Harlan Ellison Crusades Against AOL

[Khephra]

Ellison Crusades Against AOL

SF author Harlan Ellison is pressing ahead with a lawsuit against America Online for copyright infringement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ellison charges that the Internet company didn't act fast enough when a fan posted some of his stories without permission on an online forum carried by the service. America Online says it's not to blame and that it removed the stories once it was aware of them, the newspaper reported.

While he is seeking money from America Online, Ellison told the newspaper that the suit is more a crusade to hold Internet service providers accountable for material pirated by their users.

more.......

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-07/23/09.00.books

[Archae]

1. I met Ellison in 1976.

At the Chicago Trek convention.

He was a cranky guy then, and still is.

I used to love his rants on the Sci-Fi channel as well.

One was an absolute classic:
He said "Rush Limbaugh's brain has turned into bat guano." :-)

Ellison is NOT anyone to be fucked with.
AOL is going to lose their ass.
(Couldn't happen to a nicer company...) ;-)

[ianbruce]

4. Harlan simply rocks!

Author of the non-fiction book "The Glass Teat", which described (among many other things) how some 3rd World governments lie and control their populations thru television.

Heard him reading a couple of his stories at a gathering in Boston. Amazing.

[catzies]

6. I remember "An Edge in my Voice" columns from years ago.

Read them/him in the LA Weekly. Profound.

[Zolok]

2. ANYTHING....

To keep from finishing "The Sound of a Scythe", "Blood's a Rover", "The Last Dangerous Visions"..."Demon with a Glass Hand" etc etc etc etc....
:)

[Sentath]

3. pondering..

eyes narrowed.. "Cranky, brilliant, asshole of a good scifi writer v.s. AOL. Hmm..."

Gosh darn it I'm going to have to go with AOL on this one because of the 'crusade'

[Aristus]

5. Go get 'em, Harlan! The man is brilliant. I've got four autographed

first editions of his books, and I want more. I take it he's recovered nicely from his heart attack in April?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

7. Cordwainer Bird

It was so funny when Harlan made them use this silly alias instead of his name when they butchered his work on 'Starlost'

[Interrobang]

8. I love Harlan Ellison's work...

I hate this lawsuit.

I've been following this for more than a year now (it's not news), and I've basically figured out (with help) that Uncle Harlan's lawyers are taking him for every cent they can get, while neglecting to explain to him the technology that hypothetically would be involved in trying to scan every single damned thing that comes through AOL's servers every minute of every day. Basically, he alleges that AOL should know the *entire* contents of AOL's servers at all times, which is a task I think even competent computer people wouldn't be able to do. Unfortunately, Uncle Harlan's a bit of a Luddite, and doesn't grasp the technology or the numbers involved.

That said, given how most courts tend to turn into gibbering idiots whenever technology more advanced that television sets comes up (Mitnick and Johansen cases, anyone?), he's got a good shot at winning...for what it's worth.

The PIC and I thought we were going to mail Uncle Harlan a carton of AOL discs with instructions on how to take his frustrations out on them, but we decided not to, on the grounds that neither of us really wanted to receive a DIY Gopher Stew care package.