My apologies to any of my readers to whom this post may seem confusing, but a situation has spiraled out of my control and now requires a public statement, from me, regarding the falsehoods against myself, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer; a public harassment that has continued unabated. My statement follows:
Allen’s video (the full speech) is STILL available, as it always was, here:
Vlad Tepes took this video, which is, of course, in English, and added English subtitles to it. He did this without asking me or the organizers of the FDI event, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, for permission to use the video.
All I ever asked was that Vlad Tepes remove this version of my video, for it made no sense: why add English subtitles to an English video? That was the reason for my copyright complaint regarding that video, which was an unapproved edit. I asked that Vlad link to my original unedited video. That was all.
Later I learned that Vimeo took down Vlad’s channel – not only his version of my West FDI video, but other videos as well. I had nothing to do with this. I had never heard of Vlad’s Vimeo channel until Vlad wrote a shameful email accusing me of taking it down. When Vlad wrote this, he knew that I had nothing to do with it, since Vimeo sends a notice to a person about whom they’ve received complaints, telling him who complained. So Vlad knows who complained, and he knows that it wasn’t me, Pamela Geller, or Robert Spencer. Yet he and Baron Bodissey continue to suggest otherwise.
Many people have asked me to authorize the re-posting of the translations of West’s video. One wrote me, regarding my property, “that Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna arranged” for the video “to be translated into a large number of languages via subtitles.” Remember, they had no ownership rights to arrange these translations. The Baron knows who I am and he knew that I was filming that day. I saw him and said hello. It was the Baron and Vlad Tepes, whom I do not know, who were involved in making these unauthorized translations, but the Baron has my email address so contacting me to ask permission would have been easy.
What is the way forward?
First, Baron Bodissey needs to make up for what he has done. The foreign language translations that were neither approved nor appropriately credited have now been surrounded by horrible statements that the Baron and Vlad have made in print about me; accusations that were spiteful and meant to be harmful to my reputation. These would have to be retracted in print, as my copyright complaint had merit.
I was not the one in the wrong. They were. Baron Bodissey and Vlad Tepes have also wronged Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer with false accusations. None of us had anything to do with killing the Rosetta Stone project. The Baron and Vlad apparently decided to pull the plug on this project; then they blamed us. They could have simply posted the translations and gone on with their work.They owe me, Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer an apology and retraction of the repeated suggestion that we were involved in the taking down of Vlad’s Vimeo Channel. This false charge has spread all over and damaged our reputations.
As for re-posting the translations, if they go back up they should go up on my channel, where they should have been in the first place. I will discuss this with Pamela and Robert; since it was their event, it’s not my decision to be made independently of them.
Also, I do not approve of the needless English-subtitled version of the West video ever being re-posted. There is absolutely no need for such a version.
And Vlad would need to refer people to my original version at his You Tube Channel, as he should have done in the first place.
There is more to this now than just my ownership of the videos. If Vlad and the Baron had taken responsibility for their misstep and been respectful to us all, none of this would have become public nor slanderous. THEY are the ones who went public with lies and slander. Yet the Baron now has the audacity to claim that he is the one being falsely accused.
All this needs to be addressed in a mature matter if there is to be any hope of finding a resolution.
“why add English subtitles to an English video? ”
Movies and TV shows do this quite often,
a) since sound quality may not be perfect at all times
b) when the speakers have thick accents
c) to facilitate certain viewers who may have poor hearing, or who themselves may not know English as a first language (it is well known that when learning a new language, it is far easier to read it than to understand it in spoken form).
“why add English subtitles to an English video? ” Movies and TV shows do this quite often,
( You would have to contract with the owner of the video to do so)
a) since sound quality may not be perfect at all times
(Sound in my video is good. I was patched i to sound system. apparently when Vlad made the unauthorized copy, the sound degraded. )
b) when the speakers have thick accents
(Allen West has NO accent)
c) to facilitate certain viewers who may have poor hearing, or who themselves may not know English as a first language (it is well known that when
learning a new language, it is far easier to read it than to understand it in spoken form).
Then Vlad and the Baron can contact me, as they should have originally. If any such service is posted, it would be on my channel.
Pamela Hall:
You write:
“When Vlad wrote this, he knew that I had nothing to do with it, since Vimeo sends a notice to a person about whom they’ve received complaints, telling him who complained. So Vlad knows who complained, and he knows that it wasn’t me, Pamela Geller, or Robert Spencer. Yet he and Baron Bodissey continue to suggest otherwise.”
However, in Pam Geller’s article on this issue (where at the end she links to your article here), she reproduces the Vimeo notice which specifically cites you (Pamela Hall) as the complainant:
“This is to notify you that, as a result of a third-party notification by Pamela Hall claiming that the material is infringing, we have removed or disabled access to the material that appeared at http://www
”
This would seem to contradict your assertion I quoted from you above.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/04/bloggers-lies-and-the-videotape.html
A: this is unrelated to Vlad’s VIMEO Wall.
I filed a complaint against one video on Vimeo (not Vlad)
B. I never knew about Vimeo til he accused me (falsely) and apparently this one video that I found at Vimeo ( after he made me aware of the service) must have been his unapproved use of my video, also. Who knew, different name, but why else does Vlad have to notice.
3.That Vimeo notice makes it obvious that Vlad knows who did take down his wall, but it was NOT Pamela Hall