Some Fuckwit is Selling Your Discordian Texts

Started by Cramulus, January 10, 2014, 06:06:28 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Cramulus

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Muchao-J-Moocow-KSC/e/B00HGRMDJG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

This guy, who calls himself Dr Muchao J Moocow KSC, (no relation to Prince Mu Chao) is rounding up all the kopyleft discordiana on the net and compiling them into omnibuses. A lot of the original works are kopyleft or have no explicit license (like the Om Nom Nomicon, or the postergasm collections). Fine. No problem there.

But he's selling (for profit) some material which is definitely not his, and does not have permission to sell - including the Chao Te Ching, posts from Iason's blog, The Etc. Discordia, Hey Jim, Intermittens, the Wise book of Baloney, and the Himeobs training manual.

I've sent a number of e-mails on this subject already, but I wanted to alert you guys to it. It fucking breaks my heart -- because for the most part I would rather have a fork in my eye than get in a legal copyright throw down over some stupid stuff I posted to the net which wasn't generating revenue anyway. But god damn it, it's definitely not cool to ignore a license because you don't understand the difference between "kopyleft", creative commons, and public domain.


LMNO

Oh, that motherfucker.

I'm gonna see what I can do, but I can't WAIT until Roger sees this, as "Hey Jim" was sprouted, and enhanced, by his writing, and he's NEVER acknowledged Kopyleft.

LMNO

Cram, thanks for bringing this up-- if you feel weird about being part of the coming shitstorm, I'll understand if you want to stay in the shadows.

Cain

As I've said on IRC, I'd rather not have to legally prove I'm the writer and owner of the copyright to the HIMEOBS training manual if avoidable...but if I have to in order to get some fuckwit to stop selling it (especially when it's not even a Discordian text), then, well, that's what I have to do.

hooplala

I ultimately decided not to print any copies of the Wise Book of Baloney, because I wouldn't have felt right about collecting profit from other people's work... I guess Moocow has no such compunctions.  Having said that, I wasn't fully aware kopyleft DIDN'T mean someone could just print it out and sell it...
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Cain

Strictly speaking, it's not.  If you go by Richard Stallman etc, the idea was the work could be used so long as the original conditions under which that work was licenced were preserved.  Thus, a free copyleft work could be used in another free work, and so on.

Of course, no doubt Dr Lovesh-, uh, Muchao J Moocow KSC would consider such a distinction greyfaced and aneristic, or something.

hooplala

That's a bingo.

I also like how he words it so that it seems like he spent years painstakingly collecting all these texts, and that's the implied justification for him making some coin from it... rather than admitting he cleaned through the 23AoE archives in about ten minutes.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Cain

It seems like they were ripped directly from this archive.  So not even the 23AoE Archives, it was even more lazy.

tyrannosaurus vex

I found Moocow's product on Amazon very helpful. I hope my review helps other people find the same enlightenment in his book that I found.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Cain


LMNO

Is there a link to report this to Amazon/the (ahem) Doctor himself?

To establish a credible trail of doing things above board before resorting to whatever means are needed, of course.

hooplala

I just flipped through the Wise Book of Baloney; turns out there is no kopyleft notice on it anywhere...
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

hooplala

And looky what is typed out at the bottom of the back of each volume (and on each page inside too, for good measure):

"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Cain