Interesting legal situation involving a friend
 

Okay, I am immersed within the poker community here in Las Vegas. I have a number of friends who are poker authors.

I also participate on a big poker message board, and I made a post approximately 2 - 3 years ago.

My post was discussing about how even though I've given up so much for my family....*I have been taking care of my sister and her children on and off for almost 14 years now. To this day, I pay their rent for their apartment.

Anyway, even though I had done all this, and continued to do so, that if I spent 5 days that week with them, and 2 days playing poker for 30+ hours, I felt guilty...or if I lost a good chunk of change I felt guilty.

Now, this writer friend of mine, takes that post and a few others on the message board and writes an article, using my post basically to prove how gambling degeneracy can affect people and their relationship with their family.

I immediately pointed out that he quoted me *of course in a snippet* out of context and that I didn't appreciate it.

Well about a year later after that article, within our email group he pointed out that article, and once again I pointed out the issue I had with him quoting me.

Now, a friend of mine was reading this other friends newly published book this morning and lo and behold...once again he is quoting me, and using the exact same quote to prove his point again...btw this guy is not just a poker player but a psychologist as well, his books / articles focus on those aspects of poker.

I'm rather upset, I don't like the idea that I'm being used to somehow prove that gambling is bad, because we neglect our families etc.

The book is out now. I didn't know he was going to include this. I made a couple of small stinks about the article, but I think now this is going too far.

I'd check with an attorney, but it's my understanding that once you post it on a message board, it's available for public use as long as the author doesn't claim it as their own. This recently came up on an RV board I read and the author won the case.

Wasn't there a recent mainstream published article regarding .xxx or 2257 (can't remember which) that posted several posts from here?

If this ISN'T the case, then most of us have suits we can file against most news outlets and Duck Ford, lol.

I wouldn't want it to have to go that far...but I'm not real happy with how he took a very long post and used only a couple of lines from it to prove his point.

Whew, I thought this post was going to be about my *alleged* midget punching incident....

Welcome to reality... do you know how often facts are misconstruted to make a point?

If the guy is using your shit even though he knows you don't want him to. He's a) not your friend, and b) a guy trying to make a buck like the rest of us

No worries...I've destroyed the tapes that do not show you getting drunk and punching a dwarf.

Michael Moore is getting rich off doing it, why shouldn't this guy?

"Don't post anything on the internet that you wouldn't want the entire world to know about." :2 cents::winkwink:

Nothing that was posted was not something I didn't want the world to know.
The post I made was saying that there was no reason I should feel guilty for playing poker on the weekends, when I gave so much time to my family.
It's not just when I play poker do I feel this guilt...it could be anything that I was doing without them. It's the kind of guy I've always been.

He took and edited down the post to only the lines where I said that I felt guilty, editing out what I was feeling guilty about, and used those 3 lines to make it look as if I said the guilt I was feeling was about neglecting my family. As though I were spending way too much time in the casinos.

whew, don't forget the coked up hooker vids either...