Slashdot Mirror
Publisher Renames 'Katie.com'
twigstamc420 writes "In an update to stories posted the previous two days on Slashdot, Penguin Putnam publishing has issued a press release stating that they have re-named the title of Katie.com to 'A Girl's Life Online'. Press release (pdf) found on their press page."
Domain Name: AGIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM
Created on..............: Thu, Aug 05, 2004
Start your stalking engines!
In other news, GL Online has stated that Penguin Books had used psychical and emotional intimidation to coerce them into allowing the usage of the title "A Girls Life: Online".
A representative from Boy's Life was quoted as saying, "girls have cooooodies, ewww. Good riddance!"
Disappointingly generic...
Who doesn't like free music?
Justice prevailed. For once.
'till next time.
Isn't this is a four year old issue in which very little has happened recently? (Most articles I found about it were dated from 2000).
Did Slashdot force this sudden 180?
Common sense prevails!
Wait, what's the catch?
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
We didn't do anything wrong, we don't know of anyone who did anything wrong, we didn't even think about doing anything wrong. And now we'll correct this wrong right away like we could have done years ago. Thank you very much. Love us, we are the good guys. _-Right.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
This is just Plume's red herring attempt to get the pressure off. They've got to still be doing something we can be angry about!
Love, Stu
FinaFuckingLy! Geeks: 1; The Man: 0
I'm so sick of seeing big corperations trying to push around the "little people." It's nice to see one bow out/lose a conflict such as this. Hopefully it's a trend that will continue.
I finally find something decent to submit to /. and someone beats me to it =/
Shouldn't it be: A Girl's Life Online?
P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.
...if that lawyer will still be demanding the domain from the other Katie though.
Does anyone care? Kudos to the owner of Katie.com for holding up though.
username:oldwarez password:oldwarez
maybe the threat of a million slashdotters wanting to turn katie.com into a pr0n sight did the trick.
So if enough people complain about a company being wrong, the company will change?
Too bad this doesn't work for MS...
Certainly snapped this one up.
Domain Name: AGIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM
Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: DNS19.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS20.REGISTER.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 05-aug-2004
Creation Date: 05-aug-2004
Expiration Date: 05-aug-2006
Organization:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox
Fury of a 10,000 angry geeks diverted.
I'm very glad to hear this.
So, the only remaining question is: will Chubby Aftab apologize for the threats now, or wait until she's on O'Reilly next week?
everything in moderation
ha-ha
Wow indeed.
I for one welcome our new Slashdotting Conquering Overlords.
Well done.
Now, if Katie Tarbox can be dissuaded from using the name 'Katie.com' for her upcoming school lecture series as well, Katie Jones may finally get her weblife back.
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this margin is too small to contain.
and other times you're the windmill. I'm just glad Penguin learned their lesson quicker than certain others (*cough* SCO *cough*) before the negative publicity did more than bruise their feelings.
*claps* mission accomplished.
;)
hmm... The force grows strong within us. Think we can get Bush booted out of office next?
If so, let's all pay a visit Here and Here.
Congrats to Katie Jones, but also to slashdot. This issue had been going on for years, but within a few days of a slashdot posting justice was served.
The geek shall inherit the Earth, after all. Hooray for the power of the geek!
That's a little different than the slashing perpetrator Slashdot has cast her. Refreshing to know the good guys do win....sometimes.
OWNT with a capital pwnt.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
It's great that they finally did something about this, but what about all the damage caused by the book. They totally ruined Katie Jones' site, Penguin Putnam should own up to that and give her something for all the trouble they've caused.
There is a quote here in the press release that set off my BS detector:
...it was erroneously reported that Plume had asked its attorney to attempt to buy the website Katie.com...
There were no rumors of offers to buy the website. What kind of shameless PR technique is this to cover up the fact that they asked for its donation? I think asking for (demanding) its donation is worse than offering to buy, and this strikes me as a particularly unscrupulous statement by their PR department.
Hey, whether they fess up to their original sins or not, we won. But I bet the reason we won is all the negative reviews that suddenly landed on Amazon, not a bunch of geeks mouthing off on /. The reviews hit them where it hurts, in the pocketbook. A lesson to be learned, perhaps...
Such astroturfing is top-notch, the likes of which has not been seen since the Phantom Video Game Console. Penguin Putnam thanks all the gullible editors and saps who provided their free advertising.
I could have sworn the article read, "In response to stories posted the previous two days on Slashdot", but as soon as I hit read more it now says, "In an update to stories posted...".
Did twigstamc420 actually write "response" or "update to?"
Plume/Penguin didn't want to do anything when it as "just" KatieT's lawyer. Now that the book got /.ed at Amazon, which would then affect P/P wallets, they change the name. Too bad it had to take getting an additional thrd-paty (Amazon) involved to get them to do the right thing.
This trend only happens when the little people stand up to the corporations.
Fight Spammers!
Not often these things happen. Please take the time to thank Penguin. I suggest you email the writer of the Press Release, Brant Janeway at Brant.Janeway(at)US.PenguinGroup.com
I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing how grateful we all are.
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
May aswell change the books name rather than face $1m bandwidth bill :)
All spelling mistakes are due to solar flares...honest
"We have made every effort to clarify the fact that Plume's book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way associated with one another."
:-)
Personally I would have thought that "every effort" would have included going to the effort of not calling the book that in the first place.
Still, a small victory. Behold, Geek Power!
I'm writing a new book called Penguin.com, all about how you can find penguins online. The fact that the book, Penguin.com, and the website belonging to the publishing company shares the same name is purely coincidental. Regarding this, I have been quoted as saying, "I will make every effort to clarify the fact that my book, Penguin.com, and the website, Penguin.com, are not in any way associated with one another.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Is anyone else amused by the fact that Parry compares herself to an elephant on her website?
