On Friday, December 13, 2002 7:32 PM, Reef Fish wrote:

(The important stuff about conservation and preservation is - to my shame -
snipped)

> This LIST is all too quiet ever since Strike was mugged by publication
> crooks and robbers, and presumably busy tending to the cops & robbers
> business.  Hope to see him back soon.

Did I ever mention that I have the rare distinction - on the grounds of
age! - of being knocked back as a would-be recruit to the Foreign Legion?
(I liked the Kipling-esque morality in everything that I'd read and heard
about them.  Including what happened to people wot stole from their mates!
Something that - by the way - seemed to apply to ALL military services.) :-)

Fortunately, I've matured (?).  Today, of course, I've started to believe
that Morality, Justice and the Law are one and the same thing.  And that
physical violence never resolves anything!  ( I am, however, having
difficulty in convincing myself of that latter belief.)  :-)

I have seldom - if ever - refused anyone the right to re-produce anything
that I may have written FOC.  (As I keep telling people, I'm living proof of
how to make a small fortune in the diving industry? I started with a large
one made out of diving!)  When, however, that permission is not sought: when
the article in question is translated into another language; when the
publishers seek to sell advertising based on that article; when they produce
a brand new publication with that article in it, (as opposed to merely
translating in total an existing issue of a magazine); and when they omit my
name as the author of the article, or as a contributor in the credits, then
I do tend to get ever so slightly miffed!  :-)

When they then - having been caught out - refuse to pay, I tend to get
incensed! :-)

Especially when they refuse to acknowledge my copyright claim to the
article; have no prior arrangement in place for ownership of the article;
and then throw down the gauntlet and suggest that any legal fees will cost
me more than the original payment on the article!

In the past, I've let it go by.  This time, I'm fuming.  And I'm not alone!
Other contributors have been dealt the same  treatment.  And all of this by
people with scant knowledge of diving - or publishing!

To answer your question as to why I'm quiet?  I've suddenly become bitter
and twisted.  And while I've elected to follow the advice of lawyers in the
matter and watch the years pass by in a lengthy, convoluted  attempt to seek
proper justice, I am sorely tempted ......

Strike