April 18, 2010

Dear David,

I hope you are well. Are you still walking around the house carrying a firearm? Yeah, those boogie men can be such annoying twits, can't they? You never know when they're going to spring out of the darkness and scare the baby Jesus out of you. Me? I just wear a crucifix around my neck and take my vitamins daily. Haven't seen a boogie man in weeks. But then again my neighbor is on vacation. My guess is that once he's back, I'm going to have to take extreme measures like, oh I dunno, keeping my eyelids wide open with toothpicks while tightly clutching my Zombie Ass Kicker 9000.

I guess being a damn fool and a no-talent-having hack can take its toll, but carrying a firearm around the house? Man, that's just all kinds of hardcore crazy. I'm sure there's a pill or two for that. My advice? STOP playing Left For Dead late at night.

Anyway, the real reason that I am writing to you is that I need you to please stop posting crap and lies about me on the Intarweb.

Fact is, I didn't overthrow you from your island dictatorship, I didn't say anything about you that I didn't believe to be true or which I didn't experience first hand, I didn't tell the IRS that you don't believe in paying taxes and so you just don't bother with that pesky little detail when running a company. And I certainly didn't nerf your Alganon character. No, seriously I didn't.

What I did do was hop into the game, grabbed this game character that someone said was yours (if they were lying, I made no attempts to find out) by his scrawny little neck, flipped the scrawny twit upside down, shook him until all his items fell out.

Then I sauntered over to a cliff, look into his eyes and said "Screw You".

Then I dropped him.

It took a while for him to reach the bottom but I didn't even bother to see how that ended. Last I heard, he was still curled up in a fetal position at some temple crying like a whiny little schoolgirl. Something about everyone being out to get him or some such. I think he's probably lost the last of his marbles, so might want to roll another character if that one was in fact yours.

Oh right, I forgot another thing that I did do was fire you for insubordination; among other things - not to mention to prevent you from destroying the company that hard working people poured their money into. That's probably upsetting, but I'm sure that you'll get over it.

Assuming that you have money left for that. Attorneys, I hear, can be quite expensive. Heck, I just paid a large bill that on the face of it, appears as if my attorneys were just chatting on the phone, reading emails, playing Plants vs Zombies (I think) - and billing me for the time spent. For that amount of money, they better have been talking to Jesus H. Christ himself or at the very least working on getting me a White House invite.

But hey, I can't blame them too much because you see, we all have a purpose in life. Their's (attorneys I mean) is to suck every penny from fools like you who have nothing better to do than to start frivolous lawsuits and expect to get away with it.

You know when it gets to be real fun? When five frigging years - and several thousand dollars down the road - everyone has forgotten wtf it was all about and you go back and see that for what amounts to the GDP of a small country, you could very well have gone out and bought that fancy car you've always wanted.

And during all that time, the person you're trying to sue frivolously has all but forgotten that you even exist.

David, joking aside, the fact of this whole matter is that I own a successful company. I have funded, developed and shipped fourteen games in three established intellectual properties for over twenty years. My games have made millions.

Unlike you David, I am very - very - good at what I do. That's why I'm still doing it; and in an industry where so very many have fallen by the wayside.

I believe in God. I volunteer at my Church. I believe in paying my taxes. I have a loving and gorgeous spouse and daughter. Though some politicians can be - for the most part - clueless, I love Obama and his family.

While I'm on a roll, I might as well admit that I also believe that those crazy folks messing with the LHC are the direct cause of some bald jackass in a trench coat showing up in my doorstep yesterday given me crap about my dropping some obscure game character off a cliff. Apparently it had some butterfly effect in which a few years from now, everyone would have forgotten who David Allen was and only Google - like that whole Artifact Entertainment thing which inevitably ended up in an unrecoverable disaster - will have any evidence of your latest screw up.

So he asked me to do my best to ensure that not only is your latest screw up fully documented, but also to make sure that as the lawsuits make their way through the courts, that by the power invested in me by the Gods of the Intarweb, that I document and archive it all. Apparently if your latest efforts go unnoticed, some very bad things will happen in the future and it will be all on me.

I did ask him which model of the Zombie Ass Kicker I was clutching in the future where he came from. He told me that I didn't need it, since I had swapped my vitamins for some seriously hardcore medication and that I was, funny enough, OK. That little twit, I'm sure he's just making that up.

David, come on, how many games have you shipped and when was the last one shipped? Oh, right, I forgot. I think Ronnie was president back then, yes?