-W
All unfair meta-mods are now being meta-meta-modded as retarded.
More like geeks have responded with a furious slashdotting of their servers. Enjoy the server bill!
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
Hell yeah!
But... in the PDF, they claim they "made every effort." Which is bullshit- wouldn't that include trying to just buy katie.com from her? I mean, this is a big company with big money. duh.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I, for one, give a round of applause to penguin putnam, they did the right thing. It sounds like the shitty things that happened to Katie Jones was the result of the author, not the publisher, and it's good that a publisher has the balls to stand up and do the right thing... especially when it's gonna cost them money.
Your mammas flamebait.
- Penguin publishes the book.
...?
- Katie Jones finds out, points out the problem but doesn't really sue because either she can't be bothered or she thinks she might get some useful traffic out of it. The publishers add a note to the book, Jones moves stuff to another website, everybody's content.
- At some point later Katie Tarbox meets with sleezeball ambulance-chaser Parry Aftab who's heard that there is money to be made on the internet.
- But Aftab and Tarbox don't want to spend their own money and think they should get what they want, they start harassing Jones who doesn't give in.
- The story hits the internet.
- To appease the online community, the publishers, who had nothing to do with Aftab and Tarbox's antics, are forced to change the book title after all.
- Aftab and Tarbox will
IMHO, Penguin should've been more careful to begin with and they got off somewhat easy. But I don't think they're connected with Aftab's harassments. As far as Aftab, she deserves nothing less than total bankrupcy and deportation to Nigeria. And the book should be downplayed and even removed from circulation, it has gathered too much bad karma and considering her behavior, Tarbox should not be allowed to make any further profit out of it.
I doubt this had anything to do with pushing people around, or any other issues.
Two points: Any publicity is good publicity, from the marketing droids' point of view. So they did it mainly for the money.
Two: Lawyers get paid mostly by the hour, and have to justify their existence by doing lawsuits.
So they too did it for the money.
Greedy bastards.
Stepping on the little people for their megabucks, none of which will get to the girl who wrote the book.
Ahh, stalked, taken advantage of, used, and raped by her publishers and their lawyers.
It figures.
The bastards.
wake up and hold your nose
It sounds like the publisher checked with their attorney and found out there was no legal way to take the domain.
I doubt it had to do with any kind of moral sense or justice.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Has anyone else noticed that Sting.com, once a website for a computer game fanatic is now the official web-page of Sting, the artist? A quick look, shows typical rock-ego, with quotes from the artist himself, a ton of flash, etc. Any idea how this was finally handed over? Did the guy at least get paid?
Plume Re-titles Book by Katie Tarbox A Girl's Life Online ... In 2000, Dutton published a hardcover book
In an effort to avoid an association between the book originally titled Katie.com and
the website Katie.com, Plume and the author decide to make this title change.
New York, New York, August 6, 2004
called Katie.com by Katie Tarbox, an eye-opening account of one teenager's descent into
the seductive world of the Internet. After the book was released into the market, it was
brought to Dutton's attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet.
The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely
coincidental. In an effort to avoid any association between the book and the site, when
Plume issued the book in trade paperback in 2001, it printed on the copyright page that
the author of Katie.com and events described in the book have no connection whatsoever
with the website domain owner Katie Jones or her e-mail address.
Trena Keating, Editor-in-chief of Plume, said, "We have made every effort to clarify the
fact that Plume's book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way
associated with one another. In addition, it was erroneously reported recently that Plume
had asked its attorney to attempt to buy the web site Katie.com from domain owner Katie
Jones. This is absolutely not true. Ms. Jones confirms this point in a message currently
posted on her web site.
"We are not working in association with author Katie Tarbox or any other individual in
an attempt to assume ownership of the domain name address www.katie.com. Of course,
the personal views of the author are hers and do not represent Plume in any way.
"Going forward, Plume and the author have decided to re-title this book A Girl's Life
Online. This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet and how
we can protect our children. We changed the title to keep focus on this issue. The newly
titled book will be released next month. We have always taken this situation very
seriously. And we hope that by making this title change, it will demonstrate just how
dedicated Plume is to clarifying this matter."
####
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group.
Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers,
owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick
Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The
Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The
Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media
company.
I didn't realize it before just reading the press release.... but this book is freaking old... what stirred the pot on this all of a sudden?
Your mammas flamebait.
Penguin might have retitled the book, but until those 2 f-ugly bitches stop billing Katie T.'s "online safety, look, I was stupid and this could happen to you too" crap as "Katie.com", this mess isn't over yet.
:-)
:-)
It appears that Tarbox did indeed get a clue and register her own domain:
Organization:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox
745 Carter Street
New Canaan, CT 06840
US
Phone: 203-966-1828
Email: ktarbox261@aol.com
Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com
Domain Name: AGIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM
Created on..............: Thu, Aug 05, 2004
Expires on..............: Sat, Aug 05, 2006
Record last updated on..: Thu, Aug 05, 2004
Administrative Contact:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox
745 Carter Street
New Canaan, CT 06840
US
Phone: 203-966-1828
Email: ktarbox261@aol.com
In the meantime, if someone wants to convince the lawyer that she should back down:
Aftab, Parry
(PA286)
parry.aftab@COUNSEL.COM
E. 80 Rt. 4, The Atrium, Suite 410
Paramus, NJ 07652
US
Phone: (201) 845-0100
Fax: 999 999 9999
The lawyer's cell # is: 201-463-8663. It appears to be a Bell Atlantic Nylex Mobile, registered in New Jersey. Anyone care to post her SMS email address and send her a few messages to convince her to drop the campaign?
