Open Diary Entries


Trouble at the ranch, Part II

4/5/04

If you haven't seen it, you should start reading this story at the previous entry.  :)

Anyway, I should have known I would just get another incoherent e-mail (this one with lots of exclamation marks and statements about how pissed off everyone is).  I was chided for trying to defend myself, reminded that I was doing something illegal, and again told I needed to stop.  (I wonder why she didn't see where I told her in the last e-mail that I took off the mentioning of the CDs?)  She told me I was lying about only giving the CD to two people and that she had proof--the letter I'd replied with "when [I] thought [I was] dealing with a customer."  Heh . . . well, it sounded kind of professional because I based it off a template letter I used to use when I was the distributor for shirts for the F*light Fan Club, but I don't know what else about it made her so sure that she'd "caught" me in a lie.  I guess the letter's phrasing was what made her think I do this sort of thing routinely instead of, well, twice.  Apparently she thought pretending to want the CDs to get "the real story" out of me was very clever.  Well, police have been dressing as whores for many years--it's called a sting.  This kept coming back up, along with tossing out all of my explanations to the tune of "you're a thief, how could I believe anything you say?"  This letter wound up with a tip that my Web pages will be watched, and that "they" are aware that I have had copyright issues before.

Um . . . yeah.

THAT sounds even MORE like Miz Liz, considering the only "copyright issue" I've ever had was when SHE COPIED MY SHIT, but whatever.  At this point I opened an e-mail telling her it was probably pointless to talk to her again, but I would say one or two more things.  I made it VERY clear that this was the THIRD time I had told her I wasn't offering the CDs anymore, and reminded her that there was no case of me sitting around protesting that I had the right to continue making copies; what I had considered a legal gray area apparently was NOT; it had been brought to my attention, and I responded rationally, and it wasn't a problem for me at all.  I told her she and whoever else was welcome to waste their time by "watching" my pages all they wanted, and that I invite any civil attempts to communicate with me about any further issue but I am specifically uninterested in getting into a flame war.

So, predictably, another freaky e-mail--the last one, by the way, because I didn't respond to it.  It was full of "OMG I can't believe you aren't scrambling to apologize and thank me for not suing you" type stuff, again saying that my e-mails to her now and my e-mails to her "as a customer" did not match up (though I don't see where), and that--get this--it isn't being pursued because a lawsuit would be bad press for Paganism.  (There was a whole bunch more crap about how she doubts I'm even Pagan and what I did wasn't very Pagan behavior, blah blah--I'm sure if we were Christian it would have been "agh, you're so unchristian," I swear, people really like to play the religion card on these things.)  Somehow I'm doubting that people are going to look at Pagans in a bad light because I sent people mix CDs--actually I'm fairly sure our religion or our type of music would not be considered at all in legal actions or news stories.  That's just silly.

So, it wound up with her saying "the others" might decide to go through with a lawsuit once they see my e-mails and my attitude in them (which she keeps insisting indicates that I think I didn't do anything wrong), and she told me to "wake up for Goddess sake."  Mehhh.

Well, obviously someone was bound and determined to think of me in a certain way, to take meaning from my actions that was never intended, and okay, that's their prerogative.  But I got all annoyed over it--tried to ignore it, but I think I'm the type who has to rant to make it go away.  I don't want to make a federal case out of it (hah!), but I was kind of disturbed by all this overreaction--ESPECIALLY since I cooperated immediately and openly admitted that I understood I didn't have the "right" to make copies--and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and made me think "Wow, I would have RATHER talked to someone in legalese, because it would have been RATIONAL."  And even though this is just some woman who doesn't know me and doesn't have any idea about me, it still bugged me that she had such a skewed conception of me.  So, maybe I'll feel better now that I whined about it in a semi-public arena, and I'll be able to put it behind me.  That's all I really care about.


Notes:

There's no way I could run a website that people actually visit. Some people just troll around looking for something upon which to unleash their righteous indignation. She'd like nothing better than for you to keep replying reasonably so she can stay pissed off. But you should be ashamed of that 0 dollars of damage you did to those artists. Tsk! Tsk I say. Love! Ian?


You filthy pagan, you! All you pagans are good for nothing thieves! 30 lashes with a wet asparagus sprout! [wunderkont]


Whoever sent the hysterical, 'holier than thou' e-mails should be found and spanked! -Brendon


*rolls eyes* What happens when you have actual content on your website? You get bitched at. What happens when you don't have content on your website? You get bitched at. Ugh, that girl needs a chill pill. Or maybe some sedatives. [katqueen]


blind the bitch! [Meggie]

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