If the past is any indication of the present, somebody will pipe up, and say "the House of Netjer has copyrighted these posts, and you need their permission to reprint them". If so, this person has a lot to learn about the law.

What they are referring to, when such informally created copyrights are appealed to, is a document referred to as "the Berne convention", which has been implemented into law in the United States. (Something akin to British copyright law has found its way into the US law books, after a paltry 111 years or so). When one attempts to use the convention as a club with which to beat one's critics into silence, one is abusing the system. Fortunately, the framers of the convention foresaw this particular abuse, which is why they wrote a "fair use exception" into it. Copyrighted material may be quoted to the extent necessary for critical commentary.

In this particular case, those running the House of Netjer webboards have deleted the original copies of this material. This is significant, as a matter of law, for two reasons. First, because it means that these posts can not be examined by the reader, unless copies of them are presented here. Without that examination, the reader lacks the context needed in order to fully understand our replies. Thus, quotation of these posts in full is necessary for the purposes of critical commentary, which is one of the purposes which was explicitly written into the fair use exemption.

Further, neither the Berne Convention, nor any preceding copyright law in the United States, or the United Kingdom, was ever written with the intention of providing private citizens with an opportunity to do an end run around such freedoms of the press, or free expression, as were or are in place. Copyright protection was established for the sole purpose of insuring that copyright holders see fair renumeration for, and recognition of their work.

Again, let us note that the staff of the Netjer boards has deleted the material that you are about to see. By this action, they have both stipulated that they had no intention of profiting from it (how can one make a profit from material which is absent?) and guaranteed that the material could not be a source of financial gain, or gain in recognition for them, again, because it was no longer being made available. To put matters more simply, our actions here carry no opportunity cost for the House, and the House, through its actions, has admitted that it agrees. No wonder, because the material in question has a market value of zero. Realistically, were it bound up into a book for sale, the resulting book would be as unsalable, as it would be devoid of cultural, scholarly or entertainment value.

This is a point that could never have been in serious dispute, as a reasonable man, on examining this material, can easily see that it would not be of interest to any commercial publisher and that its republication can not possibly result in any direct loss of revenue to the House. Neither Antistoicus, nor the Shrine of the Sleeping Gods, see any financial gain from including this material. Nor do we engage in gain in recognition through plagiaristic means, because we do not claim authorship, and have expressed our willingness to replace the pseudonyms we've assigned the authors (of the posts reprinted here) on the Bravenet copy of this site (with the names they used on the Netjer boards) should they express a wish that we do so, no special pseudonyms of our own creation being put to use in lieu of the names they posted under on the Netjer boards in our reposting of their posts on the FreeYellow copy of this review of the House of Netjer. Consequently, not only are the authors given the opportunity to enjoy public credit they would have seen on the House of Netjer boards, but even more, as we have published publicly accessible information which will make their identities even clearer than they would have been, originally, via the Freeyellow site, and via the Bravenet site as well, if the authors so wish. The recognition resulting from their work, such as it is, remains theirs. In fact, all such recognition as they do receive from their work on the posts in question is the result of its reprinting on this site, as it would be unavailable to the general public, but for the fact that it had been reprinted off of the Netjer.com site. Where there is no renumeration due, and the author is properly credited with his work, there is no cause for action in matters of copyright. Thus, the Berne convention provides no protection whatsoever, for the material that you see quoted in the course of this review of the House of Netjer.

Any attempt to have this material stricken, or otherwise alter or dispose of this site, will immediately result in legal action being taken against the parties involved in this effort. Should they be so foolhardy as to attempt this in the case of FreeWebsites, which is located in the United Kingdom, we will be delighted to point out that barratry, the act of harassment through the filing of frivolous suits, is still a criminal offense in that country, and we will be even more delighted to press charges, there. A trip to London sounds quite lovely during any time of the year.

In the case of action in the American courts, as would be applicable should FreeYellow or Bravenet be pressured, allow us to point out that we are within ten miles of the heart of the House. The delivery of a subpoena is but a short cab ride away. We would prefer that it not come to that, but if the House should choose to force the issue, so be it.

In short, gentlefolk, if you attempt to interfere with our right of free expression in this area, as some of you have suggested that you might on threads since deleted, you won't like the legal consequences, and we will pursue them to the bitter end. Our patience with the threatened making of frivolous legal complaints is at an end. If you want to "play lawyer", please go play that game somewhere else.

Note : this notice has been made regarding the material quoted in the course of writing the review of the House of Netjer seen on this site.