There isn't a single company out there that I've worked with during my entire career, who can come back and say that I either didn't perform under the contract or that I made promises that I couldn't keep. In fact, I don't and never had investors. Every single penny that goes into my games, comes from my hard work.

How about you? Oh, right. Well there was the debacle surrounding your failed game, Horizons and for which you were, once again, kicked out of the company (Artifact Entertainment) that you started. Right?

And after that what happened? Right. You formed a new company, Pharoah Productions which failed to create, yet another MMO game, Dominion, because, gasp, no investor would bite and give you money. Right?

I have people who have worked for me from all over the world. Sometimes you end up hiring lunatics who don't deliver, but expect to paid etc, but for the most part, I've been lucky in my career and I'm still here because of the choices I've made along the way.

How about you? From the emails and phone calls I've had, there's this picture that I'm getting. You see David, the beauty of the Intarweb is that news - especially seriously crazy as hell news like, oh, "I'm suing Derek Smart for defamation" - travels fast. Especially when the target is a quintessential media magnet. And before you know it, you've got people you never heard of sending you emails, calling you up etc. Disgruntled employees? Maybe, but all companies have those and at the end of the day, there's that clever little word call pattern and then there's credibility. Oh wait, I've got one more! History. See what I did there? Sure you did.

Then there's that little thing called the Streisand Effect.

The closest I ever got to a suit, was a counter-suit filed by Dreamcatcher, the publisher I sued back in 2004 in Canada. And that one - I suspected that it would - went nowhere. They paid the back royalties which I sued them for, we both withdrew our suits. That company later went under, its assets having been bought by another European company. I'm still here, doing what I do.

Did you see the part where I said Canada?

Yes David, I went all the way to Canada and sued them there. Ballsy eh?

You know David, spending $50K in legal fees to recover $25K is the kind of thing that mothers disown their children over.

It's the kind of thing that your friends look at you and go "Dayum.." when they hit you up for a loan and you tell them you're broke.

It's the kind of thing that your hypocritical attorney looks at you and goes "Seriously?".

It's the kind of thing that if your spouse finds out, you had better get ready to buy her a new piece of jewelry.

It's the kind of thing that I do without even a moments thought. You know why that is? It is not about the money. It is about the principle.

Anyway, I'm sure you've got the picture, so let's move on...

Even my very first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD, which I did through Take Two, was a successful game. In fact, it is one of the games that was partly responsible for that company going public a year later. I threatened to sue, someone blinked (hint: It wasn't me) and before you know it, we settled the issue out of court. I was paid handsomely for my work, and the then CEO Ryan Brant, later went on to become a convicted felon courtesy of the SEC. I'm still here, doing what I do.

This whole QOL affair is not something that I planned for. When you came to me for help, I thought I was helping out an industry friend in much the same way that I regularly help others in the industry, support my industry etc. What I saw in you was a guy clearly out of his league and so when you asked me for help, I felt obligated to help you. Besides, it's not like we were strangers. Heck I have emails between us going as far back as 1999! Even my attorney and friend of more than twenty years, has had some contact with you over the years. Which is basically why he's conflicted out of this matter.

It turns out that you weren't a friend at all, but an opportunistic and vindictive person who will turn against anyone who doesn't see things your way or go by your rules. Your own partner and QOL co-founder, the guy whose money started QOL, is now an enemy to you as well and is one of those you are now suing. The investors - who you consistently misled - and who gave you the money to even get as far as you did, are now enemies as well and you are now is suing them too.

So lets see if I get this straight.
  1. You're suing Greg, your partner and co-founder (oh, and his wife too) of Quest Online. The guy whose seed money got your pet project off the ground and who kept giving you money even when the investors didn't.
  2. You're suing ALL the investors (and their wives), who, including Greg, gave you almost $4M. Money which was paying you handsomely over these years while you failed to deliver on promise after promise.
  3. You're suing Derek Smart (oh, and my wife and company too) who you called in to help you get out of the mess you had found yourself in.
Did I get all that right? Sure I did.

After I agreed to help you, in several emails (God I hope you keep accurate records like I do) and phone calls, I told you flat out that if you weren't being straight with me, that there would be long term consequences. Apparently you chose not to listen. Which is why once it became obvious that you were using me to boost your credibility in order to continue getting funding from the investors (who had given up on you and clearly expressed a vote of no confidence), things fell apart.

A lot of things you told me on the phone and which are documented by numerous emails and IMs, have turned out to be patently untrue.

The end result is that, through your very actions, you put both myself and my company at great risk, given how you got me involved in QOL.

