L. Neil Smith has Important Shire Business

[Davi Barker]

L. Neil Smith of Pheobus Krumm fame commented on my Shire Society article over at Fr33agents. He writes:

Shire Society Founders: please contact me immediately by e-mail, as we have important business I’m sure you’d rather discuss privately than in public. L. Neil Smith lneil@netzero.com

If I had to guess I'd say this was a message for Sam or Ian, but I'm not sure they use the term "founders." Raises an interesting question... who's authorized to conduct "important business" on behalf of the Shire?

Anyway, I shot him an Email, and you should to if you're interested.

[WhereAndWhen]

Wouldn't this be for Rusel?

[Jay]

I'm guessing he thinks the Shire Society Declaration was plagiarized from his "A New Covenant":

http://www.lneilsmith.org/new-cov.html

And at least the first line is...

[Davi Barker]

Russell Kanning?

Maybe. I don't know. I'm just passing it along.

[Davi Barker]

I'm guessing he thinks the Shire Society Declaration was plagiarized from his "A New Covenant":

http://www.lneilsmith.org/new-cov.html

And at least the first line is...

Well it's clearly based on that to some extent. Although "The New Covenant" doesn't escape the problem of being tied to geographic regions.

UPON UNANIMOUS CONSENT of the Members or Inhabitants of any Association or Territory, we further stipulate that this Agreement shall supercede all existing governmental Documents... etc etc

I have the unanimous consent of all members and inhabitants of my nervous system.

That's cool though. Did anything ever happen with the New Covenant?

[Jay]

I wonder if he's gonna use government force to claim copyright infringement. That would be sad.

[Lance]

I'm guessing he thinks the Shire Society Declaration was plagiarized from his "A New Covenant":

http://www.lneilsmith.org/new-cov.html

And at least the first line is...

The Shire Society Declaration isn't being represented as anyone's original work AFAIK.

The thread in which it was hammered out clearly credits El Neil and links to his "A New Covenant" so it isn't as if anyone is saying "Hey, *I* wrote this!"

I wonder if he's gonna use government force to claim copyright infringement. That would be sad.

I was wondering the same thing.  I *am* curious about what he wants, though.

EDIT: Maybe he's pissed that he didn't get an invitation to sign?   I'll send him an e-mail.

[Davi Barker]

Lol... this just hit me...

What if We just sent him a baffled Email saying... "Neil, You're the founder the Shire Society"

[Jay]

The Shire Society Declaration isn't being represented as anyone's original work AFAIK.

Could the signers be held liable?

[Lance]

Lol... this just hit me...

What if We just sent him a baffled Email saying... "Neil, You're the founder the Shire Society"

Well, I just hit "send" before I read this - I apologized for not inviting him to participate and asked him whether he wanted to sign.

[Lance]

The Shire Society Declaration isn't being represented as anyone's original work AFAIK.

Could the signers be held liable?

LOL - I thought the same thing.  Lots of defendants!

[Jay]

The Shire Society Declaration isn't being represented as anyone's original work AFAIK.

Could the signers be held liable?

LOL - I thought the same thing.  Lots of defendants!

"If we do not hang together, we shall most assuredly hang separately!"

[AntonLee]

he doesn't have to like it, ideas can be copywritten, but the use of force is always wrong.

[Davi Barker]

I wonder if he's gonna use government force to claim copyright infringement. That would be sad.

... wouldn't that by definition be the enforcement  a non consensual obligation and therefor be empty and invalid according to the document itself... that would be REALLY interesting trial.

[Lance]

UPDATE:  He's displeased but doesn't really say what he wants.  If he wants something in particular, I hope he simply says so.


My email to L. Neil Smith, cc'd to others:

Hi,

I don't know whether anyone is representing the "Shire Society Declaration" as his or her original work, but I don't believe that to be the case.

I participated in writing some of the text of that document in a thread on the FreeKeene.com forum.

You can read it here http://forum.freekeene.com/index.php?topic=1997.0

I don't speak for anyone else in this matter, and don't consider myself a "founder" of the Shire Society, but regardless, please accept my apology for failing to be courteous enough to try to contact you to let you know that your "A New Covenant" inspired us to create the "Shire Society Declaration."

I'm sorry that I didn't think to personally invite you to participate in the drafting process, but I figured that you were way out of my league and didn't have the time or inclination to bother with an unknown stranger like me.

Actually, a couple years ago I e-mailed you about unrelated issues and never got a response.  No big deal.

I wasn't present at the signing ceremony of the "Shire Society Declaration" but I wish I would have thought to suggest that someone invite you to attend.

If you would like to sign the document, I think that would be fantastic and of course very appropriate!

If you have other concerns or requests regarding the document, or if you would like to discuss anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Lance Weber
[phone number removed]

His reply to me, cc'd to others:

Mr. Weber, et al.,

   I don't know what writing you think you did. This document of yours is plagiarized directly from my "Covenant of Unanimous Consent", absolutely without my knowledge or permission,  and without even giving me proper credit as the author.

   What's worse, you have altered and damaged my property, again without my knowledge or permission. Here's the URL for the Covenant of Unanimous Consent.

                                   http://www.lneilsmith.org/new-cov.html

   Adding insult to injury, you have deprived me of income I derived from accepting and archiving the document.

   Theft and vandalism are not the bases on which a free society can be established. I suggest that you get together with your friends and try to figure out how you're going to make restitution to me. Otherwise, my next communications about this situation will be as public as I can make them.

   I am blind-copying this message to my attorney.

L. Neil Smith

EDIT: 
pla·gia·rism

–noun

1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

2. something used and represented in this manner

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism