Anthology aids Harlan Ellison vs AOL lawsuit

The following submission seemed very much like an ad, but after
deliberation, we decided that we’d have reported on it had we
learned of it through regular channels. Here’s the complete
submission, including the phone numbers that might just push it a
bit over the edge. Anonymous Coward writes, 8/20/2003 –
Aardwolf Publishing will soon release “gods 15 minutes” to
benefit Harlan Ellison’s internet piracy lawsuit with AOL. The
anthology features stories by Clifford Meth with artwork by Alex
Toth, Gene Colan, George Perez, Marie Severin, Dave
Cockrum, Joe Sinnott, Herb Trimpe, Gray Morrow, Bill
Messner-Loebs, Dave DeVries, David Boswell, Nelson, Joe St.
Pierre, Ron Wagner, and others. Wrapped in a painted cover by
Mike Kaluta, the book carries story intros by Al Feldsetin, Steve
Gerber, Tony Isabella, Andy Shernoff (lead guitarist/writer of the
legendary punk band The Dictators), Pat DiNizio (lead
singer/writer of The Smithereens), Peppi Marchello (lead
singer/writer of The Good Rats), and the late Robert Bloch.
Theres also an interview with Harlan (“Ellison on Meth”).

Proceeds from “gods 15 minutes” will benefit Harlan Ellisons
KICK Internet Piracy Fund. The limited-edition bookplate is
signed by Ellison, Meth and Kaluta. The price of the book with the
signed bookplate is $23.95.

For more information, visit www.aardwolfpublishing.com or
www.harlanellison.com or phone Jim Reeber at 973-945-4903.

11 replies on “Anthology aids Harlan Ellison vs AOL lawsuit”

  1. Huh?
    Ya know, instead a long, long list of names, we might have liked a bit of info about what exactly is up with whomever the hell that is and why AOL is after him.

    • Re: Huh?

      Ya know, instead a long, long list of names, we might have liked a bit of info about what exactly is up with whomever the hell that is and why AOL is after him.

      World famous short story author (A boy and his dog), anthlogist (Dangerous Visions), screenwriter (ST:TOS City on the edge of forever), Hugo/Nebula/and just about everything else award winner, and all-around loud mouth Harlan Ellison is suing AOL because someone posted several of his stories online and Ellison believes AOL is responsible, even though multiple other legal decisions say otherwise.

      • Re: Huh?

        World famous short story author (A boy and his dog), anthlogist (Dangerous Visions), screenwriter (ST:TOS City on the edge of forever), Hugo/Nebula/and just about everything else award winner, and all-around loud mouth Harlan Ellison is suing AOL because someone posted several of his stories online and Ellison believes AOL is responsible, even though multiple other legal decisions say otherwise.

        Right. As soon as he heard about his stories being posted on Usenet, he flipped out and started sending legal threats everywhere. The individual who posted the stories settled with Ellison out of court.

        AOL’s only contributory infringement was that they carried that Usenet newsgroup when the original poster posted Ellison stories (using a completely different ISP). After they received the letter from Ellison, they took about a week (IIRC) to block the offending newsgroup. That is supposedly the reason he’s going after them, but it’s had not to wonder if the deep pockets of AOL have something to do with his tenacity against them – tenacity against the poster was to be expected, since Ellison is well-known for his outspokenness and ability to hold a grudge.

        I think Ellison is a terrific writer, and he left a very good impression on me when I met him at Dragoncon a few years ago, but this lawsuit against AOL is idiotic – I’d much rather see the proceeds from the new anthology (I know I’ll buy a copy) go toward getting “The Last Dangerous Visions” released.

  2. god’s 15 minutes: editor responds
    My name is Jim Reeber—I’m the editor of Aardwolf Publishing’s new anthology “god’s 15 minutes” and the “Anonymous Coward” who posted this announcement to your site. Did not mean to break with your site/group’s posting conventions in doing so; was just attempting to spread the word. Please forgive any breach of netiquette and thank you for running the announcement regardless…

    Clifford Meth asked me to add the following: “We consider Harlan Ellison’s cause just; the man himself an impeccable standard-bearer in the causes of writer’s rights and business ethics in general. Unless you’ve been victimized by fuzzy business principles—as perpetuated by Net culture, let’s face it—it’s easy to underestimate the impact that legal theft leaves upon a bank account, to say nothing of one’s peace of mind. Even if Harlan were a millionaire, which he’s not, I assure you, he would have the right to legal restitution of his stolen assets, which these “file-shared” stories clearly represent. Indeed, even pop icons like Metallica—multi-millionaires all—are compelled to defend their hard-crafted properties. At 69 years old, when time and money become ever more dear (because there’s just less of it!), Harlan’s brave and tenacious tilting at the Goliath AOL should be something that all of us support. That said, I hope you’ll still buy a copy. –Clifford Meth”

    • Re: god’s 15 minutes: editor responds

      Clifford Meth asked me to add the following: “We consider Harlan Ellison’s cause just; the man himself an impeccable standard-bearer in the causes of writer’s rights and business ethics in general. Unless you’ve been victimized by fuzzy business principles—as perpetuated by Net culture, let’s face it—it’s easy to underestimate the impact that legal theft leaves upon a bank account, to say nothing of one’s peace of mind. Even if Harlan were a millionaire, which he’s not, I assure you, he would have the right to legal restitution of his stolen assets, which these “file-shared” stories clearly represent. Indeed, even pop icons like Metallica—multi-millionaires all—are compelled to defend their hard-crafted properties. At 69 years old, when time and money become ever more dear (because there’s just less of it!), Harlan’s brave and tenacious tilting at the Goliath AOL should be something that all of us support. That said, I hope you’ll still buy a copy. –Clifford Meth”

      As I have said, I have a great deal of respect for Ellison, and I have already pre-ordered the signed bookplate edition of “god’s 15 minutes”. I still think the AOL portion of the suit is misguided and pointless.