The more I uncovered, the more apparent it became that I was merely a pawn in your game. Which is why when I signed the contract to act as advisor, yet you were doing some things and not others, it became clear to me that the only way that I was going to uphold and perform under the contract I signed, was to take pro-active action because if I caused you to let me fail, then - under the contract - I was liable because the investors and owners of QOL could very well sue me for being in cahoots with you, knowingly or unknowingly.

That is when the investors made the decision to make me president pro tempore and was something that you agreed to and signed a contract for same. Once that happened on January 28th and I gained more knowledge about the company, the game, the team etc - it became clear to me that the company and Alganon were in much bigger trouble than previously imagined by anyone;least of all the investors.

So, as part of that Dec 3rd, 2009 contract, I was required to report that to the investors. So I did. But yet you insist on making false and defamatory statements both online and in emails saying that I went behind your back etc.

Here, let me post the excerpts from the original advisory contract (not to be confused with the subsequent Jan 28th, 2010 contract officially making me President and you COO) which you and I signed on Dec 3rd, 2009; and which like every single document to date - is part of what's coming to in a nicely wrapped package, courtesy of our very high priced attorneys. Pay very close attention to item numero uno, mkay?
  1. Consultation and reporting as required to ensure that QOL investors are adequately informed about Alganon's performance, viability and similar matters.
  2. General marketing & product visibility strategies for Alganon.
  3. Product publishing and placement of Alganon on as many viable digital distribution channels as possible in order to maximize exposure.
  4. Assistance with the technical aspects of publishing Alganon on digital distribution channels (e.g. Steam, Metaboli, GameTap, Exent etc) which have bespoke technologies required for products published on said target channels.
  5. Strategies and recommendations regarding the retail distribution of Alganon.
  6. Sales model reviews, adjustments and planning for Alganon.
Once it was determined that you had - once again - screwed up and were about to play your part in driving yet another company into the ground - the decision was made to expand my role by making me President so that you David, could be brought into compliance and thus remain focused on one single thing: Finishing and shipping Alganon so that the investors could at least stand a chance of getting their money back.

Yes David, they had grown tired of the snake oil you'd been selling and causing them to keep putting money into a black hole and with no end in sight.

It's not like anyone said, "Hey, let's make Derek Smart president and kick David Allen out". No, it didn't go down like that at all - and the numerous emails as well as investor testimonials prove that without a reasonable doubt.

I wasn't out looking for a job. In fact, I was BEGGED by YOU, to come in and help and later my role was expanded so that you couldn't continue screwing up and putting the company and game at risk.

What happened to you is what happens in any company. You don't perform, you're done, fired, GONE! Simple.

As you well know David, that's why - as President - I fired you from the company.

People get fired all the time. What is the big deal? Oh, thats right. I hurt your feelings and to make things worse, your ego is getting the better of common sense.

Dude, you're a PUBLIC FIGURE!

I guess the biggest problem you're having with this is that I didn't stop there, did I?

First, I fired you. We've established that.

Next, due to the budget cuts, I unfortunately (the company knows that I struggled with this decision for many days) had to do the same to your relative.

Then I fired one of your buddies, primarily for breaching the company's security protocols and giving you the ability to do harm to the company.

The other buddy quit. Though my guess is that I'd have fired him too at some point since it was the three of you responsible for the mess that was Alganon in the first place.

All of this - thanks to your stupid lawsuit - is now open season for public scrutiny and should really get to be fun when all the paperwork (from these work-for-hire contracts etc) from the court go online.

Since nobody at QOL is an employee and you constructed carefully worded standard work-for-hire agreements which gave you (and thus the company) the right to terminate any person's contract with or without cause, well guess what, you - as a contract employee to QOL - were not exempt from that, regardless of the fact that you were also one of two managing members of the LLC.

So why are you pissed? This is YOUR contract that YOU had in use at the company and which you have used - many times - to fire other people and without cause according to all the termination notices that I now have access to.

But anyway, yeah, I can see why you'd be holding a grudge, thus leading you to take your ill gotten gains and lunch money to go file a frivolous lawsuit.

And of all the people in the world, you chose me.

Well thats not nice now, is it?

David, I don't know how far QOL is going to go with this farce, but I'm going to bury you so deep in litigation that by the time you come up for air, my grandchildren will most likely be keeping me locked away in the garage so that when I sneeze my pacemaker doesn't turn off the TV.

I'm not giving you a penny.

I'd rather give attorneys $100K than give you $0.01c.