And, yeah, never understimate the power of geeks in large numbers. Esp bored geeks with nothing to do on Friday nights
-=- SiKnight
so give them credit. retitling the book is probably a major pain in the a$$.
All of you who piled on saying what jerks the publishers and/or auther are should step up and give them credit.
Does this mean that Mike Rowe's Software company doesn't have to change it's name, either?
= Grow a brain...
My "Boycott Penguin" posters haven't even been printed yet!
:(
Sheesh. What is the world coming to when people capitulate before the hardline protests
Now I can sleep at night!
(...and about time a corporation's bullying tactics fail in a fairly visible way.)
c'mon lets have a story about something else...
I like this new Slashdot spell-checker / grammar feature! Good work, guys!
What. The. Fuck. is wrong with you people??
if Katie.com (Amazon sales rank: 18,836) was currently a best seller?
Their letter is one lie from beginning to end.
What they say:
In an effort to avoid an association between the book orignator and website Katie.com, Plume and the author decide to make this change.
What it should say:
In an effort to do anything and everything to get the collective Slashdot community off thousands off our asses, we're going to pretend this is our decision and give this lady back her website that we destroyed, even thought it's far too late and she can't possibly use it for anything else now.
Disgusting and shameless and they still haven't admitted any guilt. They are still claiming that this was a blameless accident and they didn't know any better.
Not good enough. I still won't buy one iota of literature from them until they admit guilt and recompense Katie Jones.
AC comments get piped to
The author of the book has her own "vanity" domain name, katieT.com. Why the hell wouldn't you just use this for the title instead of dragging somebody else through all of this crap.
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
:D
I always wonder why it is, when I see things like this, that the two parties can't work it out in a more straight-forward and mutually beneficial fashion. In this case, all it would probably have taken was for the publisher to have offered to pay for katie.com's hosting and registry for as long as they wished to put a small presence along the top or to one side of her page, referring people to info on the book. In the case of the two WWF's a few years back, I emailed them both outlining a mutually beneficial way to SHARE the domain name and promote both the Wildlife Fund AND the Superstars of Wrestling. Probably would have netted the World Wildlife Fund a nice new source of revenue from wrestling fans who like Jake the Snake and ACTUAL snakes, Gorilla Monsoon and REAL gorillas, and Sable and um, things with fur, but NO, we can't have that, can we?
Too many damned lawyers in the world, not enough "gentlemen's agreements".
:::The Spear in the heart of the Other is the Spear in the heart of You; You are He - Surak of Vulcan:::
It seems all the negative reviews @ amazon worked!
Nerds: 1, Publisher: 0
If an evil corporation is trying to have its way with you, just enlist the assistance of hundreds of thousands of net nerds with nothing better to do (i.e. /.) then to harass them, and within 48 hours you will have what a dozen lawyers couldn't have done in 4 years!
Penguin FINALLY do the right thing!
According to a press release on their site today, Penguin Puttnam have finally decided to do the right thing and rename the book. I cannot tell you how pleased I am!. Of course they should have done this 4 years ago and saved us all a load of grief, but I am thrilled that they've finally realised the consequences of their actions and admitted fault by retitling the book.
All that remains is to hope that Katie Tarbox does not continue to promote herself or her services as 'katie.com' as previously threatened and maybe then my life can return to normal :-)
I am sure that this sudden change of heart by the publisher is largely to do with the support this issue has received from the online community and once again I'd like to thank everyone very much indeed.
Yours very happilyKatie Jones
I'm so glad -- I was so ticked off by this that I sent an email to Penguin yesterday threatening to never buy their books again. I wonder how many irate slashdotters flooded their inboxes... =)
Now, Penguin and Katie Tarbox and Katie Jones come out looking good after all this! Great job!
The only person who's still sucking her thumb is Parry Aftab, who, after all these press releases still has a couple of questions to answer:
IANAL, (thank goodness), but Aftab shouldn't' be able to claim she is representing someone when she isn't. For that, she is in the wrong. Obviously, Jones account of things has a bias slant to it, but from what I gather, Aftab was trying to extort the domain from Jones. Why isn't this illegal!
Frankly, lawyers like Parry Aftab, give a bad name for all lawyers everywhere.
[morcheeba:~] mouse% whois girlslifeonline.com
.com and .net domains can now be registered
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.
No match for "GIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 08:43:31 EDT
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Perhaps the Slashdot story submission process should be incorporated into the WTO/ICANN domain name dispute resolution process. That certainly wouldn't make it any easier for "the little guy", or reason. Unless, ironically, the submissions is a duplicate.
--
make install -not war
Armies of geeks helping other geeks. She should have posted this in 2001, that way Penguins' Sherry Aftab (cyberlaw attorney) lame weblog would have been /.'d earlier. She's the one who should be reading YRO.
What's your biggest summer beauty blunder?
Where's the Cowboy Neil option?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
No special formatting, fonts, graphics, images . . . sigh. Why pdf? Press release text and my comments below:
... In 2000, Dutton published a hardcover book
called Katie.com by Katie Tarbox, an eye-opening account of one teenager's descent into
the seductive world of the Internet.
In an effort to avoid an association between the book originally titled Katie.com and the website Katie.com, Plume and the author decide to make this title change. New York, New York, August 6, 2004
Can't resist the plug ("eye opening" indeed.)
After the book was released into the market, it was brought to Dutton's attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet.
Given that the original title "girl.com" was changed after they realized it was, at the time, a porn site I find it very hard to believe no one checked "katie.com" before release. I guess that sounds better than "We expected to bully katie.com away from Katie Jones, but all our efforts failed, including bringing out Jabba the Lawyer. Worse, the backlash was costing us ratings on Amazon.com. So we're backing down."
