From neil@neilgaiman.com Mon Apr 08 00:04:09 2002 From: "Neil Gaiman" To: Subject: Panic now. (http://text.staticfree.info/literature/) Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 00:03:04 -0400 Steve Pomeroy 37 Williston Rd. Newton MA 02466 1-617 244 8889 Dear Steve I was flattered to discover that you have the full text of my book Don't Panic! up on your website, copyright notice and all. Now please take it down. If I were you, I'd take the other books in copyright on your site down as well. It's quite possible that Douglas Adams's agents, or Terry Pratchett's lawyer, or the C.S. Lewis Estate might not be as flattered as I was. Posting material that you don't have the rightsholder's permission to post is breaking the law, and worse than that, it's extremely bad manners. Yours, Neil Gaiman From steve@staticfree.info Mon Apr 8 00:46:10 2002 Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 00:46:10 -0400 From: Steve Pomeroy To: Neil Gaiman Subject: Re: Panic now. (http://text.staticfree.info/literature/) Neil Gaiman: Sorry about that. I will remove it promptly (done). A good deal of the works I have up are public domain (Hoffman, Nostradamus, Plato, Poe, Raymond, Wells, Carroll) and soon-to-be entering into public domain (Asimov, Orwell, Berkeley). The rest are works I highly respect and mean no disregard by putting them online. I am not responsible for their creation; I've only found them in my travels on the 'net. My own personal use with them is simple: I like reading, but I don't have time to do it anymore. So I put the books (most of which I own paper copies of) on my palm pilot. With that I have my entire library wherever I go, so I can read them when I have free time. That's why I like e-texts: they're free (not free-beer-free, free as in not bound to a page). I respect your work highly and try to respect your rights to your work just as much. I knew it would be potentially dangerous for me to put books up that were not yet in the public domain, but I did it anyway. Media is a very touchy subject these days and I have few ideas as to where it's headed. With the senators lobbying to outlaw computers that can store "unsecured" data and with people being arrested for creating tools which could potentially be used for malicious purposes - well, I guess that just scares me. Thanks for the wonderful works; and most importantly: thanks for the personal letter. It means much more and is much more effective than seeking direct "legal" action. -Steve Pomeroy http://staticfree.info/