The Original Shareware 1.1/The Original Shareware (WeMake CDs)(Volume 1.1)(CDs, Inc)(1993).iso/37/maxey.zip/EH2.DOC

Text File | 1990-03-30 | 14KB | 249 lines

If you are familiar with GIF's then there is a good possibility you are
familiar with the BBS name - Event Horizons (EH) and the name Jim Maxey
and his copyrighted GIF's called MaxiPics.

I have never had any problems with people copyrighting their images, it
makes sense, but I had always assumed that in the case of GIF's, the
image itself was copyrighted to prevent it's free usage in publications
or advertisements. It always made sense to me that the author of these
images would want wide distribution of their images with the hope of
eventually selling use rights to those images. I guess my mistake was in
ever assuming this SHOULD make sense. Jim Maxey apparently is doing just
the opposite of the above.

What follows is a message I wrote to a user who alerted me to this
problem. Please note that at the time this message was written, it was
written in private, quickly as a casual comment. PLEASE keep this in
mind before you jump on my case for what is said in this. I will clarify
my points afterward. It never was expected at the time I wrote this,
that this message would be relayed to Jim Maxey or made public in any
way. This was done without my knowledge or permission (although I don't
mind that it did happen - this precipitated some clearing of the air so
to speak). The unedited message (typos and all) follows:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I've never known what the hell to do about Event Horizons stuff. I've been
well aware of their policies for a long time but in myu opinion it is
almost a joke. You can find there stuff by the tons all over the country
and I would be willing to bet that the stuff on here from them was never
downloaded directly from their BBS or from their catalog. If someone came
on here from their outfit and said this, this and this had to go I'd
gladly kill it but damnit I'm not going to go through all this shit again
and try to determine what should should be here and what shouldn't. It
ain't my fault not a soul is country is paying any attention to them and I
think they are tilting at windmills trying to say this stuff is
copywrited. He can copyright his original photos but good luck trying to
do that with the GIF's. And if you want to know the truth, I think 90% of
the stuff that comes from Event Horizons is pure crap. They don't know how
to digitize properly and most of the images are "ho hum..."

If anyone asks - first of all I've never called their BBS to get files and
I've never ordered from their catalog. If a user comes on here and says
they have some EH stuff and can they upload it I will gladly say no. If
they want to plainly and VIVIDLY mark in the border of a GIF this is not
to be uploaded on a BBS then I can eep my eyes open for that. I also don't
know why they are even trying. There are literaly hundreds of others out
there who are gladly doing this all for free and if they managed to
enforce this, I know I wouldn't miss there stuff!

_-_-[ Jim ]-_-_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Maxey then made the following reply and this is what finally
convinced me of the seriousness of the situation. I'm sure this was his
intention:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Msg#:13474 *E-Mail (private)*
03-27-90 12:09:00
From: JIM MAXEY
  To: CURLY BRACES
Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 13464 (EH COPYRIGHTS ON GIFS)

   Thank you Mr Braces for the copy of the message from the BBS you
found it on.   You never mention the BBS name but it's not really
important. We have six or seven we're currently investigating ... or the
authorities are.  They don't seem to realize that interstate
transporation of our property means a federal infraction and we can file
here locally ... meaning they either come here or default.  If they
default we can use their local laws to shut down or have the local phone
company disconnect them.  That's basically what happened to PC EXEC.
Shut down for a few days to delete our copyrighted files.  They were
then nice enough after contacting a Lawyer to act quickly.
   We get the same thing all the time.  The part-time BBS operator who
gets  upset that we copyright our software and can't legally post it
reverts to saying he/she does not like the images, that they are
inferior. But everyone knows that in fact, they are state of the art and
can not be matched.  That's why we are successful.  Quality and
quantity.  They both can be achieved.  The only thing a BBS operator
does is bring embarrassment into his system.  The users are quite bright
in knowing what is good or not.   Trouble it, many don't wish to pay for
hard work.  Fortunately, most do.  And that's why we are successful.
   You can pass this message along if you like.  It's in private mail
here but  you can do with it as you like.