The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely coincidental.
And very easy to check before release. Like they did with girl.com. Liars.
In an effort to avoid any association between the book and the site, when Plume issued the book in trade paperback in 2001, it printed on the copyright page that the author of Katie.com and events described in the book have no connection whatsoever with the website domain owner Katie Jones or her e-mail address.
Which means they knew this before release. Which means their previous statement that they didn't realize until after release is a lie.
Trena Keating, Editor-in-chief of Plume, said, "We have made every effort to clarify the fact that Plume's book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way associated with one another.
Yes, now they have finally made "every effort," which includes changing their book name.
In addition, it was erroneously reported recently that Plume had asked its attorney to attempt to buy the web site Katie.com from domain owner Katie Jones. This is absolutely not true. Ms. Jones confirms this point in a message currently posted on her web site.
I didn't hear that they wanted to buy it. I heard they tried to intimidate her into giving it to them. Big difference.
"We are not working in association with author Katie Tarbox or any other individual in an attempt to assume ownership of the domain name address www.katie.com. Of course, the personal views of the author are hers and do not represent Plume in any way. "Going forward, Plume and the author have decided to re-title this book A Girl's Life Online.
Great. Good job. Late, and chock full of spin and damage control, but good call.
This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet and how we can protect our children. We changed the title to keep focus on this issue. The newly titled book will be released next month.
More revenue opportunity! Everyone wins!
We have always taken this situation very seriously.
As evidenced by your ignoring it for 4 years?
And we hope that by making this title change, it will demonstrate just how dedicated Plume is to clarifying this matter."
Oh yearh. It's clear. You're afraid of slashbots! har har har
#### Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Boo
everything in moderation
I really didn't want to boycott Penguin.
Ed Craig "Who cares what you think?" George W. Bush, 4th of July 2001
. . . when the rightful owner threatened to sell katie.com to a "barely legal" pr0n site :).
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Penguin:
"We would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids..."
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
However I didn't see any of the following:
1) an apology to Katie J. or the visitors to her website.
2) A promise to not use the name "Katie.com" in any publications, promotions, programs, or other materials related to Katie T.
3) A disclamer for any existing cover images that are on Katie T.'s website (see them all across the bottom?)
4) Any compensation (monetary or otherwise) for Katie J. (this isn't strictly necessary but it would be a nice gesture).
This is just Penguin taking the heat off. I'm sure we'll see them use Katie.com again. But at least they are paying attention.
Now they will wait until we're not paying attention any more.
This post brought to you by CynicalJadedPessimist(tm).
I can see it now...my OCD will force me to purchase all of the books with the new title.
End the FUD
I wasn't sure whether to mod the parent Insightful or Funny. I chose Insightful because the funny points really belong to the Penguin PR flack: "The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely coincidental." Priceless. Funnier than fiction ... oh, wait.
Penguin against Penguin, to to toe.
Geeks: 1
Lawyers: 0
Can I get an Amen?
"Going forward, Plume and the author have decided to re-title this book A Girl's Life
Online. This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet and how
we can protect our children."
Is it just me or does this work into some conveneintly free publicity for "an important book about predatory pedophiles"? I mean now they've got publicity and a conveneint excuse to re-publish the book.
Sales == Money no matter how ya get them.
Ok, yes they changed the name, but how many copies are in circulation?
Plus they only changed the name because of negative press, not because they wanted to 'Do The Right Thing'. They are still on my personal 'banned' list. And I refuse to believe that Ms. Tarbox is as innocent as she claims.
THIS WENT ON FOR 4 YEARS!
I guess it's true; people have short memories, which is why stupid politicians get second terms.
Didn't you forget the part about "whether or not you liked his work, we can all appreciate the impression Dave Chappelle does of him" yadda yadda yadda?
If you're going to troll, at least put some heart into it!
--Rob
How long will Katie Tarbox continue to milk her experience for cash? There is no doubt in my mind that what happened to her was horrible, but there are moments when I find myself questioning if it is even about protecting others anymore.
She could just be an unfortunate woman who had a terrible childhood experience only to grow up and have publishers manipulate her recovery in the persuit of money, or she could just be someone who is desperately clinging to her celebrity as - by her own accounts - it is the only recognition and purpose she has ever known.
If the former is true, then she needs to be a bit more upfront about it, but if the latter is true, then she needs to make use of her family's wealth and do something with her life that will provide her with a sense of accomplishment.
...if you are only worried about losing 5 or 6 vanity pounds, this pill is not for you....
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
So... the thing worked itself out over a few days... we need three articles on this subject? Must be a slow news week.
Surprised to see Amazon influencing the content of their reviews pages.
Victory to the good guys!
> In the meantime, if someone wants to convince
> the lawyer that she should back down:
Dude,
We'll know she's backing down when we hear the "wide load" reversing beeps.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
/. we geeks, when united can solve anything.
Deserving got nothing to do with it.....shuffle
This was the quote I liked:
"After the book was released into the market, it was brought to Dutton's attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet."
No!!! You're shittin me!
"The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely coincidental.
Roughly translates as "Please believe us that we are the cluelessest twats on the planet."
Took a quick look over at katie.com and she makes mention of slashdot, and offers much thanks to the support of the community making a difference. Good to see that she holds no hard feelings over the publicity :) Go good guys.
Hurray!
Proletariat of the world, unite to kill ethically challenged multinationals
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
If only SCO had the business sense that Penguin, Tarbox Inc., sleazy lawyers, etc. have, this whole "truckload of code" nonsense would have been over with a long time ago.
