Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:21:35 -0600
From: Claire Wolfe
TAMPERED ARTICLE NOTICE: PLEASE CIRCULATE
I have learned that an altered version of my article, "After the Fall of Justice," is circulating on the 'net in violation of my copyright. I ask that anyone who has posted the article to a Web site, reprinted it in a publication, or circulated it via e-mail please check to see that their version hasn't been tampered with. If you have the altered version, I ask that you correct it and send this notice to others to whom you sent the article.
It's possible that some people receiving this may prefer the altered version. That, however, isn't the point. The point is that the alteration is illegal and offensive to the one who worked her buns off to produce the article and who holds the copyright -- me. It is an imposition upon my views and a violation of my author's rights
The tampering is small but important. Under the subhead "Myths and Hopes," in the second paragraph, I wrote:
"This was never literally true, of course. Any poor, black man can tell you the reality of justice."
An unknown person, operating outside the realm of ethics and goodwill, and imposing his private version of "political correctness" upon my writing, has altered that to read:
"This was never literally true, of course. Any poor White Southerner can tell you the reality of justice."
As it happens, I sympathize with poor blacks, white southerners or anyone else who's suffered at the hands of an "injustice system." Abuse against any individual or group is equally inexcusable. No one should ever be denied justice because his or her views, race, place of origin or other characteristics are unpopular.
However, I do not have one iota of sympathy for a thief who steals my words, a fraud who substitutes his words for my own, or a person who violates a copyright statement that plainly says "no changes whatsoever" may be made to my work. This person was simply too lazy and talentless to express his opinions in an original article, and chose instead to be a blood-sucking leech, imposing his viewpoint and his Embarrassingly Ignorant Capitalization upon his betters. (And we are nearly all "betters" to this person; my *cat* has higher ethical standards than this person.)
Although this illegal, but small, alteration may seem unimportant to someone who's not in my position, anyone whose reputation hangs on written words should see both the offense and the potential danger. When strangers can illegally alter your writing at will, and those distorted words propagate across the Internet at lightspeed, no writer is safe from the depredations of casual creeps or agents provocateur.
Please, in respect to me, my copyright, and your own commitment to honesty,
make sure any version of "After the Fall" you've posted or circulated is
the version I wrote. And if it isn't the authentic version, please help me
correct it. If you have any question about the validity of the copy you
have, the original can be found at
(Liberty
Activist Archive) or
(Wolfe's
lodge Archive)
I remind everyone that I allow *non-commercial* reprinting of my published article, without charge, on the sole condition that my work not be altered *in any way* without my consent. That's very little to ask. Even an ethically challenged person should be able to honor such simple conditions.
Thank you to the *honorable* strangers and friends out there. I will be continuing to watch for illegal copies of *any* of my work, and I will insist that corrections be made. Anyone caught altering my work without my knowledge is courting big trouble and had better be aware of that.
Claire Wolfe
UPDATE: June 23, 1998:
Thank you to all who cared enough to read my notice about the tampered copy of "After the Fall of Justice."
Here's a little update. I've traced the earliest known tampered copy of the
essay to a person calling himself "Resistance" After this person ignored several polite pleas to help me find the
tamperer, I got curious and conducted some research on his e-mail address.
Resist88@ix.netcom.com turns out to be a creature named Harold Covington,
head of the National Socialist White People's Party, self-proclaimed heir
to George Lincoln Rockwell, and probable federal informant. About the only
positive thing my research revealed is that Mr. Covington is so busily
engaged in puerile name-calling wars on newsgroups for Nazis, Neo-Nazis,
Proto-Nazis, Crypto-Nazis, Pseudo-Nazis and
Left-Handed/Kill-All-the-Right-Handed-Nazis that he doesn't actually have
time to do any of the horrible things he advocates.
If he's not the tamperer, he's shielding the one who is. In any case, Mr.
Covington is clearly not a man to let little details like ethics, property
rights or human decency stand in the way of his Higher Goals.
Ptooey!
If you care and have a strong stomach, you can find more on Mr. Covington
and All His Works at:
Claire Wolfe RETURN TO WRITINGS OF CLAIRE WOLFE GO TO After the Fall of Justice
RETURN TO LIBERTY ACTIVISTS
http://www1.ca.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/national-socialist-white-people
s-party/nswpp-0895.html
and
http://www.hatewatch.org/who/covington.html