It can't rain all the time

Wow....occasionally it even happens to me. That elusive treasure called a Good Day.

The dog let me sleep in later than normal, I found my long lost PDA, I got actual recognition at work for something I did, the weather is beautiful and the boss is in a good mood. All simple things, but put together they have me in the best mood I've been in in recent memory.

So I could be introspective about the Good Day and write all sorts of stuff down, or I could get back to living it.

Laters.

Stupid Letter III: Conclusion.....?

Heh. Sorry about the rambling background post, but I wanted to get the thought process that I was going through down. At that point I honestly forgot about this guy and continued on with life. Until, six months later, when I got that simple piece of paper delivered to my door.

To sum up, the letter stated that he had been legally operating under that business name since 2003 with records in the state department to verify. It said that he had invested a significant amount into advertising (which the letter implied I should have seen before I opened my business), including his YellowBook ad and advertisement on his car. It also stated that he already owned and operated a website under my domain name, and it said that I was currently illegally using both his business name and the domain name, and that I had seven days to not only stop using the business name, but to relenquish the domain name back to his possession or he would file civil and criminal charges against me. The letter had a message at the bottom saying it was CCed to an attorney.

Ahhh.....where to begin? :-)

This letter ticked me off on so many levels I'd need an elevator to reach them all. It didn't help that I got the letter on a Friday evening and had to wait until Monday to actually get ahold of any form of legal representation to ask about this mattter, but that was only the beginning.

Don't get me wrong, I was scared. I didn't know what to do. It didn't seem legally like he could do anything to me, but what did I know? I thought I was operating my business on the up-and-up (I had a tax ID and paid every few months), but I really had no idea. But the thought that I might have to just....just GIVE my domain name to him because he decided to be a bully rather than pay for the name, simply because he screwed up and gave a website name he didn't own for an ad he was paying thousands on....well obviously I wasn't thrilled. Adding to my ire was the the fact that he was lying about half of the stuff he put in there, he was threatening to file criminal charges against me, and last but certainly not least, he included my wife in the letter (and the threats) as well.

Oh and did I mention these seven days he gave me were over the Thanksgiving holiday?

I don't usually try and make blanket statements, but screw this guy....

I called lawyers, and even met with a copyright attorney to find out if I was in trouble. I did a lot of research on US laws in this area. I also started looking into public records of his business. His letter started looking sadder and sadder the more I found out.

Obviously it was just as I had said....a bully's attempt to get me to make a quick bad decision and give him a domain name he was too stupid to register beforehead. CRIMINAL CHARGES??? IN SEVEN DAYS???? DEAR SWEET JEZEBEL I'D BETTER SIGN THE DOMAIN OVER TO HIM RIGHT AWAY!!!

Here is what I found:

1. His claim to have legally operated his business since 2003 - Lie.
I did find out I had neglected something. Businesses need to register their names (called Ficticious Business Names) with their Secretary of the State office. I checked our online database of names, and found he had indeed registered our business name. Exactly two weeks before he sent me the letter. In another county. Obviously he had done some planning and got the business name reserved, but was either too dumb to realize it would have a registration date on it AND that he would need to register in a county I did business in....or he thought I was too dumb to check. Even if it was the latter, it was ten dollars to get the name in our county, so that brings me back to the stupid argument. In fact, the name is still free in my county. It's only a misguided sense of honor that keeps me from buying and hedging him out of my city with regards to this name. But hey, I was able to register my NEW business name, so I don't count it as a total loss.

2. His claim to have operated a website under my domain name - Lie
Okay this one I already knew. I had records from ICANN that list me as the sole legal owner of the site. In fact, this was the one thing I could be sure on. He didn't register the site and wanted it to look like I stole it from him....at least to me. I was a bit wary that if he owned the business name (in any counties) that he could demand it from me legally, but the attorney we talked to alleviated those concerns. Unless he filed for a copyright, that wasn't going to happen.

3. Seven days (over a holiday) turnaround time - Umm....no.
Got this one pretty easily too. By law any cease and desist letter gives the recipient thirty days to respond and to seek legal counsel. The letter became more of an obvious bully's ploy. Speaking of which....

4. The letter itself - Crap.
It ocurred to me almost right off the bat. This letter didn't actually arrive in an envelope. I had no identification from the guy who delievered it to me. It wasn't on any legal letterhead and actually looked like it was printed out from MS Word on some home Inkjet printer. This wasn't official in any sense. I also looked up the name of the attorney. It didn't come up. I find it highly doubtful that any attorney in the city isn't listed in the phone book or on the web. If I gave one whit about countersuits I'd sue him for false legal representation.

I could go on, but I realize I'm just spewing words onto the page at this point. That is how fresh this still is after two months. I may be whining and I may be an idiot for thinking it, but I've never had someone try to do something like this to me before. It hit me so hard that I was afraid to answer my door for a month, and I was just too angry to work on the site or even on web design, and that eventually translated over into the rest of my life.

In the end, I sent him a certified letter back saying that I wasn't going to comply with his deadline, that I was seeking legal counsel regarding his claims, that I needed written proof that he had legal rights to the business name and the domain name prior to last month before I'd go any further with the negotiations....and asked him to forward the letter to his attorney because I coudn't find him listed. :-)

Once again I haven't heard from him since....