Obviously Penguin, Tarbox Inc. (see domain registration) ARE interested in making money, having a sucessful business even if people don't seem to like the book.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
If they've backed down *why* are the lawyer's docs posted here? The slashdot citizen's vigiliance committee got the job done and I think the lawyer learned a very valuable lesson. The internet *has* community standards and woe unto you who violate them
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
Score another for our side!
One down, 1,356 to go!
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
KatieR.com (fatfinger) gets you in pop-up hell! :-O
/. since previous spotlights on this problem never seemd to have made much in the way of change. Very cool...
Glad to see these twits do the right thing. I think we can chalk much of this up to
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Dude looks like a lady!
Some good sites actually point out that most molestations are perpatrated by "non-strangers." One site has the audacity to quote statistics:
Ninety percent of them already know the child, often because we invited them into our lives as friend, neighbor or family member.
source here
All this attention is placed on 10% of the victims, while nothing is done to publicize the other 90%- and to protect them. I can just see the stories now: "Tonight on Dateline, why children should fear their parents!"
For those interested in a larger discussion of how the media whips up false stories and miss the underlying true issue, read The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
Time to go back to yelling at the TV news programs...
Meanwhile Parry appears to be a self-styled Angel of the Internet which is little odd (from a UK perspective).
She may well be as described (she seems very busy and her aims are to be admired and she did make a good comment about the response of large firms to Y2K) but when someone starts describing themselves as an "Angel" (or acknowledges that other people calls one that) then there is something a little less than great about that (again, from a super-reticent UK perspective).
Though she might indeed be some sort of super-natural human much like the super-supports of one of her sites such as the Hulk and your friendly-neighbourhood-Spiderman.
I have finally realized the enormous power that I wield. My one-day ban on Penguin books and Amazon.com review activities have forced a publisher to re-title one of their books. To celebrate and commemorate this occasion, I'm going to rush out and buy that Katie.com book before they freaking rename it. Could this have been their evil intent all along? Meh, who cares I'm going to get me a memento.
I just went to the katieR.com website, using Firefox, and I didn't see any pop-ups...!
Lawyers act as agents for their clients. That was her lawyer, not the publisher's lawyer. So the actions of the lawyer were due to actions of the client, unless the lawyer really screwed up.
A better troll would state the subject as "Rick James is dead, BICH!" Or better yet, posted as Rick James, and stated "I'm dead, BICH!"
Ok, maybe it was just in the top ten. But someone mod the parent up!
She's backed down - her latest blog makes vague claims that she never made any such phone calls/don't believe anything you read on the 'net, but without referencing katie.com or Katie Jones.
Aftab has backed down. She hasn't learnt a darned thing from this tussle, but she's backed down.
Is Katie T. Still going to market her line of school materials under then name of katie.com?
And let's not forget that all the copies of the book in print will be leading people to www.katie.com for years to come, perhaps as long as copies of the book exist.
The pain for Katie J. hasn't ended, it's just not being actively made worse in the same way.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
So, because the publisher messed up, they're taking this book and giving it an impossibly lame title, pretty much guaranteeing that Katie Tarbox's royalties dry up. Not to mention that the damage is done; the book was first published four years ago, and aside from "the great literary classics of the world" most books are sold within the first year of publication. After that, it starts dropping down pretty steep.
If this had been done before, say, the second printing, it would matter. Now, it's far too late to have any meaningful effect on Katie Jones.
or, perhaps, with "BITCH" spelled correctly.
In the most recent Netcraft Funkster Survey, we can see clearly that Mr. James' market share has been eclipsed not only by such information technology icons as George Clinton, Rufus Thomas, and James Brown, but also by well-known robotic white androids Red Hot "Everything We Know About Funk We Learned from Richard Wagner" Chili Peppers, known affectionately by their fans as "The Black Hole of Funk" and "The Stiffest Men Alive".
Yes, folks, it's the end of the line. The nine remaining Rick James users, armed to the teeth, have holed up in a fortified basement in Oakland, CA and drunk cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Keep in mind that it wasn't Katie Tarbox that initiated the hit against Katie Jones - it was an attorney, and probably acting on behalf of Plume. Please, give her some support.
This sig no verb.
On Katie Tarbox's site, you can see in the lower banner that her book has been translated into multiple languages such as Chinese, Japanese, German, and others.
All of them feature the original title of katie.com except for the Chinese version whose title translates to Dream of the Internet Lover. Maybe the Chinese editors did their homework?
jbltk: I'm sorry to bother you so randomly, but I'd like to know when you found out that someone else owned Katie.com, and why you didn't insist the title of your book be changed at that time and wait to say it was a good thing until the publisher finally ceded?
ktarbox261: As I said before this issue was between Katie Jones and Penguin, I could do nothing to change it. They bought the right to publish it and I sold it under a different name.
jbltk: Than why did the press release state that the publisher as well as the author made the decision to change the name, seeing as you have no input?
ktarbox261: This time was a very unique situation.
jbltk: But why didn't you, even without any control, publicly state you felt Penguin's stance was unfair to Katie Jones, and why did you continue to plan to call your workshop by the same name?
ktarbox261: I never had any plans to do that and that is reported incorrectly.
jbltk: so Parry Aftab happens to be a lawyer who doesn't represent you and is only a victim's rights advocate?
jbltk: it just seems to me like you've played both sides, awaiting the outcome so you would be able to do what was most profitable for you, in regards to your future projects
ktarbox261: Parry Aftab is not my lawyer and never has been. My lawyer works out of Connecticut.
ktarbox261: I never asked anyone to call Katie Jones.
ktarbox261: I have always wanted Penguin to do the right thing . What you read is not the whole story.