Let's be clear here. There is nothing in QOL that I want. I have far more advanced technologies than what Alganon has. In fact, for the most part, Alganon is built with various third party middleware technologies and contains code that you didn't even write. Yes David, SVN logs don't lie. I know what each and every person (past and present) did on Alganon.

There is NO technology in Alganon that is worth licensing to a third party. None. Nada. Everything that you're saying about that is nonsense and based on lies and deception.

My guess is that you're trying to use this project as a stepping stone to get other investors to fund your next train wreck. But do go ahead and pad your resume my boy; but my guess is that given how much the industry has changed, that's just not going to fly anymore. You should know. After all, look how QOL started. Not a SINGLE industry savvy investor gave you money. If it wasn't for Greg and his friends and friends of friends, QOL would never be here today.

The Alganon Editor which you like to tout so much and which was developed by a pair of hard working German contractors, is the heart and soul of the Alganon game. It cannot be adapted for any other game without significant work. And in order to do that work, you might as well either roll out your own or license tried and proven third party middleware - of which, believe it or not, there are many. Heck, if Bioware can license middleware for their MMO - yet budget the game out for $150M, you can pretty much imagine that there is a reason for that.

Outside of that, things like billing interface, database routines etc are standard technologies that any snr. programmer can put together for a game.

Not to mention all the third party middleware used in the game. Those range from the TrueVision3D graphics engine to the ACE (the first sign that whoever used this to write the networking layer for an MMO is inexperienced and had no frigging clue what he was doing) networking API and LUA scripting tools.

So that "tech" that you keep talking up, was not only written by OTHER people and primarily comprised of several middleware technologies, but it cannot be used outside of Alganon. If the game dies, it all dies along with it.

Not to mention the fact that my technologies have actually shipped games. Games that afford me a living and which continue to make money. I make more money than you David will ever lay eyes on in your entire career. And then some. So why would I need your company and tech?

What does QOL have that 3000AD can't develop or license elsewhere? The answer? Absolutely nothing.

Yet, you and your cohorts (Jason Blood and Mathew "Hue" Henry) are going around saying nonsense like this post by Hue. The kind of rubbish that people should get sued for.

That's all part of the smoke and mirrors that you all are putting up in order to take attention away from the fact that YOU took millions from investors, then screwed it all up in the end and NEVER delivered a FINISHED game.

And like any typical White Collar crime (Note: I'm not accusing you of having committed a White Collar crime. Thats the job of my attorneys, the judge and the jury) once things start coming out, other things will fall into place and eventually everything falls apart, and before you know it, someone is sitting in a jail cell.

The fact is, neither Greg nor the investors could have discovered the extent of the problem without help. And *gasp* that's why I was hired, genius.

In the end what it took was someone like me who can see through all your crap as well as the smoke and mirrors. How? Well, remember the part where I said that I was very - very - good I what I do? That would be it.

Remember, you brought me into this.

So this is just rubbish that you keep spouting - and which is going to be part of the massive countersuit that is well on its way to being shoved down your egomaniacal throat. That I came to QOL to usurp you, to steal the tech and that this is all one big conspiracry, that the investors conspired to cheat (!) you, kick you out of the company etc is just pure rubbish. It is all your usual conspiracy theory crap whereby everyone is always out to get you and you are never at fault for anything.

You take absolutely NO responsibility for the things that you have done to this company, the investors, your partner - or even the gamers. You should be apologizing to the investors and getting down on your damn knees and begging for their mercy and forgiveness. But no, that would be too easy. Plus there's no money in it - and where's the benefit in that?

Instead, while you're running around being yourself, I'm the one apologizing to gamers, refunding their money from a budget that could very well go toward promoting the game, the one keeping the company afloat, the one keeping the team together, the one promoting the game etc.

Here are just some of the allegations against you David

That you are the guy who comes to the door to greet a party interested in Alganon, while wearing a sidearm? During company hours? In broad daylight. In the Arizona heat. Were I president at the time, I would have fired you right there and then. No question about it. Even the investors were shocked when they learned about that.

That you are the guy who, from the moment you were fired from the company, literally emptied the company's bank account? Money that belonged to the investors - not you. Thus leaving the company in distress and with me working with the investors and Greg to come up with an emergency plan to keep the company from going under?

That you are guy who over the years made numerous broken promises to the investors in order for them to keep giving you money? Every time you needed money, you'd send out these panic ridden emails and documents, carefully laid out and showing this rosy picture of the zillions of dollars they were going to make - but first you needed X amount of dollars? And they would give it to you?

