The Rusty Nail Has Moved

Hopefully, it's just temporary, but The Rusty Nail has a new home.

National Stop Bullying Day

Today is the National Stop Bullying Day (in the U.S.). I suggest that all of us who have been bullied, harrassed, threatened, or stalked by Nicky Pacione share our stories somewhere today - in a blog post, in blog comments, on a forum, etc. I will be travelling and away from my computer most of today, so my post will not be up until later tonight.

DMCA Conclusion -or- The Post is Back

I heard back from Blogger today, and the post that Nicky filed the fraudulent DMCA claim over is back up.

And I see that another one of Nicky's blogs has been taken down for violating a sites Term's of Service. how many does that make now? I've lost count.

DMCA Further Developments

With regards to Nicky's DMCA notification, Blogger has informed me that "The requirements for a counter-notification under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act are not the same as the requirements for the original notification." Um, yeah. While technically true, they are splitting very fine hairs.

Notification must include, amongst other things: "(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if avail-able, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted."

Counter notification must include, amongst other things: "(D) The subscriber's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court ..."

The text of the law says that the notifications must "substantially include" the above information, which is where I think Google hangs their hat on not requiring complaining parties to provide a mailing address. I responded in kind by providing a mailing address (a P.O. box) but not my phone number; I don't need a basement troll calling me at all hours to whine about what a meanie I am.

Since I have responded with a counter notification, Blogger must restore my post within 10 to 14 business days, unless they receive notice from Nicky that he "has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the subscriber from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on the service provider's system or network." In this case, subscriber = me.

I can't see Nicky filing legal action. For one, he can't afford it. For another, the copyright infringement claim is obviously ridiculous to the layman. Here is Nicky's claim:

"She posted all the links to every story of a version that doesn't have the stories in there. This is unauthorized what she's doing."

Nicky is SOL. Lists cannot be copyrighted, and link addresses cannot be copyrighted. Furthermore, the links all point to legally posted content by the content owners.

Now the following is for Nicky, who I know reads this blog:

Nicky, before you even think about continuing to harrass me with false DMCA claims, know this - I have a job and can afford an attorney. You cannot. The DMCA includes penalties for materially misrepresenting that material or activity is infringing. I suggest you read it. Would you like to pay my costs and attorney's fees?

DMCA Timeout -or- How Nicky Has to Eat Crow

So as most of you know, back in July of 2010, little Nicky filed a DMCA complaint about my blog post with links to the publicly available stories that he reprinted in Tabloid Purposes. I filed a counter notification the same day. I have e-mailed Blogger/Google many times since then, and finally LAST NIGHT, I received a response. Six months to the day.

I had asked that they not pass on the personal information in the counter notification to little Nicky because he had threatened to kill me. They responded that by law they had to and asked if I wanted to amend or withdraw the counter notification.

So I asked for a copy of the original complaint, which they had never sent me. I figured if I was ponying up personal info, I wanted to see Nicky's, too. Blogger/Google sent me a copy back this morning, quite promptly. I looked at it and....

Wow.  By law, the complaining party has to provide "information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party". However, the only information that little Nicky provided was a name and e-mail address. There's no mailing address, no phone number. Ooops. Does that meet the requirements of the DMCA? I don't think so.

I have now e-mailed Blogger/Google back and explained to them quite politely that the DMCA complaint does not appear to meet the legal requirements of a valid notice and asked that my blog post be reinstated. If that doesn't work, I do have a counter notification ready. But I have asked to submit one that contains only an e-mail address for contact since that was all little Nicky had to provide.

I've also discovered that Blogger/Google was required to reinstate my blog post within 10 to 14 days of receiving my counter notification - something they didn't do, which is in violation of the DMCA.

Things should be interesting for the next couple of days...

12 Days of the Ethereal Gazette Issue 12 - Day 10

“The Scorpion Temple” by S.G. Cardin

Nicky has misspelled the name of this story in the Table of Contents, where it is listed as “The Soorpion Temple”. This story is supposedly “In Memory of Barbara Malenky”, but I can’t figure what the story has to do with her or her style of writing. The story opens with a quote from Lovecraft. Ms. Cardin has also posted elsewhere that this is a Lovecraft influenced story, and that I can see.

Most of the story takes place in 1961. A young archeology student, named Barbara Dugan, and her professor travel to a remote island in the Caspian Sea to investigate a temple protected by scorpions. The professor’s brother discovered the island in 1911, journalled extensively about it, and just before the story opens, died and left his estate to the professor. The professor sees a way to make a name for himself, and after setting Barbara to researching the brotherr’s journals, he obtains a sponsor and away they go. Of course, the trip ends badly for young Barbara, the professor, and the two other students taken along to help.

I can appreciate what Ms. Cardin was trying to do, but several issues plagued the story. First, I didn’t really get much of a sense of Barbara as a person, despite the story being told in the first person. There were also some factual errors, such as the professor’s brother writing about genetic mutation by radiation in a 1911 journal; gene research (and our understanding of radiation) was in its infancy in 1911. Another example is jars of formaldehyde left open for over 40 years with the contents not evaporating.

