Is the Executive Director of the USHPA afraid to call me (or even
send me an email)?

Yesterday (Thursday) at 6:02 Pm (PDT) I sent the following email
message to Paul Montville, USHPA Executive Director (at Paul Montville <<paul.montville>>):

Why did you have Tim Herr write to me? Is there a problem with
calling up one of your members and asking them a question or two and making a
simple request of them?

Why do you need to escalate something that really wasn't even an issue without
checking first to see what the problem was? I certainly wasn't doing anything to
hurt the USHPA.

Give me a call: (my phone numbers here)

I waited for a call or an email all day taking my phone out with
me on my bike rides around Alameda island. No email or phone call from Paul.
Paul appears to be willing to send his boy, Tim Herr, out to do a man's job, but
apparently isn't willing to do that himself. Maybe Lisa is holding him back. I
have no idea, really, why he didn't try to contact me.

I have received no further argument from Tim trying to keep from me (and anyone
else) linking into the documents behind the membership only wall (or anywhere
else on the USHPA web site), so far I still link to the Draft Working copy of
the Competition Workgroups proposal for the Competition Rulebook, making it
available to anyone who chooses to download it, including non-USHPA members.

Remember that I do this as a courtesy to the authors of that document so that
those wishing to understand this debate can see their side of the argument.
Otherwise, I have no good reason to link to that document. Talk about shooting
yourself in the foot.

The discussion continues
here,
here,
here and
here.

To answer a few questions and misstatements:

Yes, the first notice I got of this issue was the Cease and Desist demand letter
from Tim Herr. Nothing from the USHPA Executive Director (who you would expect
to deal with this issue), nothing from the USHPA President, nothing from any
USHPA office personnel before that.

No, I am not giving any credence to the demand from Tim Herr that I am not
allowed to link to pages and documents on the USHPA web page, nor that anyone
else is, without express permission of the USHPA Executive Director. A URL is
not copyrightable.

Yes, I did take the offending document down from my web site (and put a link to
the document on the USHPA web site in its place).

Yes, I have received a personal apology from an EC member regarding the letter
that I received from Tim Herr. He stated that the letter was major overkill and
an embarrassment. He also stated that, "This could have been dealt with in a
short, courteous email to you." I can only agree.

Yes, and a Cease and Desist letter is only a bark, not a court order. A lawyer
gave me the following advice:

I can tell you that cease and desist letters are regularly posted
on the internet by the receiving party to show as many people as possible what a
company is up to – especially when their claim is a ridiculous one. The letters
are picked apart and the lawyers are usually made fun of (often deserved). I’ve
feared for years that one of mine would end up on someone’s website and I would
be made to look like an idiot ;-) Alas, none yet.

Anyway, from a legal standpoint, you should be free to do as you please with a
letter addressed to you. There are no copyright issues there – I would say
particularly in your case where it is being use for journalistic purposes – the
1st amendment comes to mind, of course.

So, I don’t know what they could potentially do if you posted it. I’ve never
looked at the membership terms of services, but I seriously doubt there is
anything there that is relevant here. So, I can’t imagine how they could justify
kicking you out of the USHPA.

Whose fault was it that the USHPA sicced their lawyer on me? It
apparently started with Lisa Tate, USHPA President, but according to one source
it got out of hand when it went to Paul Montville and Tim Herr. The EC appears
to have been out of the loop.

I received the document that I posted from two different USHPA BOD members about
a month ago with the hope from them that there would be an open forum for the
discussion of the Competition Workgroup proposal. It did not contain any
copyright notice material which was an issue that Tim raised when he accused me of
stripping that material from the document. The document had been emailed out
to the BOD by Mike Haley.