      Look, what “Shaker” did was clearly wrong and legally actionable. Ellison was right to go after him. RemarQ/Critical Path was the original infringer’s Usenet server, and there is a clear reasoning in suing them: not only were they intransigent initially, but they carry many other Usenet feeds that are solely used to infringe copyrights, as well. Their unjustifiable “fair use” just adds insult to injury.

      AOL, however, is a party in this lawsuit for two reasons: The first is that they apparently carried the offending newsgroup, and took as long as a week to shut it off. They were not the original infringer, and they were not the originator of the offending newsgroup. The “Safe Harbor” provision of the DMCA clearly applies here, unless KICK can prove that the newsgroup was added to the list of groups AOL carried by someone who knew (not just should have known) that the group was used to disseminate unauthorized copies of copyrighted works.

      The other is a bit of software they they never approved of: Nullsoft’s Gnutella. AOL bought Nullsoft solely for their WinAmp program, a program with many non-infringing uses. After the purchase of Nullsoft, the two lead programmers there, Justin Frankel and Tom Pepper, created a program that would work like Napster, but without a centralized server, so it couldn’t be shut down. Those two put their beta program up for download on a Nullsoft server, but as soon as AOL found out about it, they shut the page down. AOL has always considered Gnutella to be “an unauthorized freelance project”, and they have done all they could to stop the program from being distributed. By this point, AOL has less to do with this software than many other programmers and small companies, but it’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Suing Frankel and Pepper makes more sense in this context, but they don’t have billions of dollars.

      Just because Mr. Ellison has been wronged, it doesn’t mean that he’s entirely right in going after AOL. I think your tilting comment is more accurate than you intended — in this matter, AOL is a windmill, not a dragon, and Ellison is a classic hero, but he’s not going to accomplish what he thinks he will by attacking them. Even a victory over AOL would have little-to-no effect on the problem of internet piracy, and it is very unlikely that he will get such a victory.

    • Re: god’s 15 minutes: editor responds
      What’s ethical is to do a job and get paid for it *once* Not over and over. Copyright is amoral in and of itself. If this book will support his crusade, no way i’m going to buy it (or download it – rest assured)

  3. Supreme Power 1: A sad propaganda against Greece…
    It was very sad for me to see writer of Supreme P present some short news, where the child watches tv, that an airplane was highjacked by the airport of athens, only to result in a tragedy in Egypt by getting 100 or so Americans killed. In a time when Greece is being unfairly attacked and without any proof for its security measures for the upcoming Olympic games, it seems to me that you like to play this game of “Greece is not a safe place to be” not openly and directly through dialogue, but through some comic book “news” that people read and take it as granted that its ok for a muslim highjack to take place in Athens!!! For God’s sake! Having been born in Massachussets and being raised in Greece for the past 24 years it makes me sad to see J. Michael Straczynski take advantage of his power to influence thousands of people, only to imply that Greece is not safe. If you want to say something say it clear and loud Mr. J and support it by facts not through a small picture and a few lines that people read briefly only to store it in the subconsious part of their mind. Greek and American – Greek people feel a great sympathy towards the tragedy of September 11 but from that point on we also feel as safe in our country as one can be and Greece isn’t considered to be a target of any kind except malicious comments. And this doesn’t come from an arrogant person. I can only hope the an average – educated person in US can distinguish the part about the plane that was highjacked and use some critical thinking about it, without taking it as granted. I know I did…

    • Re: Supreme Power 1: A sad propaganda against Greece…

      In a time when Greece is being unfairly attacked and without
      any proof for its security measures for the upcoming Olympic
      games, it seems to me that you like to play this game of
      “Greece is not a safe place to be” not openly and directly
      through dialogue, but through some comic book “news” that
      people read and take it as granted that its ok for a muslim
      highjack to take place in Athens!!!

      That was a major news event when it happened. (I vaguely
      remember it myself, and I’ve been in Canada all my life.) Those
      were actual news stories that place the age of the child. It
      really happened, but it was a couple of decades ago. Also,
      keep in mind that he wrote that several months ago. I don’t
      know how long this “trend” to attack Greece has been going on;
      I can honestly say this is the first I’ve heard of it, although one
      would expect the Greek news media to pick up on that sort of
      thing more quickly than Canadian news media.

      • Ellison, Kaluta, Meth, and… ZAPPA!
        (Sept. 3, 2003) Aardwolf Publishing announed today that it will include the never-before-published “WORLD ACCORDING TO ZAPPA,” a rare, insightful, hilarious interview with the late Frank Zappa in its forthcoming “god’s 15 minutes” anthology. The book, which benefits the KICK Internet Piracy Fund, will feature illustrations by comic-art legends Alex Toth, Gene Colan, George Perez, Marie Severin, Dave Cockrum, Joe Sinnott, Herb Trimpe, Gray Morrow, Bill Messner-Loebs, and others. Wrapped in a painted cover by Mike Kaluta, the book will carry story introductions by Harlan Ellison, Al Feldstein, Steve Gerber, Tony Isabella, Andy Shernoff (lead guitarist/writer of the legendary punk band The Dictators), Pat DiNizio (lead singer/writer of The Smithereens), Peppi Marchello (lead singer/writer of The Good Rats), and the late Robert Bloch. A limited bookplate edition will be signed by Meth, Ellison, and Kaluta.
        For more information, visit http://www.aardwolfpublishing.com or http://www.harlanellison.com

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