Preditors and Editors ™
A guide to publishers and publishing services for serious writers
----- Original Message -----
> From: "PublishAmerica Support"
> To: "Dave Bowlin"
> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 2:40 PM
> Subject: Re: A Legal Issue? A request.
>
>
> Dear Mr. Bowlin,
> We prefer not to allow anything on our message board that is untrue, or
> that goes against good taste as it is generally understood. From your
> words, it seems apparent that you are not that website's designer, even
> though you seem to have added to its design, which reduces the issue to a
> matter of semantics. We have removed this particular post from the board.
>
> We also removed it, however, because it quotes a sample of your writing
> that we consider a flagrant violation of good taste. The quote itself is
> not in any way illegal, though. It is attributed to its author, it is
> brief
> enough under federal "fair use" copyright laws, and its presence on
> various
> websites makes it public property. If your current publisher has a
> copyright problem with this, he is well advised to urge the owners of
> those
> websites to remove the text immediately.
>
> We know that the text is publicly available because we are told that two
> different websites are carrying this text. The fact also emerged that you
> have a second email address, sintrigue@msn.com. This is the address that
> someone used a few days ago to ask us about the same thread on our
message
> board.
>
> If you and "Mr. Sintrigue" are one and the same person, which seems
> plausible because you also appear to own a sintrigue.org domain name, it
> would have been more forthcoming and appropriate if you would have
> revealed
> your identity at that time. Our response to you would have been the same,
> but we believe to be entitled to knowing someone's real identity when we
> take time to provide a reasonable response to what seems a reasonable
> question. It casts a shadow on your motive for contacting us.
>
> However, now that we have established that you are in fact an
acquaintance
> of David Kuzminski's, you might inform him that we are open to extending
> the same courtesy to him that we are conferring to you. Instead of
> wrathfully posting our aged and private correspondence, names and email
> addresses and all, and exclaiming that he is being "smeared", he could
> remove all that nonsense, plus his deliberate lies about PublishAmerica.
> We
> would not expect him to actually recommend a publishing company that he
> does not chose to recommend.
>
> One can expect some mud slinging when going to bat against 4000 happy
> PublishAmerica authors. But, should he rise, along with us, above this
> little contest, we can assure you that this will not go overlooked. His
> name will not be allowed on our website, and we would also lose any
> incentive to make legal use of the domain names that he erroneously
> believes are covered by trademark laws. We have been courteous to you,
> despite being misled by you initially. Now you can vouch that our word is
> our bond.
>
> Thank you.
>
An Opinionated Response from Dave Kuzminski,
Editor of Preditors & Editors
Before we go on any further, Dave Bowlin is entitled to a public apology by PublishAmerica on the front page of their web site in a prominent location and in large, bold, viewable print. The apology should remain there for an equal length of time to the smear they conducted against him.
In the first paragraph, PublishAmerica explains that Dave Bowlin was targeted because they believed he was responsible for designing the Preditors & Editors (tm) website. What they did was find his name listed as the designer for two GIF images that P&E provides to sites wishing an image to display for establishing a link to P&E. They also visited my personal author's web site where they found that he had given me an award on behalf of his ezine when it was active. In other words, they jumped to a false conclusion and then dismissed their mistake as a matter of semantics.
In the next paragraph, PublishAmerica remarked that they removed it because it was considered in bad taste. Well, if it was, then why was it permitted to remain on their board for so long after Dave Bowlin and other writers asked for it to be taken off? If it was considered in bad taste in their opinion when they removed it, then it was that way to begin with. PublishAmerica then misquoted copyright law by stating that its presence on various websites made it public property. That is completely wrong. Copyright is not lost because someone else copied something. On top of that, PublishAmerica claimed that the quote was properly attributed. The attribution I saw would have gained a failing grade in elementary school.
Following that, PublishAmerica goes on to state that had they recognized that the Sintrigue email address was Dave Bowlin, they still would have responded in the same manner. That sounds like they're stating that they still would have ignored him as they first did. If not, then they better get a professional editor to go over their sentences so the meaning can be clearer. On top of that, they cast more aspersions on him concerning his motive which was the same in both of his requests. He wanted the offensive language about him and that portion of his copyrighted work removed from their forum.
Now we get to a really interesting paragraph. After insulting Dave Bowlin several times, they treat him as a messenger. Because he's a true professional writer and a friend, he did present me with a copy of PublishAmerica's words. My response is this: PublishAmerica should become aware that this is not a contest or just a little mud slinging. I will continue gathering evidence about PublishAmerica's activities and posting those until I receive a public apology from Mr. Willem Meiners and PublishAmerica for the smear they have permitted to take place in their website's forum.
Finally, they swear that their word is their bond and don't even sign the email to Dave Bowlin. Gives you real confidence in them, doesn't it?
Dave Kuzminski, Editor