                          Best wishes;

                          Jim Maxey
                          Event Horizons
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
First of all, let me say that it was never my intention to denegrate Mr.
Maxey's work in public. This was an offhand comment, made in private.
I'm sure many of you have made similar comments about well known people
and would possibly find yourself embarrassed to have to defend comments
in person. But I must say I'm not THAT embarrassed.

I am also willing to take part of what I said back. In the course of
viewing the entire GIF base on here I am able in several sittings to
review every MaxiPic on here. Some of the images I considered poorly
scanned I now realize were older images done at time preceding the
advancements in the technology we enjoy today. So in my mind I was
comparing a 3 year old GIF with a new one and that, I realize now, is
not fair. Some of Mr. Maxey's stuff is indeed decent. As some of you
know, I started a section a month ago where I placed some of my favorite
GIF's. Out of all the GIF's in that section, 2 were from EH and they are
now deleted and probably the only ones missed, by me at least. But they
were good.

This part of all this was never intended to be relevant to this
discussion. I am not attempting to be an art critic and that has not
been a particular concern as to the GIF's placed on this BBS. But since
I needed to quote verbatim in those messages, I needed to comment on
this aspect. With this out of the way, let me go on:

I should also comment that I was DEAD WRONG not to take this all
seriously earlier. In that message I said I "was well aware" of the
situation for quite some time. By "well" aware I meant that this had
managed to pierce consciousness but I was NOT well aware that Mr. Maxey
was THIS serious about it. If I had been, I NEVER would have allowed a
GIF of his to be on my BBS from day 1. And by the time this message is
posted, there WILL BE NO MaxiPics on this BBS.

I do hope that some of you understand what it is like to run a BBS. This
is done as a hobby, not a whole hell of a lot IS taken seriously on a
BBS. Unlike Mr. Maxey, I don't make profit on this, I don't expect to
make a profit and my fondest wish is that I can take enough money in
every month from voluntary subscriptions so that I MIGHT, just might be
able to subdue my wifes, justified, evil eye!!

This is a hobby for most of us, THAT should never be forgotten.
Evidently Jim Maxey considers this all to be a career opportunity, more
power to him, but it sure as hell would help if he knew what it was like
down here in the trenches because he sure as hell is trying to take
advantage of our efforts to further his goals! More on that later
though.

Anyway, now that I am convinced of the seriousness of this situation I
have taken the following actions. After spending about 20 HOURS of my
time, I have personally viewed every GIF on this BBS. ANY GIF that had
the name Event Horizons, Jim Maxey, MaxiPic or even just Event Horizons
phone number on the GIF has been deleted. And I mean completely deleted.
I did NOT reserve or save off copies for my own personal use.

As you saw in a previous message, I've asked that no GIF's from this
organization be uploaded ever again to this BBS. I am COMPLETELY aware
that I am permitted to have up to 20 GIF's of his on my BBS. That is
PRECISELY the problem and I will explain further, but let me say that it
was far easier to remove them ALL because I also removed the possibility
of this organization ever causing me a problem in the future.

I consider it to be an INCREDIBLE arrogance on the part of ONE software
author out there to force every sysop in this NATION to keep a running
tab of how many of his GIF's are placed on their BBS. MOST sysops, maybe
mistakenly, do not even realize that this a problem. They understand
that copyrighted software is something to be on guard about, but not
GIF's. At least not up until now. This misperception I'm sure will soon
be changed but to even ask this of the thousands of BBS sysops out
there, who, in most cases I'd like to remind you, are doing this as a
hobby - LOSING MONEY at it, is pure chutzpah. It's bull. But Mr. Maxey
is not only asking this, he's using the force of the LAW to make sysops
comply and from Mr. Maxey's message above, I would be a total fool not
to take him seriously.

