I have an apology to make, on several levels, for a posting I made once in 1994 and again in April of 1999, and a Web page I published briefly back in late April of 1999. I also am declaring a formal quitclaim on a copyright I illegally claimed on another author’s work.
The topic of consensual nonconsensuality comes up periodically on this newsgroup. Back in issue number 5 of the magazine _Taste of Latex_, Carol Queen wrote an excellent article on the topic, titled “Playing on the Edge: A look at consensually-nonconsensual SM.” I have committed multiple plagiarism and appropriation of copyright with respect to this article, and it is past time to make amends.
Back in 1994, when consensual nonconsensuality was being discussed on (then) alt.sex.bondage, I typed in the entire article from _Taste of Latex_. I omitted Carol Queen’s byline altogether, and included the following postlogue:
“This article appeared in issue number 6 (now sold out) of the magazine _Taste of Latex_, edited by Lily Braindrop, subscriptions $20 for four issues from P. O. Box 460122, San Francisco, CA 94146. Typed in without permission by Johnson Grey (johnson_grey@unrealities.com). I defend this under the “fair use” provision of the copyright laws.”
This was a crime on my part. I deliberately reproduced another author’s work (moreover, an author whose work I esteem very highly indeed), without crediting her, and claiming falsely that my crime was sanctioned by “fair use” — which it was not, at all. Reproducing an entire text is by no stretch of the imagination “fair use”, especially given that I had not credited the author in any way whatsoever.
The topic arose again in April of this year (1999). I repeated my wrongdoing by reposting the same text, verbatim, with the same bogus postlogue.
I then perpetrated something even worse: I put up a web page, as an appendix to my online FAQ list (at http://www.unrealities.com/adult/ssbb/faq.htm), which consisted of the entire text — AGAIN without Carol’s byline — and this time with a copyright notice claiming that the text was copyright (c) 1999 by Johnson Grey, all rights reserved.
I hereby announce a quitclaim on that illegal declaration of copyright. That copyright was not mine to claim, and I retract it in toto. I took the page down within a day of putting it up, sadly due to people calling me on my mistake rather than to my own realization of my criminal behavior, but I am declaring this quitclaim with respect to its original publishing and in the event that that bogusly-copyrighted page has been archived or otherwise remains in existence.
I am posting this declaration to soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm and I am archiving it as an addition to my FAQ page, so these facts will be known by the full Internet community to which I originally posted and published this plagiarized material.
I apologize, deeply, to Carol Queen herself, for having stolen her work in a manner both blatant and hurtful. It is especially incomprehensible that I did this since my own FAQ has in the past been republished without my knowledge or consent, in one instance even without my name or email address attached, and I know how angry and violated I felt then. That I inflicted this same violation on Carol is an extremely serious matter.
Sincerely,
Johnson Grey
