palmer.william
09-30-2003, 10:34 PM
Perhaps some of you are aware that a large
number of forged postings bearing my counterfeited
name and address have been showing up in a number
of newsgroups.
First, please let me remind you that there is nothing
at all humorous about cyber-theft and net-forgery. If it
happened to some of the "Usenet tweaked-beak set" who--
stung by my past lampoons of them--are laughing up their
sleeves about this, they would not think it was so funny.
Actually, forgerd messages constitute an attack against
the rights of every honest poster in Usenet. Furthermore,
I have been in consultation with some people who are very
well-informed about cyber-theft, and they think that there is
a very real chance I may be able to convince either a
federal or state prosecutor to swear out a warrant in this
particular case.
For too long, these forgers have believed themselves
immune from prosecution, because--trying to sum up
a complicated matter in simple terms for you--a basic
principle of forgery is that it has to committed with the
intent of actually defrauding someone, and that element
is often thought to be absent in these Usenet forgery
cases.
However, there is one obvious area where a legal
fraud may be said to occur. I am paying for my
net service, and with it the right to use my
screen name palmer.william@sbcglobal.net,
PAYING.
So, there is money involved then. And when somebody
counterfeits postings so that they bear my screen name,
they are defrauding both me and my ISP, who has--
in effect--"rented" the screen-name to me, not to
the net forger.
Morally and ethically, it is no different than stealing a
car or a lawnmower that the victim of the theft has rented
for his private use.
Anyway, all I can tell you is that I will use every effort
to try to bring a felony charge in this matter and to
bring the forger before the bar of justice.. I am
absolutely sick of this sort of thing.
By the way, don't bother nattering that the forgeries
are "satire," (any of you Flame Giant spankards
lurking out there in the peanut gallery, I mean).
Anyone on the net has the right to right do their own
Bill Palmer satire, lampoon, whatever. That is free
speech, and I readily admit to having toasted quite a
few pompous toes and twisted perhaps more than my
share of smug beaks under that very same principle.
That is not questioned at all here.
That sort of thing, the lampoons and spoofs, are all
part of my famous interactive Usenet performance
art, as most of you know very well.
But there is no more a right to forge my screen name
than there is to forge a check drawn on my bank.
Neither action should be considered at all satirical
by any responsible person.
I might add, that apart from the out-and-out theft
taking place in the forgeries, this sort of thing bothers
me because it is a distraction from my performance art.
It is a distraction to me, and certainly a distraction to my
readers and fans.
Every writer in this group should be able to grasp that much.
I work very hard on my Usenet writing, and I certainly do
not want my new readers confused as to who is writing posts
bearing my name and screen name. On top of that, those
forged messages are so uniformly tedious that they could
cost me who knows how many new readers.
So, the harm, actual and potential, certainly involves far
much more than money, but since money IS involved,
regarding my payment for my net service and screen
name, then there definitely is fraudulent activity taking
place, and the wrongdoing is compounded with each
new counterfeit Bill Palmer posting..
I hope every reader--whether stung by my satires or not--
will join me in denouncing this criminal (or, at the very
least, since the malefactor has yet to reach the courts)
quasi-criminal activity.
the alt.genius.bill-palmer
--entertaining the Usenet masses by firing posts
from an office in a building disappearing into the
mists high above rec.arts.proseb
number of forged postings bearing my counterfeited
name and address have been showing up in a number
of newsgroups.
First, please let me remind you that there is nothing
at all humorous about cyber-theft and net-forgery. If it
happened to some of the "Usenet tweaked-beak set" who--
stung by my past lampoons of them--are laughing up their
sleeves about this, they would not think it was so funny.
Actually, forgerd messages constitute an attack against
the rights of every honest poster in Usenet. Furthermore,
I have been in consultation with some people who are very
well-informed about cyber-theft, and they think that there is
a very real chance I may be able to convince either a
federal or state prosecutor to swear out a warrant in this
particular case.
For too long, these forgers have believed themselves
immune from prosecution, because--trying to sum up
a complicated matter in simple terms for you--a basic
principle of forgery is that it has to committed with the
intent of actually defrauding someone, and that element
is often thought to be absent in these Usenet forgery
cases.
However, there is one obvious area where a legal
fraud may be said to occur. I am paying for my
net service, and with it the right to use my
screen name palmer.william@sbcglobal.net,
PAYING.
So, there is money involved then. And when somebody
counterfeits postings so that they bear my screen name,
they are defrauding both me and my ISP, who has--
in effect--"rented" the screen-name to me, not to
the net forger.
Morally and ethically, it is no different than stealing a
car or a lawnmower that the victim of the theft has rented
for his private use.
Anyway, all I can tell you is that I will use every effort
to try to bring a felony charge in this matter and to
bring the forger before the bar of justice.. I am
absolutely sick of this sort of thing.
By the way, don't bother nattering that the forgeries
are "satire," (any of you Flame Giant spankards
lurking out there in the peanut gallery, I mean).
Anyone on the net has the right to right do their own
Bill Palmer satire, lampoon, whatever. That is free
speech, and I readily admit to having toasted quite a
few pompous toes and twisted perhaps more than my
share of smug beaks under that very same principle.
That is not questioned at all here.
That sort of thing, the lampoons and spoofs, are all
part of my famous interactive Usenet performance
art, as most of you know very well.
But there is no more a right to forge my screen name
than there is to forge a check drawn on my bank.
Neither action should be considered at all satirical
by any responsible person.
I might add, that apart from the out-and-out theft
taking place in the forgeries, this sort of thing bothers
me because it is a distraction from my performance art.
It is a distraction to me, and certainly a distraction to my
readers and fans.
Every writer in this group should be able to grasp that much.
I work very hard on my Usenet writing, and I certainly do
not want my new readers confused as to who is writing posts
bearing my name and screen name. On top of that, those
forged messages are so uniformly tedious that they could
cost me who knows how many new readers.
So, the harm, actual and potential, certainly involves far
much more than money, but since money IS involved,
regarding my payment for my net service and screen
name, then there definitely is fraudulent activity taking
place, and the wrongdoing is compounded with each
new counterfeit Bill Palmer posting..
I hope every reader--whether stung by my satires or not--
will join me in denouncing this criminal (or, at the very
least, since the malefactor has yet to reach the courts)
quasi-criminal activity.
the alt.genius.bill-palmer
--entertaining the Usenet masses by firing posts
from an office in a building disappearing into the
mists high above rec.arts.proseb
