No, as was previously stated, he said the $300,000 was what it would have cost the county to pay for the site for the past three years. He never demanded the money, that's just what the Sherrif is accusing. He just wanted them to start footing the bill in the future. He asked for over a year, they never responded. He closed down the site.
No due process, no court order, just gestapo tactics.
At least this article get it right in that it states he was not asking for the $300,000 in payment, but just said that is how much it would have cost the county to have the site for those three years. He are the $300,000, but wanted the county to take over the future costs.
Detroit Free Press Article
Of course, the Sherrif says the money was a DEMAND.
Well after a year or more of trying to come up with some sort of agrement and getting no response, he had to shut the site down.
The article even points out what both sides agree on certain points:
"Both sides agreed on a few points: that Richard started running the site for free a few years ago; that his site became so popular, the Sheriff's Department -- and the public -- came to rely on it. And that Richard decided the site was too costly to run for free any longer. "
He got screwed. Period. No due process, no court orders, just a straight up jacking.
Yes, let's actually link to a site in the Watback Machine that ISN'T reliant on his style sheet code that is no longer there.
A MORE ACCURATE reperesentation of the previous site
Looks like it's got a ton of good content to me. Plus it was an award winning site in the Law Enforcent Community.
Let's see, what is more sensational for the news media? The fact he DEMANDED the money or that he was showing how much the site was costing him and he wanted to have the county foot the bill from now on?
You trust a media that can srew up the entire "Child's Play" work done by the Penny Arcade crew over Christmas? A $1,000 of toys from a local Catholic church... WTF?
The news paper is of course going to get the Sherrif's side of the story and villanize the big bad old Internt extortionist.
No, he didn't offer to do it for free. He offerend to do it and work out the finances later.
The Sherrif's office never came back to the table to make a deal though.
Read the whole thing. He just shut the site down to stop his business from hemorraging money every month. That $300,000 bill is for almost three years of hosting for a popular site. He ended up being a victim of his own sucess. Do you even know how much bandwidth costs? And he might have been able to shop around for a different host, but he WAS the host. His ISP. That like asking Intermedia.net to look for another hosting company.
Knowing how most community sponsored local law enforcement pages look, I can see where his page had been a big draw:
Archive Page
The big crime here is his arrest an imprizonment. No cease and desist, no taking it to the courts, just a Nazi raid of his business.
Granted, he should have had the contract up front instead of a "well work out the finances later", but that is no reason to throw the man in jail. It was dealt with poorly and hopefully justice will be served in the end.
There is no reward. Except for perhaps some knowledge or guidance.
Rocketbox is not a money making scheme or a hosting service. The news post is a bit eroneous in that is souns like we are against making money with webcomics. Quite the contrary, we're all abour making money. Sell comic books, merchandise, get a syndicated TV show on the WB, hell.. it's all good.
It's just that we personally don't use the "pay-per-view" model on our current strips or archives. Just a bit of a mix up in the posting.
Slashdot Mirror
No, as was previously stated, he said the $300,000 was what it would have cost the county to pay for the site for the past three years. He never demanded the money, that's just what the Sherrif is accusing. He just wanted them to start footing the bill in the future. He asked for over a year, they never responded. He closed down the site. No due process, no court order, just gestapo tactics.
At least this article get it right in that it states he was not asking for the $300,000 in payment, but just said that is how much it would have cost the county to have the site for those three years. He are the $300,000, but wanted the county to take over the future costs. Detroit Free Press Article Of course, the Sherrif says the money was a DEMAND. Well after a year or more of trying to come up with some sort of agrement and getting no response, he had to shut the site down. The article even points out what both sides agree on certain points: "Both sides agreed on a few points: that Richard started running the site for free a few years ago; that his site became so popular, the Sheriff's Department -- and the public -- came to rely on it. And that Richard decided the site was too costly to run for free any longer. " He got screwed. Period. No due process, no court orders, just a straight up jacking.
Yes, let's actually link to a site in the Watback Machine that ISN'T reliant on his style sheet code that is no longer there. A MORE ACCURATE reperesentation of the previous site Looks like it's got a ton of good content to me. Plus it was an award winning site in the Law Enforcent Community.
Let's see, what is more sensational for the news media? The fact he DEMANDED the money or that he was showing how much the site was costing him and he wanted to have the county foot the bill from now on? You trust a media that can srew up the entire "Child's Play" work done by the Penny Arcade crew over Christmas? A $1,000 of toys from a local Catholic church ... WTF?
The news paper is of course going to get the Sherrif's side of the story and villanize the big bad old Internt extortionist.
No, he didn't offer to do it for free. He offerend to do it and work out the finances later. The Sherrif's office never came back to the table to make a deal though.
Read the whole thing. He just shut the site down to stop his business from hemorraging money every month. That $300,000 bill is for almost three years of hosting for a popular site. He ended up being a victim of his own sucess. Do you even know how much bandwidth costs? And he might have been able to shop around for a different host, but he WAS the host. His ISP. That like asking Intermedia.net to look for another hosting company. Knowing how most community sponsored local law enforcement pages look, I can see where his page had been a big draw: Archive Page The big crime here is his arrest an imprizonment. No cease and desist, no taking it to the courts, just a Nazi raid of his business. Granted, he should have had the contract up front instead of a "well work out the finances later", but that is no reason to throw the man in jail. It was dealt with poorly and hopefully justice will be served in the end.
There is no reward. Except for perhaps some knowledge or guidance. Rocketbox is not a money making scheme or a hosting service. The news post is a bit eroneous in that is souns like we are against making money with webcomics. Quite the contrary, we're all abour making money. Sell comic books, merchandise, get a syndicated TV show on the WB, hell .. it's all good.
It's just that we personally don't use the "pay-per-view" model on our current strips or archives. Just a bit of a mix up in the posting.