For those of you reading this, who might agree with me and think Mr.
Maxey does not have a legal leg to stand on, all I can say is maybe you
are right. But I'm not a lawyer and I can't afford to hire one just to
keep this already financially draining hobby going. I suspect that Mr.
Maxey is well aware of the position he is putting the small time sysop
in and is counting on the fact that no one will take him on. This is
harrasment, pure and simple, from my perspective.

Let me make this clear. I am 100% AGAINST software piracy. A month or so
ago (long before this hassle entered my mind) I made myself clear about
that in a message to all. There is no one here on this BBS, winking and
nodding and saying "sure, I'm against piracy - [wink wink]!"

I'm SERIOUS about it, always have been and always will be. I am 100% in
favor of the shareware concept and I truly hope all software authors can
make a living so they can continue to work the miracles that keep us all
so happy.

And I have no problem whatsoever with Mr. Maxey copyrighting his images.
I am a photographer myself, I'm not trying to market my images but if I
were, I would do no less than Mr. Maxey to protect my work.

But Mr. Maxey wants to have his cake and eat it too. He WANTS us to have
his images on our BBS. Make NO mistake about that! The limit may be no
more than 20, but I strongly suspect Mr. Maxie would like it to be no
LESS than 20 also. Every GIF of his on every BBS in the country is a
great advertisement for his work. Also, Mr. Maxey is ACTIVELY
encouraging, by his actions, the "interstate transportation" of his
GIFs.

Fine!

But he cannot expect us to police this! At least he can't expect us to
police this for free. If he has special requirements that cause a sysop
to make unusual efforts, he should expect to pay for that!

Let me clarify: If an software author creates a commercial program that
he does not wish to be distributed on a BBS, it's quite easy for him to
place the copyright notice in the software and it's quite easy for us as
sysops to see that copyright and delete the file. The process with this
type of software is real simple for me. If I see COPYRIGHT -> it's
GONE! The reason it is simple is that the commercial software authors
have made it quite clear that they are not attempting to use the BBS
distribution system to further their work. Shareware authors are using
our BBS's, BUT, they place no demands on me as a sysop. There are no
authors on here who say I can have only so many examples of their
efforts on here. They place obligations to register their software WHERE
IT BELONGS! Squarely on the shoulders of the USER who finds that
software desirable!

Not Mr. Maxey!

As I type this I am still reviewing GIF's on this BBS. Two nodes have
been taken down. This is my SECOND day doing this. I can't express what
a major pain in the butt this is! And I will freely admit that most of
this is MY FAULT. If I had taken Mr. Maxey more seriously earlier, this
would have been a lot easier to deal with. But not all of this is my
fault. Mr. Maxie does not make it easy to spot his work. His logo and
copyright notices (if they appear at all) are different and all over the
image. In some cases, the only way I can identify the image is because a
phone number for Event Horizons BBS is on it. I can guarantee you
though, I have been as vigilant as possible tracking down these GIF's!

Mr. Maxey has no right to place this kind of demand on sysops. Let's say
I agreed with him and I wished to continue having his software on my
BBS. I would have to keep track some way and some how, constantly for
the rest of the life of this BBS, just exactly how many GIF's I have on
here. Add to that, the fact that Mr. Maxey is wishy washy on the number
of GIF's he will allow.

But I didn't agree to have his GIF's on my BBS under his conditions. You
can say I did and technically you are right but anyone who has run a
moderately successful BBS will know how easy it is to gloss over a
detail like this. So, technically Mr. Maxie is right but I owe him
nothing and I do NOT have to carry his GIFS or catalogs and I WILL NOT
DO THAT ANYMORE!
               --------------------------------------
Anyway, I hope the above explains the actions I've taken. For any sysop
reading this I would recommend that you at least think about this. If
you have a GIF section on your BBS, you ARE in danger if you do not
comply with Mr. Maxey. Ask yourself: Is he worth it? Not to me!

To any users reading this, remember that quite often when you upload,
the desire behind that attempt is to repay a kindness to a sysop for
providing the service he does. If you entend to upload a MaxiPic, you
may not be rendering a kindness, you may be causing sysop just the
opposite, grief.
                                          Jim Rhoads