FAQ/Wrestlepedia - Followup

[Oooh your so cool Brewster]

>Subject: FAQ/Wrestlepedia - Followup
>From: John Henry john...@lowgenius.com
>Date: 8/7/2003 7:01 PM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <Xns93D0C0962CE8Djo...@216.168.3.44>
>
>It is unfortunate that a couple of the participants in this thing seem to
>have been goaded into non-participation by the specious negativity being
>promulgated by a couple of individuals. As you can see, a great deal of
>progress had been made, and it will take me a great deal of time and
>effort to go through and re-write the contributions that those
>individuals made.
>
>I think that the notion that attempting to market this work for profit is
>a "bad thing" is utterly ludicrous. Unless, of course, someone involved
>was directly plagiarizing and didn't tell me, there is no ethical
>violation in profiting from one's own hard work. The notion that
>compiling this huge body of information is something that MUST be done
>for free is mind-boggling.
>
>But to me, the greatest disappointment isn't that the potential income
>from such a venture has been lost - indeed, the "potential income" was at
>most an afterthought. My greatest disappointment is that what could have
>been a defining document of RSPW and wrestling fandom has once again been
>scuttled by a bunch of stupid whining bitches whining because they
>weren't invited to play...and the irony of THAT, of course, is that they
>WERE invited to play - I've posted dozens of messages to this group
>asking for people's input on this thing, and only a couple of people have
>stepped forward to offer their help.
>
>The notion of this document being sold *was* dead in the water, since it
>seemed that at least one person didn't care to do things that way. Now,
>it's not..because there's only one person left to do any of it, and
>anyone that comes on board from this point forward will do so with the
>understanding that the POTENTIAL exists for this document to be sold, and
>they will, of course, be justly compensated for their contributions
>should such a sale take place.
>
>At NO time have I ever claimed to "own the FAQ." The FAQ has *always*
>been under the copyright of it's maintainer - that is a fact, regardless
>of whether that copyright is declared; it's a point of law that when one
>publishes intellectual property, a copyright is granted at the time of
>publication.
>
>It was only as a result of that ridiculous assertion in the first place
>that the newsgroup FAQ was split away from the wrestling information,
>which came to be known as the "Wrestlepedia." Of course, they're stored
>in the same database, so the two are intermingled in the documents that I
>just posted, but that's life.
>
>Encyclopedias are sold every single day around the world that are
>comprised of information culled and edited from multiple outside sources.
>Knowledge is knowledge, and is not the exclusive property of anyone. How
>that knowledge is presented, however, can be. This is why I insisted
>that people NOT just cut-and-paste from other sites. I have no interest
>in stealing anyone else's hard work.
>
>It's damned unfortunate that a great deal of the document I have just
>posted will be lost to the desire of some people to cater to the
>infantile natterings of a fat, useless fraud. The information, however,
>will not be lost - it will simply be presented in a different format.
>I'd LIKE to think that this wouldn't be necessary, but I'm quite certain
>that IF this were to evolve into a commercial project and the
>contributions of the lately-resigned editors were not expunged, they
>would have no problem whatsoever in suing me or the publisher in order to
>get their fair share of the "ugly notion of profit." I find this very
>strage - if, indeed, someone does not want to make money on such a
>venture, I would expect them to stick to that position regardless of
>whether money were being made or not. After all, it's a matter of
>principle, right? But I know better than that - the only "principle"
>involved here is that Krusty started running his mouth about how HORRIBLY
>UNETHICAL it would be to make a dime from our own work, and at least one
>person marked for it. I'm sure those ethics would be completely
>forgotten if the money could be gained by attempting to "humiliate" me or
>"win" a "contest."
>
>So, c'est la vie. We move on. The FAQ proper has long been finished
>anyway, other than the Glossary, which would be the only "shared"
>resource. The Wrestlepedia will need some rework, which is a time-
>consuming pain in the butt, but I'll do it, with the help of whoever
>cares to help. When it's done, yeah, I probably *will* try to sell it as
>a 3-space book. Why not? I have worked hard on it - and will work
>harder - and I'm certainly not the kind of shallow, crooked asshole that
>would try to make money myself *without* ensuring that everyone else
>involved got their share of the pie.
>
>So yeah, I'm kinda down about the whole thing right now, but it's
>certainly not the end of the world. I think the thing that bugs me most
>was that for a few weeks, it really looked as though it would be possible
>to put petty bullshit and stupidity behind us and move forward in an
>effort to better the community as a whole. Unfortunately, things didn't
>work out that way. I shall continue doing what I do, the way I see fit
>to do it. If I can get some quality help that isn't so afraid of one
>whining fatass that they bail out at the first sign of criticism, then
>that would be wonderful - and likely profitable for those involved. If
>not, then I guess I fly solo.
>
>ViNNY, Fro, thanks for the help. Sorry that it was wasted, but that
>wasn't my decision.

LOL. The basic gist I got from this article was "NO NO NO NO It's not about
the money!!!! OK it is about the money."