Re: MAKE.MONEY.FAST

[joko@crl.com (Joe Kohn)]

There was an incredible article in my local newspaper the other day about 
one of the "Make Money Fast" schemes that was posted on the Usenet a few 
months ago.

Apparently, there is an investigative reporter by the name of Brock Meeks 
who publishes an e-journal about the net (CyberWire). When he saw the 
posting, he decided to dig a little deeper, and when he did, he thought 
that he uncovered a scam. He called it an out and out scam in CyberWire, 
and Brock Meeks is currently being sued for libel. It is the first 
lawsuit ever filed based on accusations made on the net.

As a result of this lawsuit, there's a legal defense fund being set up to 
help Brock Meeks pay his attorney fees.

I don't have the entire story, but there are a few gopher servers that 
do. Gopher to either gopher.well.com (look under Communications and 
Media) or gopher.wired.com and do a keyword search on CyberWire.

I checked out gopher.well.com, and saw info about the legal defense fund, 
but couldn't locate the issue where the alledged libelous article was 
published. If anyone can locate it, I'd appreciate an email of it.

The implications of this case are kind of scary. At the heart of the 
lawsuit is the contention that Meeks' statements about an "alleged scam" 
was an attempt "to thwart any commercialism of the Internet by the 
plaintiffs."

Joe Kohn