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Subject: IWA Member Fraud & Plagiarism Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 21:53:51 -0700 From: LongRider <LongRider@BearVisions.com> Organization: Bear Visions To: rbrinegar@iwanet.org, kvaragne@iwanet.org, global@iwanet.org, bryce@iwanet.org, Chair-monarch@twcny.rr.com, monarch@twcny.rr.com |
On your web page you state in part: Pioneering the Web Profession... IWA, a non-profit professional association, is the industry's recognized leader in providing educational and certification standards for Web professionals. IWA's initiatives now support more than 100 official chapters representing 14,000 individual members in 106 countries. IWA's accomplishments include the industry's first guidelines for ethical and professional standards, Web certification and education programs, specialized employment resources, and technical assistance to individuals and businesses.
IWA Goals and Objectives: * Maintain universal standards on ethical and professional practices for all Web professionals.
IWA Philosophy: The International Webmasters Association is an individual membership association organized solely for the benefit of its members. Members shall be dedicated to self-development, sharing ideas, and developing professional contacts. IWA members, in their professional conduct, shall be guided by IWA's Standards of Professional Practices and a Code of Ethics to provide superior service to their employers and clients. Professional Development shall be the cornerstone of the IWA.
IWA Membership Benefits (Individuals) * A Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice. * Affiliation with the World's first organization for Webmasters.
Who May Join IWA: Any individual who will contribute to the development, integrity, and the advancement of the Webmaster professionand the objectives of the IWA.
I kept reading about ethics, standards and professional conduct. I ask you is that really your organization advocates 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 does this conduct of your member Mary Hyland "meet of IWA's Standards of Professional Practices and a Code of Ethics to provide superior service to their employers and clients." 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 acknowledged 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. Nor is she even an emrolled member of any Native Nation 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 organization, logo and link to your website to be used to endorse this 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, that you opt to do nothing? Is IWA 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 "Maintain universal standards on ethical and professional practices for all Web professionals" or if those ethical standards apply only to members of your culture race and beliefs.
Contact information for Ojibwe or 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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