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Subject: Web Chamber Member Fraud & Plagiarism Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 22:54:32 -0700 From: LongRider <LongRider@BearVisions.com> Organization: Bear Visions To: President@WebChamber.com, VicePresident@WebChamber.com, Webmaster@WebChamber.com, Membership@WebChamber.com, Publicity@WebChamber.com, NetworkMarketing@WebChamber.com, WebDevelopers@WebChamber.com CC: ndn-aim@egroups.com, BearVisions_com@onelist.com |
On your web page you state: A) Our Mission WebChamber.com was formed to: Advance the economic, cultural and civic welfare of the World Wide Web community. Encourage the growth of existing World Wide Web businesses while giving all proper assistance to any new businesses seeking to set up shop on the Web. Support all those activities believed to be beneficial to the Web community and to oppose those which might be detrimental.
I ask you is that really your mission or is it really just so much corporate advertising bull? I have written you before regarding a member of your organization a Mary Hyland http://www.tunk.com/websitedesign/
with two examples where she has used artwork without the permission of the artist and has deliberately removed the copyright notices. Please see http://www.shamanneeshanha.com/shaman.htm on this page it is clear that she intentionally removed the copyright notices, do what I did, grab a copy of the picture, open it in Adobe Photoshop and enlarge it. You can see for yourself she drew a line through the copyright notices. The second piece at http://www.shamanneeshanha.com/readings.htm is even more blatant, Mary Hyland simply cut the picture out removing any and all copyright notices completely. Mary Hyland's pathetically lame excuse, that she does not know who the artist is, is pure bull and does not justify her use of art she does not have permission to use. Mary Hyland did not even attempt to find out who owns the copyright to the work she stole. Instead she has made every effort to conceal the copyright information As a professional web design organization, you know full well that Mary Hyland nor Kat Longren have no defense should the artist sue. I have investigated Mary Hyland's so called web design services. Mary Hyland is the very worst possible example of a designer, an insult to any professional designer who has spent years learning and performing real original design, illustration and graphics. and thousands of dollars in software and hardware. On not one of her web pages is there a single original illustration graphic or design produced by Mary Hyland. Not one single page loads and displays correctly. Mary Hyland is a cut and paste hack, who uses clip art to paste together shoddy pages that she charges legitimate business' and hard working people, money for. That kind of web page is OK for an amateur or novice hobbyist making a vanity page but to claim that it is professional work is an insult to the many web professionals, artists, illustrators and designers who do produce original quality work for their clients. Yet Mary Hyland is not content to falsely claim copyrights to public domain clip art as her own. She also steals the copyrighted work of others. Please explain how, endorsing the conduct of your member Mary Hyland is "beneficial to the Web community" On the issue of the fraudulent website that brought Mary Hyland to our attention. I do not expect that you be knowledgeable in this area. I will do the best that I can to explain and ask that you contact the Ojibwe or Cherokee tribal councils members (contact names address and FAX numbers phone numbers and E-mail address provided below). I am by no means an authority and do not speak on behalf of the Ojibwe or Cherokee nations. I can only provide you with general principles. So I do urge you to contact the Ojibwe or Cherokee tribal councils members to clarify and verify this information. A) Native Spiritual leaders, Holy Men, Medicine Men, Healers or shaman have a process by which they are taught and trained by the acknowledged Spiritual Elders of their particular tribe or nation. In time they may become accepted acknowledges and recognized as Spiritual leaders by their Tribal Council not much different than say accreditation of a minister or priest. One can easily confirm if an individual is a bonifide Spiritual Leader of any specific nation, just as you can confirm if John Doe is in fact a ordained minister. This Kat Longren claims to be Ojibwe or Cherokee yet no Ojibwe or Cherokee tribal council recognizes her as such. B) Native American Spiritual teachings are an oral tradition, learning is done by doing under the guidance of elders. It is very much about day to day living, about community. The point being that Native American Spiritual beliefs, ritual and ceremony can not be taught online. It simply is not done. The best analogy I can think of is you can get books on martial arts study them all diligently but without hands on practice under the guidance of a bonifide teacher. You are sure to get hurt if you attempt to use it. The same is true of these charlatans like Kat Longren. One example I can think of is in Texas one of these charlatans instructed a person to go pray in a imitation Sweat Lodge (much like an intense sauna where prayers are conducted) for fourteen hours. That is not how a Sweat Lodge is conducted, the person died. C) This is probably the most difficult to explain in our cash culture but Native Spiritual leaders, Holy Men, Medicine Men, Healers or shaman do not charge money for services rendered. To charge for help from the Creator is blasphemy, completely contrary to the basic principles of virtually every Native American belief system. Kat Longren or anyone for that matter can believe anything they want. They can make up their own religion with their own belief system ritual and practices. That is their right, More power to them. But for her to claim to be something she is not is FRAUD. That is what she is doing committing fraud claiming to be what she not representing a people she knows nothing about. An example of how abhorrent that is to Native People. What if I created a website claiming to be an ordained minister of your church and for a small fee I would teach you the Jesus Penis Ceremony as handed down to me by the elders of your church. Would you like to see me preaching from the pulpit of your church incorporating my Jesus Penis Ceremony into your mass with say some Satanic ritual thrown in. Would you be offended? Horrified? Did my analogy disgust you. Rest assured Kat Longren and her website is even more repugnant to the Traditional Indigenous People of this county. Would you endorse a Jesus Penis Ceremony website that claimed to represent your church? Please all that is being asked is that you prohibit the use of your logo and link to your website to be used on that fraudulent website. Or is it that because this is not your religion and just the beliefs of heathen indians unworthy of the respect that you take for granted? Is WebChamber a racist ethnocentric organization? This letter is being forwarded to several Native American mailing lists and posted on my web page dealing with this fraud Kat Longren. http://BearVisions.com/Shame/Fraud.html Traditional Native People and their supporters like myself will be waiting to see if you truly "Support all those activities believed to be beneficial to the Web community and to oppose those which might be detrimental."
Contact information for Ojibwe and Cherokee tribal councils members
Oklahoma Cherokee Nation
Eastern Cherokee Nation
Tribal Council House Eastern Band Cherokee Indians
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee
additional E-Mail contacts for Cherokee Nation
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma
Great Lakes Intertribal Councila consortium of federally recognized Indian tribes in Wisconsin and Upper
Michigan Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota
Sandy Lake Band of Ojibwe
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
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