jbltk: Then why did she call Katie Jones? What was the purpose of that call? Lawyers charge large amounts of money to do things like that. I find it hard to believe she'd make an international call like that without instruction from a client
jbltk: ok i'm listening
jbltk: please inform me of all the misinformation
ktarbox261: Parry is not my lawyer we have no written agreement, I have never paid her a single dime.
jbltk: FYI, I've yet to see an article that quotes you as being in favor of changing the title
ktarbox261: Look at my website
jbltk: I looked. I don't see anything said by you that indicates you favor a title change or sympathize with Ms. Jones. The only thing I've seen so far is your statement regarding the press release. Up until then, I'd never seen any news article that had you saying you felt sympathy or wanted a title change
jbltk: I know you may have signed your creative control over when you sold your book, but that didn't prevent you from speaking out publicly
jbltk: You see, it's easy to say all those things you say @ (Link: http://katiet.com/message1.htm)http://katiet.com/m essage1.htm after the fact, but you never said them until today
ktarbox261: I do sympathesize with Ms. Jones and the fact that I said I am excited to change the name of the book, that would show I am in favor of it.
ktarbox261: Unfortunately I couldn't speak about this issue until today.
jbltk: why is that?
ktarbox261: Because this issue was between Penguin and Ms. Jones.
jbltk: that hasn't prevented me or my peers from giving Penguin a hard time publicly or directly. Did you have some sort of confidentiality agreement or something?
ktarbox261: That is all I can say.
jbltk: OK, is it fair to say that you would have faced financial hardships had you made any statements on the issue?
ktarbox261: No it is not fair to say.
jbltk: It just seems to me that if you really thought what Penguin was doing was wrong, you should have piped up way back when this all started, unless you were under a contractual obligation to not speak about it.
jbltk: I'm not trying to be a jerk, there are just a bunch of inconsistencies that I see in this whole thing, and I really like to know the whole story
ktarbox261: I could not speak about it.
jbltk: Because of an agreement between yourself and the publisher?
ktarbox261: I could not speak ab
95% of the noise on Slashdot about this is from people who aren't following the story other than by reading the comments of other Slashdotters who -- surprise! -- aren't following the fucking story either. Just a lot of dumbasses jumping to random conclusions in accordance with random preconceptions and whipping each other into a mindless frenzy. Nothing new there, eh?
Nobody is seriously trying to pretend that the lawyer didn't make any threats. Tarbox claims, on her site, that the lawyer did not make these threats on her (Tarbox's) instructions. She may not be telling the truth about that, but is there any EVIDENCE that she's not telling the truth? Is Tarbox even employing the lawyer? She says not.
Jones is quoting the LAWYER, not Tarbox. The lawyer is clearly a swine. And lawyers have run amok before.
"Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive" -- hey, that's me!
I think Aftab and Katie Tarbox were working together on a project, but I don't think Tarbox was part of Aftab's bully tactics. I think Tarbox is a victim in this too (often people victimized as children get victimized as adults).
In otherwords, I'm a backer of the "Aftab acted alone" theory. Aftab is a self-promoter and lawyer. I'm sure she believes this "Kids On-Line Safety" stuff, but I'm also sure she makes a pretty penny from it.
I would not be surprised if Tarbox and Aftab part company. If they don't, Tarbox loses any credibility in this mess.
Meanwhile, can we get Marvel to stop letting Aftab use Ben "The Thing" Grimm as a banner ad on her site?
My father is a blogger.
"A Girl's Life: Online."
Only using American English. In all other English dialects, the punctuation mark is placed outside the closing quotation mark, thus:
"A Girl's Life: Online".
Arguments over the relative "correctness" of various English dialects can be directed to Mr. Webster.
By renaming it, book sales will no longer be affected by all the bad reviews at Amazon for Katie.Com. It was simply a matter of, "Quick, plug up the hole in the money boat!!!"
I think Aftab and Tarbox were business partners and Aftab made a mistake of bullying Katie Jones. I don't think Tarbox was being represented by Aftab, I just think Aftab acted solo as a business partner. I call this the "Aftab Acted Alone" theory.
Of course, if Katie Tarbox stays in league with Aftab, then f*** both of 'em, they got what they deserved.
Penguin is the deep pockets here, and their actions caused this mess (4 years ago). Aftab just made the mistake of pissing off Katie.com and brining the blogosphere to the boiling point.
IMHO, Penguin should fix things for both Katies and Aftab's reputation will probably end up suffering.
My father is a blogger.
5 is right out...
3 shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be 3. Four shalt thou not count...
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Ehhh..... because nobody would make that association naturally, of course. Obviously, it never occurred to them that it would happen. I'm titling my next book "(800) 788-6262 (Individual Consumer Sales)". It's a book about a salesman who is a pedophile. Surely no one will call the number and get Penguin's sales department. That would be a real non-sequitur.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
You're far too reasonable, far too intelligent, in your posting to be the real Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf! Your lies have been exposed, you dirty fiend! Your only hope is to drink poison and commit suicide beneath the firewalls of Slashdot! Your stomach will be grilled in the flames of /dev/null!
Hahaha... just wanted to put that old remark to rest.
It has now been shown that beyond a doubt, the power of slashdot opinion can change things. Sure, a lot of people do nothing more that write their own thoughts and opinions on any given topic, but clearly these opinions are being read by people who need to read them.
In short, slashdot works.
Yeah, haven't you heard? "Bich" is latin for "generosity".
Don't forget here.
They're putting out much more.
the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Slashdot effect.
Penguin should do a complete recall of every single copy of the book titled "Katie.com".
That, or seek out each and every owner and send them a notice and the appropriate change pages.
They should also compensate Katie Jones for all of the grief, suffering, confusion, reputation loss, and also the bandwidth and computing time lost to their mis-adventure.