That you are guy who, having failed to ship the game, first in June (for which you got money to make it happen), then October (for which you again got money), caused them to draw the line in the sand and say ENOUGH!! back in Nov 2009?

That you are guy who has several investors, in their notes to the attorneys, indicating that they felt "Madoff'ed" by you and well on their way to getting the SEC involved (something about illegal funding activities or something or the other)?

That you are guy who put the company's assets at such great risk that it caused an investor - at the dead of night - to get out of bed and call the cops to file a police complaint against you? An investor who gave you almost $500K of his hard earned money and which you pissed away?

That you are guy who hired a relative to work for the company - then paid that person higher than even the most qualified person doing the same job? Yet another thing you tried to conceal from me when I was made President? Then when it came time to trim the staff in order to cut costs, said relative was nowhere in the cut list? Yet even the leads - and most experienced people - were targeted to be cut?

That you are guy who in order to continue getting money from investors, shipped a game you KNEW to be incomplete and literally killed it in the marketplace? By shipping the game, you could say to the investors "Look, I shipped it. I need more funding to move forward from here" and they would be none the wiser that you had not only misled them - again - but also shipped a half cocked game only to satisfy a funding requirement?

And then to compound the problem, that you are the guy who actually sold the Alganon game to the unsuspecting public AND actually got some people to not only buy the game client for $39.95 but also got them to pay for subscriptions in advance? Heck, didn't some unsuspectingly pay for up to a year subscription in advance? All because they trusted you and didn't have a clue that you had shipped a largely unfinished game?

Go ahead then, tell me, if these allegations are true:
  1. That is not the very definition of fraud
  2. That doesn't put the company at risk and tremendous liability
  3. That is not a clear violation (one of many) of your fiduciary duties to the company
Even your own Director Of Design, Mathew "Hue" Henry, has gone on the record as saying that the game failed. Here, let me quote it for you:
"I'm very sorry if this next comment makes things rough on Alganon's players. They are the one's we built the game for, so I've avoided statements like this is the past, but: Yes. The game Alganon failed. It failed because despite being fun and all original work, it appeared and played too similar to World of Warcraft. I failed because I did not realize that was a "deal breaker" for so many people"
Hue admits to only part of the problem because coming flat out and saying that you guys shipped a largely unplayable and unfinished product, would lead to all manner of lawsuits. Lawsuits which, funny enough, are happening right about now and which you're going to have to answer to in the coming weeks.

From my experience with, you're the guy who could apparently sell ice to Eskimos if given half a chance. A guy who - as a public figure - can talk up a good talk but when you look deeper, you see that it's not all there. Which is exactly why you were having problems with your investors, gained little to no traction for Alganon in the marketplace etc.

Tell me this: for all the publishers that you took the game to; if it (and the tech) were so awesome, how come nobody was willing to touch it? Let alone help fund it? I now have access to all those documents, spoken to several people etc and my current work basically involves mending bridges that you have burned along the way.

Heck, by Dec 1st only two sites were selling the game. Impulse and Direct2Drive. Nobody else would touch it. I came on board and opened several doors, worked on several deals (most of which I recently signed) etc.

To cap it all, while the company was in distress trying to figure out how to stay afloat because you'd blown through all the money and nothing was left, you were negotiating a buyout of your LLC equity from the company. Money that could very well go to the team (you know, the guys who actually WORK on the game) so that they could stay at the company and work to finish the game.

And to top it all off, you're going to try and convince a judge and jury that I, Derek Smart, orchestrated your ousting from the company and that I planned this with no less than fourteen other people. People who, prior to this whole mess, I didn't even know! Heck, as I write this, I haven't even had any contact with most of them.

You clearly fail (see how that word keeps coming up) to face the realities of the fact that:
  1. You screwed up badly
  2. You got fired as a result
  3. You then got kicked out of the LLC for failing in your fiduciary duties, threatening to put the company into receivership etc
Sad thing is that you've been here before. And it was the same story back then with Artifact Ent. as well. Only this time, you have a different target and a whole different conspiracy theory to shop around to anyone who would listen.

Plus, no you're actually foolish enough to actually file a frivolous lawsuit instead of accepting the generous (IMO) offer that you were made by the investors when you told them that you wanted out of the company so that I could do what it is I needed to do.

I am not responsible for the mistakes that you made. That's all on you.

What have you done lately David? Besides running around online and posting rubbish and passing around defamatory statements?

