Updated 11 Jan 00 * Copyright 1999 by Andrew Homer.
Webmeister -StarHeart Web Designs
Protest
OSC needs your help 8 October 1999
From: aol://3548:RCHERIN
For over three years the folks of OSC have brought you chats, columns, message boards and contests with the goal
of providing you quality services in a friendly manner. Now OSC needs your help. Without you it is very likely
that OSC will no longer be on AOL.
We need your help to challenge America-On-Line who allegedly, through their spokesman Mike Sansone, are claiming
that properties created online become the property of AOL and do not belong to the person(s) who created it.
This has serious repercussion for not just OSC but for anyone who creates anything while online. Below is the press
release we are going to be sending out. We need your help by doing one or more of the following things listed below.
Also please get your friends to help us.
a) Write a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy at 433 Russell Senate Office
Building, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510 protesting AOL trying to bully OSC. If you can send a copy
to Senator Schumer's office at the same location. You can also use this hyperlink for email http://www.senate.gov/~leahy/
b) Write to OSC (either to Robert873@aol.com or OSC@OSCweb.com ) or fax me at 718-885-1603 if you have any media
contacts that will help get our story publicized. Also, email us if you want to see a draft letter or what to send
to the Senators or have additional ideas how to save OSC. You can visit our website at: http://www.oscweb.com/index2.html
for The Other Side of Creativity.
c) Notify any local or national politicians you knew and urge them to contact Senator Leahy's or Senator Schumer's
office in support of OSC.
d) Post this and the press release below wherever you can on the Internet or any other place that is sympathetic
to creative people.
Robert A. DeLena
President and CEO, OSC Inc.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
OTHER SIDE OF CREATIVITY
94 CARROLL STREET
CITY ISLAND, NEW YORK 10464
PHONE: 718-885-2359 FAX: 718-885-1603 EMAIL: ROBERT873@AOL OR
OSC@OSCWEB.COM
Web: www.oscweb.com/index2.html
for The Other Side of Creativity
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 8, 1999
Writers and other creative people throughout the United States are banding together to challenge America-On-Line
who allegedly, through their spokesman Mike Sansone, are claiming that properties created online become the property
of AOL and do not belong to the person(s) who created it.
"Representatives from AOL have stated that we (OSC Inc.) must either agree to a verbal contract in which the
Other Side of Creativity, Inc. loses its site on AOL or they will simply take us over because we built our services
within the structure of AOL," says Robert A. DeLena, founder and President of the tiny corporation.
"Mike Sansone keeps telling me that OSC and we writers have no choice but to accept the terms which they continually
refuse to put in writing because Sansone told me in several phone conversations 'they are AOL and we are nothing,"
DeLena continued.
According to DeLena, AOL's Workplace Channel approached OSC to have them both oversee and
manage their Writing and Publishing Forum. In doing so the Workplace designed an entire site for OSC that includes
four chat rooms, message boards and a library. The site averages somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 hits per week
and is frequented by thousands of writers throughout the United States and Great Britain. The Other Side of Creativity,
Inc. can be found on AOL by going keyword: OSC where the site hosts over 22 chats, 28 columns, message boards and
libraries, mainly for writers.
Over 110 volunteers service the site and receive no compensation from AOL other than some receive a complimentary
AOL account. "We provide these services out of love for our craft and respect for writers, not for compensation,"
comments Brandy Walton, a long-time OSC volunteer. Ms Walton has been with the organization since it started over
three years ago and has watched it double in size every 3 or 4 months because of the enthusiasm OSC generates within
the writing community. "We get no outside promotion and still we grow because of word of mouth. Since AOL
began negotiations with Mr. DeLena, OSC has been effectively strangled. For months, we've not been able to post
one new column or add new content to our site yet we continue to grow," said Ms Walton who oversees the poetry
area of OSC.
An email from Mike Sansone, the AOL representative who oversees the Workplace Channel on AOL, told DeLena. "Either
I didn't explain it right, or you didn't believe me, but the online area of AOL known as OSC is not an independent
entity, though you have taken it to heights few could."
"In order to move forward in the way you (Mr. DeLena) hope, I suggest we gather on the
phone within the next few days. Either way is acceptable to me, but know that the AOL-owned online area known as
OSC will move forward in some manner soon. I hope you are involved." Mr. Sansone's email concluded.
"I am shocked that AOL through its representatives entered into a long negotiation process to have us join
the Workplace Channel, encouraged us to become forum leaders and build content and an area where writers enjoy
congregating to share their love of creativity, are now attempting to shove us aside thinking that the community
we have built will automatically become theirs," says Betty S. Almond who coordinates many of the OSC volunteers.
"It appears they really don't understand how strong our good online community is."
Mr. DeLena adamantly states he will not permit AOL to bully OSC. Like the saga of David facing
Goliath, he intends to fight the net service provider giant on a variety of levels. Attorneys are looking into
the matter to assess legal recourse, a call has gone out for all writers all over the United States to help with
obtaining media coverage of the attempted takeover, and Senator Schumer (NY) and Senator Leahy (VT) have been asked
to soberly assess the impact of AOL's actions to usurp ownership of creative endeavors online. If you are concerned
about the ownership rights of creative properties within AOL, DeLena encourages you to contact these Senators at
433 Russell Senate Office Building, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510 protesting AOL trying to bully OSC.