I wonder how many books will be sold to people (or libraries, schools, etc) who don't realize it's the same book.
From the press release...
"We have made every effort to clarify the fact that Plume's book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way associated with one another."
Um. Except for naming the book "Katie.com".
---
WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
That way even to geeks would be happy.
I think more of the outrage was directed towards Parry Aftab and her communications with Katie Jones. Let's hope that the new book title will put an end to any more demands from Ms. Aftab.
this is a bullshit corperate cop-out.
its NOT over. the domain and website katie.com is irreversably damaged. simply renaming the book and issuing a bullshit press statement isn't enough.
what about the original intent of the katie.com site ? it can NEVER go back to what it was.
keep hammering penguin until they recall all unsold copys and library copys that are still titled katie.com
keep hammering penguin until they apoligize in public...ON THIER FRONT PAGE. not some obscure news section of thier site.
will it do any good ? who knows. but i for one am still pissed off.
I sent Katie USD 5.00 via paypal for my portion of her slashdotting. Now we've been going back and forth.. she won't accept the money!
Will someone please talk some sense into her?
Responsibility is the punishment for compentenc
She has been called "The Angel of the Internet"
The power of the internet!!
where we can be anything we want!
--god
It looks to me that this sorry episode finally has a reasonable ending: the book will be renamed, and the author actually owns the relevant domain. It's too bad what had to happen in the intervening time, but it looks like a very reasonable ending at least.
So speak up for other issues. Who's speaking up about the problems of software patents (particularly the egregious ones) to those who can do something - have you contacted your Congressman? How about other issues? You won't win all battles, but you'll lose all battles you don't fight.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Well, I certainly had fun yesterday emailing the various parties ('shame, shame!' to penguin, tarbox; 'hang in there' to jones) and 'reviewing' at Amazon.com, and it was soooo satisfying to see the news later today. I'd like to think our actions had a part in this happy outcome. :-)
I don't mean to be insensitive to the topic of child abuse, but I have nagging suspicion that all the discussion about this book borders on pandering to people's fears. I've heard that statistics say most abused children are more likely to be abused by someone they know rather than complete strangers. The media has a tendency to propagate fear of the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
I can't find a link to information on it, but I recall seeing a report on how statistics proved that the topic of deaths from the drug ecstasy was exhaggerated in the UK media, when they were actually rare and paled in comparison to something that resulted in many more deaths; falling in the shower! Yet no mention was made of this in the media, nor were there any measures taken to do things like enforce safer shower designs. Ecstasy was just more eye-catching as a news item.
The author of the book, Katie Tarbox seems to be turning this into a career- she actually has a company, Katie Tarbox, Inc., and even plans to launch a school curriculum. Her lawyer, Parry Aftab, seems to be revelling in the spotlight, touting herself as "The Angel of the Internet" and boasting about her media appearances; "She regularly appears on national and international television, in national, international and regional news publications and in both business and mass market publications around the world. She has been featured in Readers Digest, People Magazine, TV Guide, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Biography Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Seventeen, Family Circle and Ladies Home Journal, among others". Yet this is the very same woman who called Katie Jones, the owner of the Katie.com domain name and threatened that "things would only get worse" if she didn't freely hand over the domain name- and Jones had just given birth only a week before. The lawyer also spread defamatory remarks about Jones, claiming that Jones had a hidden agenda. Tarbox claims that Aftab doesn't represent her but represents her publisher, Penguin, yet there is a lot of evidence to the contrary.
All this media hype, aggressive legal action, PR damage control, and not to mention incorporation, all have the trademark characteristics of a profitable business. If this was an effort focused more on social change and education, the controversies surrounding the book would have been resolved long ago rather than having escalated to this point. There is always the danger of children coming into contact with pedophiles through the internet, but how does this statistically compare to things like the murder rate for children? What about the institutionalised rapes of women in Somalia? Why focus on this topic? Is it about reality, or is it more about pandering to the tabloid psyche?
Tarbox claims that Aftab doesn't represent her (link corrected)
I hadn't heard of this, and now I am going to take a look at the book. /.'ers have kids.
Many
I have seen exactly 0 evidence of them behaving in an unethical manner.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hello everyone, In case they pull their contact phone number from the PDF, the contact person and their direct phone number is Brant Janeway, 212-366-2230. I hope that everyone gives Brant a POLITE phone call thanking his company for making the change to the book title, and suggesting POLITELY that the next step is to compsentate the legitimate owner of the web site they tried to steal for their pain and suffering. Remember thousands and thousands of POLITE messages will go a lot further than rude messages. Perhaps his voice mail will get /.ed!
Pity. I find "Kaite.com" to be a much more compelling title than "A Girl's Life Online." Bravo, slashdot.
You should not use .com if you don't want to have the problems of a corporate entity.
Out of curiousity, I just visited the site. Someone is still keeping up the pretense of Noel Crane, but has updated the site. The current WHOIS has it registered to a guy in Santa Monica...and, no, it's not Noel Crane or Scotty Foley.
-- SYS 64738 --
From the lawyer's website: "We do not use cookies at the site and do not permit banners or other advertisements to be used at our site, in order to ensure your privacy." ...Uh, yeah, except for those bright catchy ones on the front page, eh?
WTF? What is with all these bullshit articles no one gives a shit about?
ha! you're just a twelve year old with a computer.
and like they say, children should be seen, not heard.
go back to your porno son.
This is all I need to know about Aftab:
e nt ion.htm
http://www.aftab.com/selling_management_on_prev
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
It looks like all of the book reviews of Katie.com have been deleted by Amazon. Earlier today I logged in and there were over 100 reviews posted on Amazon. Most were negative and discussed the publisher's brutal tactics against the owner of katie.com. All of the reviews posted in the last few days have been deleted.