Here's what I've done lately. Pay attention - you might learn something here.
  1. I have stabilized the company
  2. I have jazzed up the team and they're working without the threat of being kicked out of their jobs if they do anything but as instructed
  3. I have re-focused and re-target the development efforts, stripped out all the crap, streamlined what is there so that the team have a clear DIRECTION
  4. Through my efforts, the investors have decided to continue funding the company and keep it afloat
  5. Since the March patch update and my grassroots efforts, people are TALKING about Alganon, other than saying that it is a WoW clone, a WoW rip-off, an incomplete mess etc.
  6. Alganon has gained significant exposure (yay!! we were recently the #2 game at MMORPG and ahead of WoW). Also see the links at the end of this blog.
  7. As I type this, merely two months of my coming on board, Alganon is finally on its way
  8. By the end of April, Alganon will be FINISHED.
Plus, unlike you, I actually get to FINISH and SHIP the game.

Through all this, you continue to talk up this nonsense about a game you built, all this tech (!) etc.

The fact of the matter is that as a contractor building a house, then you get fired from the job because you screwed something up (e.g. the roof), you don't get to go out and say you left the owners with a great house; but oh, the roof leaks, the plumbing doesn't work, the AC is not installed, the electricity is not hooked up, the bathrooms aren't finished, the fence is lopsided, the sprinklers don't work etc. But it's a GREAT house!

No, you don't get to do that, you fool.

And that's what YOU left behind for ME to fix. A broken house and with NO money to fix it.

So I had to go back to the investors and convince them to actually fund and finish it, rather than just shut it down and write it off as a loss. Sure they could have said no. Why didn't they? Well, you think about that for a minute. There's your answer.

You have filed a frivolous complaint and a lawsuit (I haven't been served yet - so I'm feeling a bit left out), both without merit. When the facts come out and all the emails, contracts, depositions, discovery, ESI etc are made a part of our response and the numerous counterclaims are filed and become public knowledge, then everyone will see what exactly happened and hopefully use it a blueprint of why it is ill advised to invest in this [gaming] sector unless you actually have people in place who know what they're doing.

As to that whole defamation thing? That's just funny as hell. Apart from the fact that it's all false and without any shred of merit, with the volumes out there that people we've contacted have shared, your history, pattern of conduct, coupled with the experiences that myself, the co-founder and investors have all gone through with - hence the reason we're going through this crap - you don't have a peg leg to stand on or a snow ball in hell's chance of prevailing.

The facts in this matter are clear. While you're running around exchanging emails (which we have) with a known detractor and others while hanging your hat on that whole "The enemy of my enemy if my friend" crap (go ahead, I can't wait for that cross examination), talking up conspiracy theories, issuing press releases etc I'm trying to promote and finish the game, while working hard to keep the company going while working hard to make Alganon a success.

I'm sure that you realize by now that with this latest mess that you have created, you're all but done in the industry. You don't get to do this three times. And that's why you're trying to get money from us with this frivolous suit and not betting on the fact that we're going to mount a significant defense against it, while taking up a counter offensive of our own.

You're not getting a penny, if I have anything to do with it.

This could have ended peacefully. The investors made you a decent and generous offer for your equity; you got greedy, pompous and then turned your nose up at it and asked for triple the amount. They said no. You started making threats. We ignored (well, tbh, I just laughed, called you crazy and went about my business) you and refused to cave in. You then sued thinking that it would be cheaper for us to pay you to go away than to defend against these outrageous claims. You clearly missed the memo on just who exactly you're dealing with.

We have one of the best law firms in the nation and quite possibly the best in Arizona. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far we need to take it, the people you are suing will defend against your outrageous claims. And yes, we're ALL going to sue you - just to be sure.

While you're running around issuing press releases, acting the fool online and wondering where your next paycheck is coming from, do you know what I've been busy doing? Take a wild guess. And no peeking!!

Yes David, with hand on my heart and knowing fully well that if I commit perjury that my career was over, this is what I've been doing.

That's it pretty much. You've said your piece (your press release was a shot across my bow, and I take those things very personally) and now you've heard mine.

If one day you wake up in the morning and decide to follow your attorney's advice, then have your people call my people and they'll do lunch, get this sorted out, then bill the both of us. I strongly suggest that they do it over at McDonald's or something because our attorneys aren't cheap and I don't want my insurance (surely you didn't sit there thinking that I didn't have insurance, did you? If you did, then my friend, you're so screwed) to go up because of this rubbish.

Your old friend.

- DS