Message from Richard Forno

Late last week, I was served with a cease-and-desist letter from the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner regarding the process I use to write and release articles and commentaries on my site. Having just returned to town, you can imagine my shock and amazement upon receiving their note.

As such, and with deep regret, for now, INFOWARRIOR.ORG is shutting down later this month.

For those interested, it seems that the process of soliciting quotes and comments from the public (e.g., the Internet community) and then incorporating such contributions into a finished product for royalty-free public use violates an existing and patented business practice by one of their clients in Lindon, Utah. Their two-page cease-and-desist letter also demands my accounting to them of everyone I spoke with in researching and writing my articles so they could see how wide-spread my alleged infringement was on their client's trademarked business processes over the past several years. Sadly, they provided little other information to support their claims and accusations.

In short, I was told to either stop writing and distributing my intellectual musings for free (and stop the alleged violations) or continue my production of quality and popular intellectual content but begin licensing the use of each and every article on my website, of which their client would receive a percentage. Of course, there was a mediocre offer of settlement (e.g., paying a calculated royalty fee to reimburse their client for "existing losses" resulting from my actions to-date) and the costly option to take the case to court. They have graciously given me three weeks to complete a few in-progress articles before I must change my ways or shut down.

According to the plantiff, doing what I've been doing for years with INFOWARRIOR.ORG makes it difficult for companies to reap the value of their own intellectual property. A spokesperson for the plantiff, one Darl McBride, said that "the issue here is whether intellectual property rights will have any value in the age of the Internet." (McBride did agree to drop the allegations that I never smiled when mentioning his name or "SCO.")

I guess making something "truly free" in the Information Age is acceptable as long as someone ultimately can make money off it somehow.

In response, I have retained the services of the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter in preparation to launch a counter-suit against McBride given that he is clearly and repeatedly infringing on my previously-patented but rarely-used business practice of demonstrating public idiocy. Although he's modified my process by not being drunk at the time of such infringements, I demand an accounting of his infringing actions to determine the appropriate reimbursement for my losses. Fair is fair.

In the meanwhile, I am pricing out a Red Hat Linux-based server to host RickSource(TM) should I decide to continue my activities under this new intellectual property licensing agreement. I'll keep you advised.

Thanks for reading.