Hello Dean,
I received your message today, 7/23/98, at 16:18
hours and I am responding immediately, because of the obvious importance
of the issues which are now being raised by Ann Lowe
and others in the Internet community of computers and users.
Please be advised that we have developed a triply
redundant method for obtaining admissible proof of widespread and persistent
violations of my copyrights in the book entitled "The Federal Zone: Cracking
the Code of Internal Revenue."
To date, we have screened all of the data obtained
thus far, and have identified 145 individuals and/or ISP's who require lawful
notices either to cease and desist, or produce authorization to host and/or
promote electronic versions of the book via the Internet.
This latter option is DELIBERATELY impossible,
because ...
PLEASE BE ADVISED: NO ONE HAS EVER RECEIVED THIS AUTHOR'S PERMISSION TO HOST OR PROMOTE THIS BOOK ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNET.
AND NO ONE CERTAINLY HAS EVER RECEIVED THIS AUTHOR'S
PERMISSION TO MODIFY THE ORIGINAL ELECTRONIC FILES AS HAS NOW BEEN DONE,
ON A WIDESPREAD BASIS.
The stolen copies in question were modified without
my prior permission, and those modified "derivatives"
have been moving from one set of file servers to the next, EVEN AFTER NOTICES
HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FROM US.
America Online, Inc. has been particularly flagrant,
and negligent, for failing to enforce my copyrights, EVEN AFTER NOTICES HAVE
BEEN RECEIVED FROM US.
You will note that, EVEN NOW, the files at Internet domain
http://www.deoxy.org/fz/fedzone.htm will take you to yet another stolen and
modified copy!
America Online, Inc. got their first notices LAST
FALL, IN 1997, AND THEY DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT ENFORCING THE AUTHOR'S
EXCLUSIVE COPYRIGHTS IN THAT WORK.
They ignored the notices and permitted stolen and
modified files to remain at Internet Domain: DEOXY.ORG
Now, I want to make another crucial point, right
here and now:
THE INTERNET USERS WHO ARE COMPLAINING THE LOUDEST,
ARE AMONG THE VIOLATORS WHO HAVE RECEIVED REPEATED NOTICES FROM US,
INFORMING THEM THAT COPIES EXTANT ON THE INTERNET WERE STOLEN AND MODIFIED.
THESE USERS HAVE, IN A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF CASES,
REFUSED TO REMOVE THE HYPER-TEXT LINKS THEY HAVE PLACED IN THEIR WEB PAGES,
POINTING TO THE STOLEN AND MODIFIED COPY(S) OF THE BOOK!!
You, as much as anybody, know what it takes to add a valid hyper-text link to a web page:
First, you must know the URL of the page to be
linked; then, you must deliberately
edit the web page you want to change, and add this URL in the correct HTML
syntax; then, you must update that web
page, by writing the updated document onto the web server. Finally, you must
test the HTML link, to make sure you haven't misspelled it.
All of this constitutes clear, premeditated,
contributory copyright infringement (aka "indirect
infringement"). See the excellent documents now published
on the web by the Software Publishers Association on this key point.
So, these people, having been caught red-handed,
have a VERY REAL MOTIVE to retaliate, because the prognosis for them is not
good, now that we have developed and implemented such a rigorous and defensible
methodology for obtaining proof of the many copyright infringements in
question.
Now, we found it necessary, just today, to send a
formal DEMAND that all recipient(s) remove all extant copies of the book, all
links to extant copies (whether valid or not), and all pointers to same now in
the index databases of all commonly available Internet search engines.
In other words, WE DEMAND THAT ALL COPIES BE REMOVED
FROM THE INTERNET, WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
The deadline for this specific performance demanded
by us, will be 5:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, on Friday, July 31, 1998.
Beyond that deadline, we will monitor the Internet
for approximately one (1) more month, during which time EVERYONE WHO HOSTS OR
PROMOTES THE BOOK WILL BE DOING SO IN FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF SEVERAL NOTICES
FROM US, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, TO CEASE AND DESIST.
