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On Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006, the website of The North Country Gazette was removed from the Internet without notice to publisher June Maxam. When Maxam contacted the website host, she was advised that Virginia Berlin had canceled the account, causing the website to go down.
Virginia "Ginger" Berlin, Maxam's co-publisher at The Empire Journal, maintains she had "nothing to do with it". The legal department of the web host as well as the billing department has stated in writing "The account northcountrygazette.org was cancelled per customer request, V. Berlin. The hosting account has her as the account holder and Ms. Berlin canceled the services"---not failed to renew as Berlin tries to claim, CANCELED. The account did not renew until spring.
Berlin has admitted that Maxam paid for the hosting services, that Berlin was only the intermediary. Therefore Berlin had a legal obligation to inform Maxam of her actions and of any renewal notice which she did not do. She had forbidden Maxam from posting anything to the website of The North Country Gazette since last spring. When Berlin pushed Maxam out of The Empire Journal in September, Maxam resumed posting to the NCG site.
The legal department of the webhost further stated in writing, concurring with Maxam, that "it is not our responsibility to contact a third party for renewal, it is the customer's responsibility to update any billing details such as email address". It was Berlin's legal responsibility to notify Maxam of any pending renewal and to remove her name as the NCG contact person for the website. Berlin refused to make the required updates and refused to notify Maxam of any pending renewal.
Berlin continues to refuse to provide a complete and formal accounting of TEJ operations to Maxam despite her legal obligation to do so and the fact that Maxam by law is an equal partner in the business. According to legal counsel, the LLC claimed by Berlin is not a lawful entity.
It also appears that Berlin is claiming ownership of Maxam's writing, particularly more than 225 articles regarding the Terri Schiavo case. The copyright of any work is owned solely by the individual author, regardless of where it is published unless there is a signed agreement transferring ownership. Maxam has never signed any agreement transferring ownership of her intellectual work to anyone and retains full and complete ownership.
Berlin has also falsely stated that she received a harassing email from June Maxam. No such email was ever sent to Berlin by Maxam. Berlin is apparently claiming that the message was sent to her through the contact form of the NCG. That feature of the NCG has not worked since the site was restored following Berlin's cancellation of the account, was not working the day of the email in question and can easily be proven. Further, at the time Berlin claims that Maxam sent it, Maxam wasn't even home. Although Berlin has been challenged by Maxam to produce the headers of the email and proof of her libelous statement against Maxam, to date she has failed to do so. It appears that Berlin either fabricated the email or Maxam's newspaper account address was "spoofed".
Berlin also claims that she has been harassed at her "private" telephone number, inferring that Maxam has disseminated the number. Such is also untrue. That number is in the public domain, being posted on the Internet in various locations including the domain registration for the NCG where she was listed as the contact person. Although requested on numerous occasions, she had refused to update the contact information.
Other false and misleading statements recently issued by Berlin against Maxam are being addressed in forthcoming litigation. Berlin has to date produced no proof to support her statements and continues to refuse to produce copies of business records and documents.
Maxam had been complimentary to Berlin in her year-end Perspectives column, The Best of Times http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/122905BestOfTimes.html
Two weeks later, the website went down.
1-27-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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