On Aug 30, 1998 I received an e-mail from Greg Grabianski who claimed to be the original author of Realistic Cybersex. He demanded that the page either be removed or payment be made to him. Since I have no desire to spend the time and effort to verify that he really is the author, nor do I have any intention of paying him money, I temporarily removed the page. The story has a happy ending; he ended up giving me permission to publish the page, so now it's back. I'm including the following e-mail exchange as a lesson in two things:
Here's his e-mail:
From StoneFreee@aol.com Sun Aug 30 00:04:36 1998 To: (93 e-mail addresses deleted - sf) Subject: Realistic Cybersex Greetings--It's come to my attention that your web-site is posting an article I wrote entitled "Realistic Cybersex", with it attributed to "anonymous" or without a byline. I wrote the story and own all rights to it. It first appeared in Playboy Magazine in the July 1996 issue. You have the choice of pulling the article off your site altogether or contacting me with a payment offer to leave it on your site with the proper byline added. If you're selling ads on this site, obviously it's going to cost you a little more because you're making money off of my property. You can easily verify that I am the author by contacting Playboy Magazine or the Authors Registry at www.authorsregistry.org. I'll be checking in on your site to see if everything is nice and legal. If not, I'll be forced to take legal action. Greg Grabianski Stonefreee@aol.com
You may note several stylistic errors in Mr. Grabianski's message, one of which is the inclusion of the 93 e-mail addresses in the "To:" line (I deleted them for this page). Naturally, net-people being net-people, I subsequently received quite a few messages intended for Grabianski and CC'ed to the rest of us. I'll exclude the e-mail addresses.
From: "Jamie Hunter" To: Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex (c) GG Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 22:38:47 -0700 It's sad that many people, including myself, will have to pull off this humourous story off our respective websites, considering (1) it's floating around as Email across the internet community and (2) many people will not be willing to pay a license to display this mass copied story on their non profit-making websites. Please give us a URL for us to point to a preferred location of this story, which I presume is prob on the playboy website. Thanks Jamie http://www.pobox.com/~nethog(I almost did too... - sf)
From: "Nnickee" Organization: Nnickee Nnet To: "cybersex article stealers" Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 01:31:01 -0600 Subject: compliance - and how to send an email out to 94 people at a time Greg, Feel free to check my site once again. Your cybersex article is no longer there. The page itself is still there, but the article is no longer available. The tone of your email was insulting, but even worse was listing out every email address. I do not appreciate that in the slightest. As a courtesy, if you have need to email me in the future, please do not include my email address in the TO section of an email that you send out to 93 other people at the same time. I've been added to quite enough mailing lists already, and I'm pretty sure that after your little email which shares my address with 93 other people I'll be finding myself on even more lists. I'll be checking the "from" addresses on all unsolicited emails for the next few weeks, and if any of them match any of the other email addresses listed in your TO section, I'll be sure and forward the piece on to you. I'm sending THIS email to the other 93 people on your list as well. If I set up the distribution list correctly you won't be able to see their email addresses. This is how you *should* send out bulk emails. To those other 93 folks: I'm really sorry to be filling your e-box with this - I do promise YOU that I'll not be sending you any more email. Nnickee www.nnickee.com/cybersex.html
From: "A. James Tatnall" To: Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 02:32:04 -0400 Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex The funniest thing about this? Given that this gentleman titled his message "Realistic Cybersex," I thought it was just another of the many ads for porn websites which someone seems to think I want in my inbox...so I deleted it without opening it.
(BTW, he made a mistake; the correct url is: http://www.concentric.net/~budcase/jokes.htm#credits - sf.)
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 23:50:44 +0000 To: From: Chuck in Cali Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex I am writing this letter to the people affected by the "Realistic Cybersex" story. I am only doing a bulk response to connect with other people who have been insulted by the tone of Greg's letter. If you are already sick and tired of this little drama, feel free to delete this letter. I appologise for bothering you. ~Hal Man am I appalled at the nerve of this guy. If he wanted us to change the name from anonymopus to greg what's-his-name, sure I'd do that. But pay him cash? who's to say that he even wrote the story in the firstplace?! what a loser. make sure that you copyright every story that you find on the internet!!! ...do what this jerk is doing. copyright anything that isn't already registered and make money off of other people!!!