But the largest problem for me was the true nature of the scorpions and how that was discovered. Since this is key to the story, it needed to be well-thought out. Turns out aliens  crash-landed a long time ago on the island, were stranded, and bred with the scorpions because that was the closest life-form to theirs. OK, so far so good. Then they forced the local populace to build the “temple”. And then the scorpions/aliens wrote the whole story across the temple walls in heiroglyphics. Errr? A space-faring creature would write in heiroglyphics rather than a complete and mature language?  There are other issues with unique light from a particular star, etc. Overall, I thought the science fiction-y aspect of this story very weak.

Grade: C+

“Hex” by Larry M. Harris

If you want to read this story, don’t look in this anthology. Nicky has screwed up yet again and only included only about 40% of the story. Yes, that’s right, folks, this story just suddenly…stops. I Googled it, found it on-line, and read the rest of it.

This is actually a delightful little story from 1959. It first appeared in “Astounding Science Fiction” and was subsequently published at least four other magazines/anthologies. Nicky has lifted not only the text, but the original illustrations, which is legal as far as I can tell, but no credit is given to the original publication.

The story, which I really wouldn’t call science fiction, follows two characters – a young social worker with a very special “talent” for helping people, and an older Russian immigrant woman who doesn’t want to be helped and is resistant to the social worker’s talent. Despite the very spare style of writing, the two characters are well-developed and are wonderful foils for each other – the earnest do-gooder and the staunchly stuck-in-her-beliefs widow who recognizes what the young woman is doing and tries futilely to stop her.

Grade: A-

“Elegy” by Charles Beaumont

This story was originally published in February 1953 in “Imagination” magazine. It was also adapted into a script for an episode, also called “Elegy”, of The Twilight Zone. This is probably where it came to Nicky’s attention.

A group of astronauts who have been drifting through space, lost, suddenly come across an uncharted asteroid with what appears to be a city. They land their rocket (yes, a rocket) and upon exploring find that all of the occupants of the city are unmoving, like statues. Except for one man, who greets them and serves them wine while telling them a bit about the place they have discovered. Unfortunately, he doesn’t consider them acceptable additions to the city while they are still living. This story has a tragic ending.

It is always interesting reading science fiction stories written before the modern age of space travel. It requires a certain suspension of disbelief, or our current knowledge of space travel, planetary physics, etc. Yet I liked the story. Like the previous story, the writing is spare, but an overload of description was not necessary to convey the eerie nature of the city. Likewise a lot of character development is not necessary to the story. The key is in the nature of the city.

Grade: B+

12 Days of the Ethereal Gazette Issue 12 - Day 9

“Connection Lost” by Eric Mangum

This story about a writer, Michael Branson, who goes to his late parents’ cabin to get away and write and is “haunted” by his mother’s old computer is quite a mess. Odd factual inconsistencies mar the first part of the story. A 26-year-old writer with 12 best-selling books? Taking a battery out of a cell phone instead of just turning it off? A cabin that requires flashlights for light, but can support a computer and a cordless phone? A voicemail system that doesn’t let you listen to new messages first? Etc, etc., etc.

Then a spooky event – where the computer appears to have power even though it is turned off – freaks Michael out so much that he collapses on the couch in exhaustion. A healthy 26 year old guy? Weenie. *sigh*  Michael falls alseep and wakes up with his Bluetooth headset in his ear. Really really in his ear. He manages to remove it and then…..

Then the climax of the story is *told* to the reader by a sheriff who happens upon the aftermath and reads the manuscript that Michael supposedly wrote about how he killed the young girl found in the cabin with him. Because cops believe everything written by crazy persons. Yeah.

Grade: D

“Happy Anniversary!” by Todd Martin

If you believe this story, then couples who kill together, stay together. It’s Richard and Mary’s anniversary, and Mary presents Richard with a new set of steak knives that he’s been hinting about for months. Richard’s gift to Mary is something they can both use the knives on…and it isn’t a side of beef.

This story had an interesting premise and was generally well put-together, and with a bit more editing it could have been quite good. A bit more description would have brought the characters to life; there’s no last name, no physical description, nothing beyond an anonymous man and woman. The As-You-Know-Bob portions of the conversation could easily have been moved into narrative, rather than dialogue, and the head-hopping could have been cleaned up.

I think this writer has potential, but he needs someone to look over his work with a more critical eye. Too bad he ended up with Nicky for an editor. Particularly since he also got taken by PublishAmerica.

Grade: B-

“Threat Detected” by Andrew Boughton

This is also a story a man haunted – or this case, possessed – by a computer, which eventually kills him. It is also connected to the first story reviewed today because the main character Neil is a friend of Michael’s. And Neil’s little sister Allison is the girl that Michael kills (in the first story).

While having the two interconnected stories is a nice little surprise, I don’t think that putting this story second in the anthology was the most effective placement, considering that the events in this story take place before the events in the first story. This story also had issues of its own, although in general it was better written than “Connection Lost”.

The pace is initially bogged down with lots of details of Neil’s new computer and what he does to it to get it up and running. Neil, who is apparently the sole guardian of his 13-yr-old sister, spends more time on the computer and fussing over it than he does with her – there’s no cooking her dinner, making sure she’s in bed, etc. It’s just Neil and the computer. This is either unrealistic or Neil is a pretty bad pseudo-parent. I felt bad for Allison by the end of this story.

Mr.Boughton also has issues with punctuation. Specifically, commas may not be used in place of periods or semi-colons. I had to read several run on sentences multiple times.

Grade: C