Sure I have. I provided the purchase contract where Martin Breese purchases the copyright of the Magic Wand to the IBM. The fact that I have purchased the Martin Breese business is easily verifiable for you. That information is publicly available. You are the president of the largest magic organization. Two, three emails will give you independent confirmation that I indeed purchased the Breese business if you do not believe me. But you are unwilling to do that. Yet you still trample on my copyrights.

I understand that CARC is your provider. But if you sell loot you are not free from responsibility. How you internally square this with your supplier is your internal problem. On top you promoted access to the Magic Wand in the Linking Ring. That does not remove you from the responsibility to print a correction.

The fact that I had to threaten with legal action was simply an outgrowth of your delay and inaction. I had to wait two weeks before anybody responded after your initial response. All the while the infringement was ongoing. In today's Internet connected world that is not acceptable anymore. Out of that frustration I increased the pressure which apparently did have some impact because results came faster. It is sad that I had to do that, but your inaction caused them.

If you break open a bank and somebody else takes the money, then yes you did not yourself steal the money, but you are nevertheless an accessory to the crime. The access was available through the IBM portal. Without it the infringement could not have happened. That means the IBM carries part of the blame which you so skillfully try to push aside. Spoken like a true leader, a role model. Well done.

Let's also not forget that it was you Shawn who immediately brought in the lawyer and elevated a friendly removal request to a legal dispute.

You also very well know that an article is much more an advertisement than an ad itself. You are great mincing words, but it does not change the fact that the IBM promoted an unauthorized access after you were informed.

I grant you that perhaps it was too late to stop or edit the article. But if you would have at least tried then you would have informed me of the fact before it reached me. You would have emailed and let me know that an article is coming that still promotes the access to the Magic Wand and that you were unable to stop it. However none of this happened. You just didn't care. You never even tried. Now you are self-righteously saying it was too late. And this is the problem I have with the IBM and you personally. You didn't care about a request from one of your members. You pushed it down the chain and had no interest to resolve this quickly. Now you are even trying to completely disassociate yourself from it. Like the IBM had nothing to do with it. It is laughable. And you are the president. No spine. No sensibilities to a member being ripped off. Do you honestly think that was the best way to handle this?

Shawn submits a reasoned and open response to an angry, public broadside filled with half-truths and one-sided accusations. It appears to me that the initial complaint was investigated and corrected in a manner consistent with the policies of the organization as expediently as one can expect from a volunteer-driven organization. Yet, the initial complainant continues to nit pick and snipe at the explanation to continue the assault and attacks the character of the one individual who actually took action and requested removal of the contested item. I personally believe the explanation that this was an unintentional chain of events that was set right as quickly as possible. Neither the I.B.M. nor Shawn deserve this continued public character assault. I will not support a business that attacks another in this fashion. I have unsubscribed from lybrary.com and I invite my peers to show their disdain for this continued unprofessional assault in a like manner.

By all due respect Skip Way, how would you know what are half-truths and what is fact? You are not aware of the details of six weeks of exchange between the IBM and myself during which I made every effort to resolve this in a friendly manner. Here is my last email in its entirety to Shawn Farquhar and Sammy Smith which to this date has been left unanswered:

"Will you publish a correction/apology in the Linking Ring regarding the incorrect advertisement of the access to the digital "Magic Wand"?"

Is that an unfriendly request? Is that an email that deserves to be left unanswered? Keep in mind this was sent on April 6th way before I went public. At a time I was still an IBM member.

Not debating. I've stated my position. Moving on.