GGW has of Dupre in order to sell more subscriptions, or he’s downplaying the extent of what happened to save his own skin. Maybe the answer’s both.  

Today there’s just one tape, not seven, according to Francis’s statement in the New York Post:

"The lawyers looked at the tape, and said since there is no sexual contact; it doesn’t matter if she was underage," he said. "It will be released."

But yesterday, according to Francis in the New York Post and a widely-quoted press release, there was a lot more going on than that:

"She spent a week on the bus, where she engaged in girl-girl action and got nude," Francis told The Post, adding, "I actually think she had a sexual relationship with a cameraman."

And if you haven’t seen other GGW videos, then you may have been up late enough to see the commercials. If so, you know they sort of encourage the girls to do whatever they want. But in then-unknown Ashley’s case, it was probably different, right?

The video is still available at the GGW website for a $30 access fee, presumably in an attempt to shore up defense money before the videos go officially Traci Lords status. And though filming underage girls in the nude might be legal in Florida, it is still unknown, since this is an Internet release, if he hasn’t violated laws in other states. It was the feds, after all, that pegged him with a $2.1 million fine last time.

On his blog, Francis writes that jail "has become just as interesting as any other part of my life." Well, it might just get more interesting, unless his time-served counts for this incident as well.  
 

Just kidding. Now that Dad’s hanging around, we may have less exciting Britney-moments. Maybe now we can focus on real news, like expensive hookers.

In the past 30 days, searches for information about Ashley have dwarfed searches for the pop icon, even if there’s less difference in the amount of online news coverage about the two women. The spike was short-lived though and is on its way down. Searches may spike again though in light of the recent revelation that after about fifth-in-line Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis was to offer Dupre $1 million to "work" for him on video, his crew informed him they already had her on tape.

When she was 18, Dupre spent a week on the GGW bus, signed legal releases, and got it on with everybody from other girls to the GGW cameraman.

"So, she was a ho from the get-go," says our lead graphic designer.

Well, technically hoes get paid. According to Francis, who just got out of jail for selling videos of underage girls and is looking at another stint in jail for tax evasion, he had to kick her off the bus for her underage drinking. Plus, as he says on his blog, no "drunken" women allowed on camera. That would just be wrong.

Class act, that Francis, who says Dupre looked better when she was 18. Well, sure. That was before the prison tatts. Francis said he felt like he won the lottery by saving a cool million, and will feel more like that once enough people shell out $30 a pop to check out the 2003 seven-tape series on the website.

So, unlike Hustler, which comes out looking somehow classier in this scenario, which offered Dupre a million to pose, or Penthouse, which offered her a highly-paid spot on their website, or Vivid Video, who reportedly said Dupre could become the next highest paid performer in the adult video industry, Francis gets the goods for:

The cost of the Greyhound bus ticket he "personally" bought for her in Miami so she could get home after being tossed out of her hotel. Thanks for helping me get rich, try not to make eye contact with anybody on the 12-hour ride home.

But nobody’s being exploited, he blogs.

Despite the reported offers that keep coming in from Vodka companies looking for a butt/spokesmodel, book deals, and movie offers, an attorney for Dupre and the other women who were busted in the federal sting fears her window of opportunity may be closing as the buzz dies down. Sure enough, Dupre-related searches are back down to Britney-levels, with US searchers being the most interested. Dupre made a reported $200,000 from downloads of her music (this seems to be the latest number; reports have varied from $13,000 to $2 million), but that interest seems to have stalled as well. Visits to her MySpace page have also plummeted.

It’s hard to say if the Girls Gone Wild revelation will mean the aforementioned adult-oriented businesses will lose interest if there is no real exclusivity or if it just sweetens the deal. But I wouldn’t worry too much about Ashley. She’ll end up making more money in the next few weeks than she did in her entire career as a high-class call girl.

If she plays it smart (I said "smart," not necessarily "morally"), she’ll buck’em all and start her own site. At least then, she’ll be in control of her own exploitation.