We plan, at that time (some time after August), to
prosecute the flagrant violators, after the dust storm settles out.
Now, your contact at InterNIC has an excellent point
by stating that lawful legal notices cannot be "perfected" via email,
and that they must be served properly via U.S. Mail.
If we had the money, and if the webmaster we hired
had responded to the bona fide emergency I experienced in March of 1998,
my financial situation might be a whole lot different from what it is right
now.
However, the reality is that I am in absolutely no
position to be mailing out 145 separate certified notices, with return receipts
requested, via U.S. Mail, NOT AT THIS TIME. I don't even have money for food.
Believe me, I am telling you the truth, like it or
not!!
I want to finish what could be a much longer letter,
by reminding you of the conversation we had in the Holiday Inn Palo Verde in
the Fall of 1997, when Richard McDonald was lecturing. I warned you that there
would be retaliation, and now you are beginning to see yet more evidence of it.
If the guilty party(s) can succeed in persuading InterNIC to remove the Supreme Law Library from the Internet, they will have achieved a major objective. Using the bogus and artificial pretext of "email harassment" as their method, they will have accomplished their criminal objectives with the smallest trifle of a reason.
If you have been watching the activity reports, the Supreme Law Library transmits over 25,000
files PER MONTH, WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISING.
HOW VERY CONVENIENT IF THE OPPOSITION CAN AX THIS WORTHWHILE ACTIVITY IN
ONE EASY BLOW!!!
#$#%$#^%#
Please contact InterNIC on our behalf, if you would,
and tell them that we have sent at most three (3) unsolicited email
transmissions:
(1) the first
was the initial NOTICE AND DEMAND that the violators produce certified evidence
of this author's permission to host/promote electronic copies of the book on
the Internet;
(2) the second
was our short, one-page notice with two links to PUBLIC NOTICES which I have
posted in the Supreme Law Forum; and,
(3) the third was
our PUBLIC NOTICE AND DEMAND FOR SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE, which only today we
began to transmit, systematically, to all 145 proven violators.
It is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE for me to stop the criminal
violations of my exclusive copyrights, if I have to use U.S. Mail in all
cases!!
You must understand that these violators include
some very successful and profitable corporations, such as America Online, Inc.,
and almost a dozen major universities, such as University of California,
Princeton University, and Indiana University.
Do we have their attention now? YOU BET WE DO!!
Of course, they are now going to use whatever tricks
they can, to avoid the inevitable liabilities which will result when the real
evidence shows that they have been promoting and copying a stolen, and
modified, copy of a truly excellent book FOR OVER THREE YEARS NOW!!!
Can you imagine what kind of liabilities their
respective boards of directors are now looking at?
ALL OTHER EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS IN RECENT WEEKS WERE
IN RESPONSE TO PRIVATE EMAIL.
These private email messages do NOT, however,
include the numerous PUBLIC MESSAGES which were posted in the Supreme Law Forum, by me and others.
As soon as I can afford it, we will serve a select
group of violators with all the appropriate and proper paperwork which we can
then afford, but not before.
THE CRIMINAL DISSEMINATION OF MY BOOK THROUGHOUT THE
INTERNET HAS REACHED SUCH A MAGNITUDE, THAT I HAD NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO ACT.
OTHERWISE, COURTS WOULD CONCLUDE THAT I WAS NEVER EARNEST ABOUT ENFORCING MY
COPYRIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Won't you please understand these crucial points?
So, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do what you can to go to
bat for me. Otherwise, all that work
could very easily get wasted COMPLETELY, and I know that is not
something which you will want to see happen.
I certainly do not!
But there are an awful lot of guilty parties who now
cannot think of anything better to happen to us.
Sincerely
yours,
/s/
Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S.
Author of "The Federal Zone:
Cracking the Code of Internal Revenue"
copy: Ann Lowe,
HostAmerica InterNIC Registrar