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The North Country Gazette, offering news, commentary and investigative reports of New York State and beyond, has hopefully resumed normal operations following three days of business interruption.
On Thursday, Jan. 12, The North Country Gazette website was suddenly removed from the Internet. When publisher June Maxam contacted the website host, she was told that Ginger Berlin of Albany had canceled the account.
Ms. Berlin is engaged in a dispute with June Maxam regarding the ownership of The Empire Journal, an online publication in which Maxam is a partner, co-publisher and editor.
The Rise And Fall Of the Empire Journal
According to information obtained by Maxam from webhost billing, Berlin took the action to cancel the account of The North Country Gazette on the same day, Dec. 21, that the article "Coming Soon: Rise and Fall Of The Empire Journal" was published. The article indicated that a special report on "The Rise and Fall of The Empire Journal" would soon appear to dispel false statements which have been published regarding ownership and other issues.
Berlin has excluded Maxam from The Empire Journal since September and has suspended all publication, removing virtually all files from the site which rose to prominence with its coverage of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case. There is also a dispute concerning the ownership of the TEJ domain in that Berlin had transferred ownership to Maxam in May, 2005. Maxam did not authorize and was not informed of a domain transfer which was effected by Berlin and the host for TEJ, Labarts of Texas and its agent, Jamieson Becker without Maxam's consent and knowledge. However, in that the domain was transferred to a LLC allegedly improperly formed by Berlin, Maxam as a shareholder in that questionable LLC would still maintain a substantial interest of TEJ if the LLC was ruled legally organized.
Maxam, the sole proprietor of The North Country Gazette since 1981 when it first debuted as a weekly print newspaper, owns the domain of northcountrygazette.org.
Berlin holds no ownership interest in The North Country Gazette and had been merely the administrative contact listed on the domain registration for The Gazette simply because she was the webmaster for the site until April, 2005.
When the web hosting services renewed last spring, Maxam remitted the payment for the renewal to Berlin who then made payment to the host.
Upon discovering early Thursday morning that the website had been removed from the Internet, upon contacting the webhost, Maxam was told that Berlin had changed the passwords and canceled the account, interfering in the business operations of The North Country Gazette, ordering that the website be removed, apparently due to vindictiveness and without warning to Maxam.
The action by Berlin came days after threatening email had been received by Maxam from Berlin, apparently trying to force Maxam to drop her claim and rights to The Empire Journal. The electronic mail was reported to the New York State Police and was labeled as attempted blackmail by the investigating trooper. Late Wednesday night, Jan. 11, additional threatening messages were received by Maxam but before the website logs could be checked to ascertain the message origin, the account was canceled by Berlin.
Efforts are now underway to recover those logs. All logs previous to Jan. 11 including those containing Berlin's message, had already been stored and are accessible.
Police Investigating Threats To Publisher
Fortunately, the entire North Country Gazette was backed up on disc and no data was lost. The site was restored late Friday but for an inexplicable reason, was again removed early Saturday morning. The website was again restored late Saturday night and remains operational at this time. Additional security precautions are now in place.
There are several minor issues being resolved. The on-site contact form is currently non-operational. Anyone wishing to send comments or news tips to The North Country Gazette may do so by emailing news@northcountrygazette.org
Site design is concluding at Maxam's new website at www.thenewempirejournal.com which will be available by membership. It is anticipated the new website will be operational within the next month. The North Country Gazette will gradually be integrated into the new site. 1-15-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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