So that is a brief overview of what drained the creativity, and in general what I've been doing lately. ;-)

I'm sorry for taking so long with it. I know it isn't well written and isn't pretty, and it doesn't come CLOSE to how I really felt, but I think it was important to get out anyways.

Soapbox or not, I promise I'll put more thought into the next post. For now, thank you for reading (because if you've read this far you obviously care at least somewhat) and may the rest of your day be better than the last few minutes.

- Chris

Stupid Letter II: Electric Boogaloo

I operate a very small local business, basically doing work for a few people I know with the hope of getting more, but no money for advertising. Last March, after a few weeks of searching for a domain name, I managed to find a decent name that was not taken, so I jumped on it. After another few weeks, I had what I felt was a pretty nice site. I wanted to do a lot with it, giving local ads and good buys, telling people of cool things I had come across, I even put up a couple articles I wrote on various PC-Health topics. The site was also a test-bed for me learning all I could about Java, PHP, Dreamweaver and the Adobe Suite.

Two months later an ad came out in our local YellowBook for a business with the same name as my own. Interesting thing was that this ad had my website listed on it, Realizing the guy who took out the ad must have made a big mistake, I figured I'd get a call from him.

He did call, but it didn't exactly go how I thought it would.

Guy: I just wanted you to know that I've been operating under this business name for three years now.

Me: Ah. I see.... *waits for offer to buy domain name*

Guy: So....yeah.

I mean this guy was weird. I'm not sure if he didn't care or if he expected me to fall all over myself with apologies for taking his name and offer to give him the domain name I paid for fair and square. I suspect a third possibility. That he's just all out stupid. I will attempt to justify this theory later....

In the end I offered to sell him the domain name if he wanted it, realizing he'd just bought an ad for thousands of dollars with a website to a different business. He said he'd think it over and get back to me. When he called the next day I offered to sell it to him for $600, with an offer of $1k for the entire site (which I considered pretty good).

He mentioned to me that he hated web page design and upkeep, so getting the domain name wasn't previously important to him (yeah, right), so he didn't know if it'd be worth paying that much for the domain name. At this point I thought he might have been psycho and was suspecting stupid, but I was still too excited about the prospects to listen to my gut. So as an alternate offer, I said I'd be more than willing to administer the site for him if I could get referral business out of him (he said he hated web design but seemed to be pretty successful with his PC Support business). He said he'd probably do that and to go ahead and change the site to his name. I asked him to contact me with details on what he wanted, his information and the frequency of work I might get from him.

As I'm sure most of you are probably guessing right now, I never heard back from him. Thankfully I was at least smart enough to make the decision not to change my website in the least until he got back to me.

To be honest, I assumed then that things could get weird, so I went out and bought another domain name and started doing business under THAT name instead of my original one. An idea which, in retrospect, I am very grateful I had.

Next post: The Letter, what went down because of it, and my thoughts on what really happened.

Stupid people and the legal system

As previously mentioned, I had a rather interesting November, and it and the busy holiday season really started to derail me from all the varioius projects I had taken on. Now that I'm coming out of it all, I figure I'll write down what happened.

On a warm Friday evening (warm for winter in South Dakota anyway), I got home from work and was eating a quick dinner of frozen burritos with fresh salsa bought from our local authentic mexican place (thereby making even frozen burritos awesome) when I got a knock on the garage door. I answered it to find a younger guy in a white shirt and tie who asked me if I was "Mr. Buss". When I confirmed that was who I was, he handed me a folded piece of paper, said "You have been served." and headed back down towards the driveway to his car.

I've been.....what?

I was stunned. I didn't even ask him who he was or where he came from. I just opened up the paper and saw the words across the top:

Cease and Desist Notice

I will admit to you. This is the second draft of this blog entry. The first draft included a scanned copy of the letter and my exact thoughts on the matter. Since then my paranoia has kicked in and I realized that public defamation of character of someone who is already threatening legal action against me probably isn't the best idea I could come up with, no matter how happy it would make me. So I'm going to be vague on the names, but honest in opinions and feelings.

You know, on second thought I'm going to split this post up. Consider this the intro. Next post will be the background info.

Who is that Buss guy again?

It amazes me how cyclical life can be sometimes. Ambition and laziness, improvement and relaxation...it all comes and goes. I suppose it is at least comforting to know when I turn into a lazy bastage that I will eventually emerge, ready to do more with my life.

So I'm back, and I will soon once again start my infrequent musings on whatever the heck I feel like musing about. I'm not quite out of the lazy part yet, but I'm getting there. I can feel myself coming out of it and wanting to make my life better once again.

My previous self improvement high ended very suddenly one Friday evening this last November. I will speak more on this fun subject in my next letter. Until then may life find you well.

P.S.: I have turned on word verification for blog comments. I apologize for this, but the amount of spam comments is getting out of hand. I want to keep the ability to comment around (as occasionally I need to be put in my place), but I'm hoping this extra step will be at least a speed bump to the schmucks posting about 1ove spe11s and herba1 remedies. Thank you for understanding....