FRAUD WARNING

[ORDOVER]

John Ordover here, editor of the Star Trek novels at Pocket Books. I
don't read this group for obvious reasons-- because I don't want to be
accused of stealing someone's story. However a friend of mine informed me
that someone at the address TNZ...@OMEGA.CO.NZ has been claiming to
represent a Pocket Books short fiction anthology. This is NOT TRUE.
NO SUCH BOOK EXISTS. If it did, you would have heard about it from me
first, because I'd be the guy editing it.<G>.

Below is a copy of the letter I have sent to the address
TNZ...@OMEGA.CO.NZ

"It has been reported to me that someone at this address named Stuart
McFarland has been representing himself as an agent of Pocket Books,
claiming that Pocket is backing a Star Trek short fiction anthology, and
that stories should be sent to him.

This is not true. There are severe legal pentalties for fraud and
misrepresentation. Be assured that Pocket and Paramount will take legal
action immediately if this does not stop AT ONCE.

I am also posting this message in the Star Trek fiction forums on the
net."

Since I am still not going to be reading the stories here, anyone who
would like to get in touch with me can reach me at ORD...@AOL.COM.

[Stewart McFarlane]

It has never been our intention to be fraudulent or to infringe anyone's
rights. We have never ever presented ourselves to be agents of Pocket Books,
Paramount or any other publishing house.

Simply put, we had an idea that we thought would be beneficial to Star Trek
fans and placed the idea in motion. Maybe we should have checked out the
licensing requirements before we started assembling the compilation but we
deemed it more important at the time to compile a draft to send to a
publication house like Pocket books, Boxtree, etc for publication
considerations.

This fraud warning was posted before the author checked out the facts of what
we were doing. If he had he would have discovered that we were not being
fraudulent in any way. I have asked the author by e-mail for an apology for
this and I expect one, especially as he has made the accusation in public
which may constitute libel.

In the meantime, I would like everyone to think of this, we were obtaining
permission from the concerned parties before we proceeded with anything, is
this the action of somebody or something wanting to commit a fraudulent crime?

It turns out that the project cannot proceed due to licensing conditions and
so the project has been dropped. But just to restate, we are not, never have
been and will not ever be, agents for Pocket Books. There is no fraud here!

Many Regards

Stewart McFarlane
for The New Zealand Star Trek Fan Club.

[ORDOVER]

I'm afraid that I will not be issuing an apology-- a friend of mine who
exchanged E-mail with you showed me the letter where you said you were
putting together an anthology for Pocket Books. Perhaps you meant "for
submission to Pocket Books" but that's NOT what you wrote to her-- and I
have a copy of the E-mail. You have to be very careful about this kind of
thing.

I will happily express my regret that there was a misunderstanding. But
you did, even if unintentionally, misrepresent yourself as agents of
Pocket Books.