Official Apology Page
So I'm checking my email, when I get a message from George Wang. He writes, telling me
of this great page he's discovered, including the specs of the KM-S4-1
Motherboard we all know, love, and can't find specs on.
I thank George, and proceed to check out
the site. Indeed, there is
a wealth of information, including a page on the
KM-S4-1.
Upon checking the site quickly, there appears to be images that came directly from
my site. I emailed the owner of the site, and said:
My name is Arthur Peale. I've just come across your page for the
KM-S4-1 motherboard, as someone mailed the site to me.
It appears that you have directly copied the images off my site, without
even a mention of it. I worked quite hard on the schematics to get it
just right, and would appreciate you taking down the images you have of
this board, and creating your own. At the very _least_, you could give
me mention, as well as a link back to the original site.
Sincerely,
Arthur R Peale
I was interested to hear what the gentleman had to say. He writes back:
let me scan my donation list to see who sent the data to us...
That's okay. Upon checking out the site, I noticed that there wasn't any sign
of want of material wealth, and there was a donation box provided from Amazon.com.
So, I wrote back:
> let me scan my donation list to see who sent the data to us...
Okay.
Since it appears that your site is purely for the dispersement of
information, the images may remain. After all, that's why I put the
site up to begin with.
However; I'd still like a link back, and perhaps the picture of the MB
could be cleaned up; it's quite low quality. The original page, with
all the info, can be found at http://www.vermontel.net/~vengnce/tech/
He quickly writes back:
you are incorrect sir,
i found the original source for the images for this database entry
see below...
He included a message from the original image provider. I then went back to his site
and took a really good look at the images in question. Whoops. They weren't mine.
Here's where I made the mistake: I used .jpg's that had been donated to me by Vig Atilla
were used a model to create the manual. I based it quite closely
on the originals. Quite closely, I guess, and that's where I made my mistake. So I wrote
back, again, to apologize:
It appears that I must apologize. The schematics are quite close, as I
used the original jpg's I got as the base. The scans were quite bad,
but I built them into a whole new image, trying to get as close to the
original as possible.
Looks like I did a good job, as I did believe this work was mine.
I'd still like to offer the scan I made of the board; there's a quite
large, hi=res scan that could be resized to replace the picture that's
currently there.
Arthur
It takes a big man to admit when he's made a mistake. I really hate doing that! But
I was wrong, and amends must be made.
He writes back again:
if you were me how would you feel
my website has been providing data since 1996
and here you come demanding changes to my site
its people such as yourself that make me wonder why i bother
do not reply or visit my site in the future
end of thread
Whoa! Hold on there. I think we're getting a bit carried away. I write again:
> if you were me how would you feel
> my website has been providing data since 1996
> and here you come demanding changes to my site
And I apologized for it. It appeared that someone had plagiarized my
work. I spoke without thinking. I had merely wanted credit for the
work I had done, but, indeed finding myself in error (as noted below) I
recanted, wanting to provide you with better quality images, as you
accept 'donations' as was indicated in a previous letter.
> its people such as yourself that make me wonder why i bother
> do not reply or visit my site in the future
> end of thread
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Web, this won't happen. I've
already replied, again, to apologize. I will probably visit your site
again, and provide a link to it from my page. Additionally, I will
publicly apologize for my unwanton behavior on the page.
You have an excellent site, full of useful information. Please don't
take my letters to heart. Unfortunately, the Web takes away all emotion
in email postings. You've taken what I had simply wanted to be
correspondence into a personal attack, when that was not meant to be the
case.
Have a quiet, peaceful weekend.
Arthur
I've not heard from him again, as of this writing, and I don't expect to. I have, however,
done exactly as I said I would, and have publicly apologized (at least to those who find
this page). I sincererly hope he's a big enough man to accept it, as I was big enough to
admit I was wrong.
edit: August 13, 2009 - I guess after nine years it was okay to use the manual I spent hours putting together. :) Not that I mind, information wants to be free, but I did find it interesting.
Page created June 29, 2001
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