The remainder of the slashdot attack can be seen in the huge number of "unhelpful" votes on the remaining positive reviews.
But someone in legal probably brought up the annoying yet relevant fact that if all the media got the attention of a really good lawyer they were boned like cheap prom date. The head shed gets religion really fast at times like that. Or when the word "boycott" surfaces in casual conversation.
Times like this it's good to announce the dismissal of several former employees. Put a couple heads on pikes, apologize profusely, send flowers, offer to send her kids to college. This is the Exxon Valdez and what you do in the next 15 minutes can cost or save you billions. I'd be firing some mofo's and acting surprised. Schocked and aghast. It may not keep you from being sued, but it will make a difference when the dollar figure comes down if you reacted strongly when you, supposedly, found out. Reality is nothing, plausibility is everything.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
To Penguin's credit, I was happy to see that the press release did not begin, "We are pleased to announce..."
Of course, your subsequent posting (even as AC) undid the moderation.
As you can see. Posting a plain-text log of an IM conversation is irrefutible proof. Allow me to also post a log of my recent conversation with Stephen Hawking:
ev0: Mr Hawking. I was reading your latest book, and found a minor error on page 233.
s_hawking: Oh God! You've found me out!
ev0: Was it a typo by the proof-reader, or perhaps an issue with the printing?
s_hawking: It's true! I'm a fraud! A complete fraud! I'm just making all this stuff up!
ev0: So a proof-reading problem then?
s_hawking: I'm in a wheelchair and can barely move a finger. What else could I do to get famous and rich? Oh GOD! Now it's all out in the open. I'm finished!
ev0: You don't need to worry about it so much, typos happen all the time. It's not very expensive to correct it.
s_hawking: Umm... YES! That's it, a typo! You just forget this little conversation we had, and there'll be a nice big check in your mailbox every month...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Really? I thought logging out and posting anonymously would preserve the mod?
(I am not the OP - just an interested bystander)
You sir, are a douche bag.
I don't mind someone being skeptical of the content of my post, but to outright ridicule it is mean spirited and makes large assumptions.
Why don't you IM Katie and ask her if that conversation took place? The AOL name is her real name. Go ahead. Ask her. Fucking faggot.
I copied and pasted that, only putting spaces between messages to make it easier on the eyes.
I also changed my SN, because I really didn't feel like being deluged with IM's. I know I'm an ass, but that's how the chips fall.
Once again, fuck you.
For anyone interested:
If you do an AXFR on the zone for "katie.com," you can still find her personal pages. I won't tell anyone how, though, as I don't want to jeopardize her efforts to retain any integrity she has.
Here is what I've found about this case on the Net: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/opinions/34-45437.ht m ...beginning in February 1996, Kufrovich engaged in discussions of a sexual nature with a 14-year-old girl via an Internet chatroom. Kufrovich, who was 41 years old at the time, represented himself in these discussions to be a younger person, closer to the girl's age. These discussions resulted in Kufrovich arranging to meet the girl in March 1996 for sexual relations in a hotel room in another state, where she would be traveling with her mother. When she met Kufrovich at the hotel, the girl immediately realized the deception about his age, left the room, and alerted her mother, who reported the incident to the police.
In December 1997, Kufrovich agreed to plead guilty to two federal felony charges: (1) enticing and attempting to entice a minor to engage in an unlawful sexual act, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2422(b), and (2) traveling interstate with intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ?2423(b).
Now, let's compare "extent". Come to the door, see not 22 yo boy as expected, but 41 year old man - run. And has your domain name grabbed and abused. Which one is greater?
Anyway, she is lying that she was 13 years old, she is lying that she was raped, she is lying that it took her 2 years to put him to jail... And she (not Penguin) named her TV show Katie.com and her website is still full of bookcovers with bright Katie.com on them - right there, next to "apology" for Penguin's grabbing the domain name... I don't get it.
That's not subjective, unless you think blackmail could be a good thing.
Well, we don't know what the emotional blackmail is, so it could be subjective on Katie Jones part, could it not? I read it and (although I'm not saying I'm inclined to believe the lawyer wasn't trying to intimidate her) I interpreted "emotionally blackmail" as "guilt trip". Something like
Suchetha
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Just because you've convinced a 13 year old to have sex with you doesn't mean it's not abuse. 13 year olds are below the age of consent and cannot legally consent to sex.
You're misreading the study. They didn't say it wasn't abuse, they said that the kids went willingly. You can convince 13 year olds to do a lot of dumb things. We make a distinction between adults and minors because at 13 you often make REALLY STUPID DECISIONS (not that people don't make really stupid decisions at later ages but, in general, fewer people make really stupid decisions when older). This is why we call "convincing a 13 year old to have sex with me" STATUTORY RAPE and put people in prison for it.
because they didn't even have sex..
::shrugs::
They got caught kissing.
He was charged under the freespeach suppressing CDA.
Good people in the company of other people who view themselves as at least mostly good, get a pass on their physical flaws. They aren't important as that person has a sterling character, which truly is something both more rare and worthwhile than appearence. But should a person be found lacking of character.... Well, those other less important qualities become more significant. They already don't have integrity, decency, or what-have-you. She doesn't have any character worth mentioning, a significant job, a singular insight, certainly not looks, or even her health. The point of her existance isn't to make the world a better place, it's to increase entropy in the universe. That's a tragedy so profound the only way to deal with it is to ridicule it.
Perhaps he didn't log out.
2) The author is told that 867-5309 set enough precedent that she could use the name as a separate entity.
Hi. I just tried calling 867-5309 and the guy there didn't know what the fuck I was talking about. Maybe you meant a different number?