Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerVIP
Hi All,
The Cease & Desist Mr Mehaffey received yesterday has little to do with his recent article or the PokerUpdate news website. Unfortunately, he has neglected to share the full content of the letter.
The purpose of the letter is to ensure Mr Mehaffey ceases his campaign to damage our business and reputation. The letter is not an attack, it's a defense and as far as I know, our company has never once provoked or attacked Mr Mehaffey.
Conversely, Mr Mehaffey has threatened our business numerous times via PM on this forum. He has called us 'scum', vowed to destroy our business and promised to contact all our partner poker rooms and ensure we lose our deals and relationships with them.
Further to this, he has published articles on his site and others, informing players their deals and possibly funds are not safe with us, accused us of behaving illegally with no basis in fact and continually gone out of his way to damage our reputation.
Our business is not perfect and Mr Mehaffey is correct that on occasion one specific writer on PokerUpdate cut up content from other news sites. However, Mr Mehaffey himself has even accepted that this was not technically plagiarism and although we should do better, it's difficult to understand why this small sin has provoked such an incredible reaction from Mr Mehaffey on his own website. Since then this author has been released and will no longer appear on PokerUpdate.
We simply wish to be left alone and treated fairly by Mr Mehaffey. We are a good company and invest a lot into poker - hopefully this is made clear by the quality of our sites and content.
Please trust that we would not be taking such action simply based on Mr Mehaffey's recent article. Assembling the Cease & Desist took time and Mr Mehaffey's damaging comments aimed at our business have been a serious problem and cause for concern for years.
We all know that lawyer's and the possibility of a subsequent lawsuit can be a financial burden and extremely stressful. This is not something that any reasonable business would actively choose to do. However, we feel that Mr Mehaffey has backed us into a corner and has caused such a level of damage to our business, that we have no choice but to take legal action.
@ProfessionalPoker - The fact that all links to our news site have been removed from the forum seemingly based on Mr Mehaffey's opinion seems very unfair. This is not how moderation is meant to be done and nobody in a position of authority on 2+2 should behave like this, if they truly have the forum's best interests at heart. Please look at the site and read the articles. If you see anything wrong or that you do not think would benefit the poker community please let us know.
Jamie Nevin
Founder 180Vita ltd
Hi Jamie and Everyone else:
I want to address one of the above paragraphs in more detail. So here goes:
Quote:
Our business is not perfect and Mr Mehaffey is correct that on occasion one specific writer on PokerUpdate cut up content from other news sites.
My understanding is that this may have occured more than the words "on occasion" seems to indicate. But even if "on occasion" is accurate, for those of us, like myself, in the publishing business, this would still be something we take seriously.
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However, Mr Mehaffey himself has even accepted that this was not technically plagiarism and although we should do better, it's difficult to understand why this small sin has provoked such an incredible reaction from Mr Mehaffey on his own website.
To be specific, it's my understanding that the author of the articles in question was taking fairly large chunks from other writers' articles and just reproducing them word for word in his own articles with no acknowledgement to the original writer. And if this is the case, based on how I understand the law, it not only violates "fair use," it would be plagerism.
But there is another side to this coin. While this may have been going on, it doesn't mean that Jamie Nevin, Founder 180Vita ltd, would be aware of it. We at 2+2 also receive many articles (and books) which we publish and we take the author's word that it is his work. Of course if we were to find out that this was not the case, we would remove such material.
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Since then this author has been released and will no longer appear on PokerUpdate.
My understanding is that this is the case. But it's not completely clear to me as to whether the author in question may still have some of his work up on site. And if this is the case and offending articles do remain, they should be removed. On the other hand, if any non-offending articles by the author in question remain, then it's my opinion that it's okay for them to stay since non-offending articles would not be the source of the problem.
Moving on, while it's unfortunate that other issues have also come to light and are described by Jamie above, I suspect that what I have outlined above would be acceptable to both sides and then (hopefully) the other issues will go away. I think this could be handled privately without the further use of attorneys.
Best wishes,
Mason