posted by max on February 01, 2007 at 08:21:06 PM

Well folks,
Sorry to update on such a sour note, but now that the whole Sega thing seems to have blown over, I was hoping to hold off an update until the new moderation system was finished.

It seems that your favorite site in the world "How to prank a telemarketer" has caused YTMND to be part of some legal turmoil.

From:    TomMabe3@aol.com
To:      legal@ytmnd.com
Subject: How do you want to pay me?

Body:

My name is Tom Mabe and you have a call of mine on your site that has been there for weeks. "Crime Scene" (It's a telemarketing call). People are not buying my CD because you are giving it to them for free! CNN is doing a special with me regarding this type of stolen content. As you may know CNN has dubbed me troubleshooter/troublemaker. I will not give you any free press by naming your company but will approach you with legal muscle that could cost you.

I can be contacted by phone at XXX-XXX-3792, removing my call will not make this right. We will conduct an audit to see how much advertising you have sold since my content was posted and ask for an percentage of advertising revenue.

-tommabe.com

============
I couldn't tell if Tom Mabe's website sent me this email or he had just transcended the need for a name and now goes by tommabe.com. Either way here is my response:

From:    max@ytmnd.com
To:      TomMabe3@aol.com
Subject: Re: How do you want to pay me?

Dear Tom,

I can't say how relieved I was to receive your letter, I am such a big fan. I'm real sorry to hear no one is buying your CD, but thanks for letting me know a clip from a radio show makes up the entire content of your work. It's good to hear you are working with CNN and I have to agree, you are certainly a troublemaker; your shitty phone call has been clogging up my website for months. It's also good to hear you won't be badmouthing me on CNN, as I am extremely concerned with how my website is portrayed to the public. Luckily, the ads on the site that plays your clip average around $3 a day total because they are hidden. This means your site has made roughly $120 in the last four months.

The MP3 clip on the site is roughly 2,379 kilobytes large and has been viewed roughly 6,194,201 times. What this means is that since the site with your work was put up, I've transferred 14,736,004,179kB of your phone call, giving you quite a bit of advertising. That's almost 15 terabytes over four months which comes out to a little over $2000 at the market rate of hosting. Deducting the advertising revenue, it looks like you owe me roughly $1880 US dollars. I'll have my people send you an invoice.

I also noticed you give away the same clip used on YTMND on your own website as a preview for people to buy your CD. I guess if someone else who is giving you credit gives it away, it isn't acceptable, but if you give it away it's considered good for business. Thank you for teaching me this valuable business lesson. I now see how hurtful to your career it has been to have millions of people hear your work.

Surely if you've employed a lawyer at this point, he would have told you sending threatening forewarnings from such a prestigious email address as "TomMabe3@aol.com" is a wise decision. It's not clear to me how you will be conducting an audit on my revenue, but I'm fully willing to work with you through this and figure out how much money you owe me.

Eagerly awaiting your "legal muscle",
-Max