Norman Zada (born Norman Askar Zadeh) is a former adjunct mathematics professor and an entrepreneur. He is the founder of '' Perfect 10'', an adult magazine focusing on women without

cosmetic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofa ...

, and runs the United States Investing Competition. Zada is the son of

Lotfi Zadeh Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh (; az, Lütfi Rəhim oğlu Ələsgərzadə; fa, لطفی علی‌عسکرزاده; 4 February 1921 – 6 September 2017) was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, an ...

, the creator of

fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...

Education and early career

Zada obtained a PhD in

Operations Research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and worked at IBM. He was an adjunct mathematics Professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, writing articles on applied mathematics as well as the 2020 book ''Hold'em Poker Super Strategy''. and the 1974 book ''Winning Poker Systems''. After teaching, he won both

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

and sports handicapping championships and later became a

money manager Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

. In the 1980s he ran a number of financial competitions, including the United States Investing Championship. Zada made headlines in 1996 when he offered $400,000 for anyone successfully refuting his claim that balancing the

United States federal budget The United States budget comprises the spending and revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also b ...

over a multi-year period without an accompanying substantial trade surplus would be effectively mathematically impossible.

''Perfect 10'' magazine

Zada launched ''Perfect 10'' magazine, an adult magazine focusing on women without

, after a friend was rejected from ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' magazine because her proportions did not fit the magazine's tastes. He estimates losing approximately $46 million on '' Perfect 10'' since 1996, when the magazine was first published.“Copyright troll” Perfect 10 hit with $5.6M in fees after failed Usenet assault , Ars Technica
/ref> It has been claimed that these losses have been borne by Zada because of the deductions this allows against gains made in the

money market The money market is a component of the economy that provides short-term funds. The money market deals in short-term loans, generally for a period of a year or less. As short-term securities became a commodity, the money market became a compon ...

. His magazine was the plaintiff in '' Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc.'', a lawsuit charging contributory

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

through the search engine displaying

thumbnails Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index (publishing), index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search ...

of ''Perfect 10'' images hosted at unauthorized third-party sites. Other lawsuits Zada filed involved

adult verification system An age verification system, also known as an age gate, is a technical protection measure used to restrict access to digital content from those who are not appropriately-aged. These systems are used primarily to restrict access to content classifie ...

supplier Cybernet Ventures, from which he received a confidential settlement, and

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

and MasterCard, where he alleged that these credit card companies benefited from fees charged to access unauthorized material at third-party pay sites. The company also sued Giganews, Inc. It has been claimed that Zada spends minimal time – 40 to 50 hours a year – creating content for the site, but "8 hours a day, 365 days a year" on litigation, leading some to call ''Perfect 10'' little more than a

copyright troll A copyright troll is a party (person or company) that enforces copyrights it owns for purposes of making money through strategic litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic, sometimes while without producing or licensin ...

– by 2015, the company had filed 20 to 30 lawsuits.

Personal life

Zada is the son of

Lotfi A. Zadeh Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh (; az, Lütfi Rəhim oğlu Ələsgərzadə; fa, لطفی علی‌عسکرزاده; 4 February 1921 – 6 September 2017) was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, an ...

, a computer scientist who coined the term

. Zada at one time owned a large mansion in

Beverly Park Beverly Park, divided into North Beverly Park and South Beverly Park, is a gated community in Los Angeles, California primarily known for its large houses and famous residents. It is between Mulholland Drive and Sunset Boulevard and Coldwater ...

which he sold in 2010 for $16.5 million.Lauren Beale
Norm Zada sells his Beverly Park compound
''Los Angeles Times'', December 1, 2010, accessed May 8, 2011. Zada apparently uses the name "Dr. Norman Zadeh" in connection with the United States Investing Championship. In a press release for the competition issued on December 28, 2018, Zada is referred to by that name.Staff (December 28, 2018
"United States Investing Championship Update"
''

Financial Post The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...

References

External links

''Perfect 10'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zada, Norm Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, Berkeley alumni Adult magazine publishers (people) IBM employees American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Azerbaijani descent