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 02:28:50 -0600 To: From: Michael Subject: Cybersex compliance and Jimi Hendrix TO Greg and the rest. I have complied and deleted the page containing the story, the link is still on my page but does not work since the page has been deleted. Had I known that you were the author I would have attached proper credit, but I have received this same joke somewhere between 5-10 times via e-mail and have never seen any credits attached to it. I will respect your rights as author simply because I have to. As a member of the scientific community I love the fact that information is free and easy to come by, just attach proper credit. I can understand the fact that you would like to see credit where credit is due, but to think that I will pay to post a joke is absurd. Rather than trying to spread your name as an author of witty stories you have seriously restricted the dissemination of this information since I doubt that few will pay to post it with proper credit. I am curious though as to the origin of your AOL handle, I do not see any mention of Jimi Hendrix in a signature attachment. -mike kmetz ****************************************************************** Mike's quote/aphorism or any multiple thereof for an undesignated time period of his choosing. "Find Jesus?...I cant even find Waldo" I have no idea who said it, I just saw it on a bumper sticker. ******************************************************************
From: Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 19:00:08 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex To: StoneFreee@aol.com I have no idea what you're talking about. I've looked over my site and see nothing entitled "Realistic Cybersex". Even if it is there, I can assure you that it's not making any money! However reading and responding to this complaint of yours costs me time which can be equated to money quite easily and I very much doubt that you're willing to pay the bill. Cite an EXACT reference on my site or consider this an order to cease and desist sending mail to this address. Action WILL be taken. Vince. -- ========================================================================== Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com flame-mail: /dev/null # includeTEAM-OS2 Online Searchable Campground Listings http://www.camping-usa.com "There is no outfit less entitled to lecture me about bloat than the federal government" -- Tony Snow ==========================================================================
From: "Aaron Blair" To: Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 23:34:43 +0000 Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex > Greetings--It's come to my attention that your web-site is posting an article > I wrote entitled "Realistic Cybersex", with it attributed to "anonymous" or > without a byline. I wrote the story and own all rights to it. It first > appeared in Playboy Magazine in the July 1996 issue. Funny, since the text was forwarded to me in 1995. > You have the choice of pulling the article off your site altogether or > contacting me with a payment offer to leave it on your site with the proper > byline added. If you're selling ads on this site, obviously it's going to cost > you a little more because you're making money off of my property. Pull the other one. It's got bells on. > You can easily verify that I am the author by contacting Playboy Magazine or > the Authors Registry at www.authorsregistry.org. I'll be checking in on your > site to see if everything is nice and legal. If not, I'll be forced to take > legal action. Perhaps you should know that I cannot change that page even if I want to, since I have changed ISPs and the old ISP refuses to delete my old web pages even though I have moved them to another server. Perhaps you should know that spamming my current ISP with unsolicited mail can result in a $5,000 fine which is more legal than you trying to charge money for "property" that you have no way of proving that you are the original author of. Perhaps you should get a life.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 00:12:56 -0400 From: "Dan O'Leary" To: CC: Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex Folks, can we please put an end to this little debate? If the author wishes to have control over his intellectual property, so be it. It's copyrighted material, which isn't free, whether xeroxed from the orignal magazine or 19th-generation copy-pasted and email-circulated. I'm deleting it from my files, and I'd suggest others do the same. Regardless, please remove my email address from any further mailings. > Perhaps you should know that spamming my current ISP with unsolicited > mail can result in a $5,000 fine which is more legal than you trying Perhaps the writer of this should realize that the warning wasn't spam, since the author isn't selling anything. > to charge money for "property" that you have no way of proving that > you are the original author of. Perhaps you should get a life. Actually, he's giving proof by way of links to show credentials. And there's no bill attached, we all have a choice: eliminate the file or pay for it to remain. Rather simple, really. Can we put this to rest now?
From: Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 10:38:06 -0400 Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex To: StoneFreee@aol.COM Cc: Greetings Mr. Grablianski (Stonefreee), Just as everyone else on your distribution list, I have no intention of paying you royalties for an article I posted which was originally received as 'Anonymous'. In fact I think it's appauling that you would even attempt to collect payment like this. If you had simply requested credits, I would have gladly added your name to the story. However, I don't intend to get into a pissing contest with jerks like you, so I have removed the story from my joke page.
Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex To: StoneFreee@aol.com Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 10:59:05 -0700 (PDT) Cc: From: Micah Greg, I'm disheartened by your attitude, as others have also expressed, but will take down the offending article if you can please tell me which article it is (go to http://www.stanford.edu/~zeade/public/humor/). At the top of the page you'll also note, that I am willing to attribute authorship if it was lost in the process of being cycled thru the wash and tumble land of forwarded e-mails, but apparently that's not enough. I've found one piece (possibly two) which is related to "cyber sex", but it was not entitled "Realistic Cybersex" as I received it. If I don't receive any assitance in removing the offending material, then I'll consider this matter closed; it's not rare for me to receive mass e-mailings that have no applicability to me. -Micah
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 03:29:33 -0400 From: Bud Case To: StoneFreee@aol.com CC: Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex Situation??? Well, I have afforded Mr. Grabianski credit where (ahem) credit is due. If this is his article, and may well be, he did ask for a credit, so to accommodate his wishes, I included his letter, and many of the responses, on my site... I feel, if he continues to badger us, class legal action should be taken. Since I have adhered to his commands verbatim, you may make reference to my site, containing his documented credits, by linking here: http://www.concentric.net/jokes.htm#credits
and, while there, send some comments, and would appreciate you signing my guest list: http://www.concentric.net/index.shtml#list Thanx, Bud CaseAnd last, but not least, my reply:
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 12:48:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Steve Ford To: StoneFreee@aol.com Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex On Sun, 30 Aug 1998 StoneFreee@aol.com wrote: > Greetings--It's come to my attention that your web-site is posting an article > I wrote entitled "Realistic Cybersex" Yes indeed. I consider it to be one of the 10 funniest things I've seen on the Internet. My hat is off to you. > You have the choice of pulling the article off your site altogether or > contacting me with a payment offer to leave it on your site with the proper > byline added. If those are the only two choices, then I will naturally yank it off (retaining a pointer to this e-mail in its place). I make no money from my site, and I would not agree to paying money for the privilage of displaying your work, no matter how funny. However, I would like to include a link, either to your site (if you have one), or to some other site that is legally including it. Something this funny shouldn't be lost. I can understand your frustration in having your property stolen, and you have my promise that I will not improperly display your work. Let me know if there is a method that does not involve payment. Steve Ford P.S. - I do have one additional request for you. The method that you used to send the e-mail caused my address to be disclosed to a large number of other people. I don't know what those other people might do with my address - perhaps they will add my address to a junk e-mail list. In the future, I would appreciate it if you would not disclose my e-mail address to other parties without my permission. Also, just a tip - I almost deleted your e-mail unread. The "from" address and the subject line made the message look a lot like a junk e-mail from a porno site. I'm not sure what prompted me to go ahead and look at the message, and I'm very glad I did, but you might want to use a subject line that looks less like an advertisment. Perhaps, "I have a question about one of your web pages".
The story has a happy ending. Here is Greg's reply to my mail:
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 18:33:58 EDT From: StoneFreee@aol.com To: sford@chinet.chinet.com Subject: Re: Realistic Cybersex In a message dated 9/1/98 10:50:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time, sford@chinet.chinet.com writes: << I can understand your frustration in having your property stolen, and you have my promise that I will not improperly display your work. Let me know if there is a method that does not involve payment. >> Hey, Steve. Look, if you're not selling any ads on your site, why don't you keep it up there, okay? My mailing was a mass mailing to knock it off sites that are making money off my work. Since you're such a genuine fan of it, you can post it. But just add my proper byline and I'll check it out and make sure the story is not edited. What's your web address. No links needed right now, but thanks. <<P.S. - I do have one additional request for you. The method that you used to send the e-mail caused my address to be disclosed to a large number of other people. I don't know what those other people might do with my address - perhaps they will add my address to a junk e-mail list. In the future, I would appreciate it if you would not disclose my e-mail address to other parties without my permission.^gt;^gt; I really apologize for that. It was 1st time doing a mass-mailing and that's how AOL says to do it. Hope it doesn't cause too much trouble Wishing you well, Greg Grabianski