Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 23:34:21 -0400
From: Todd Knight 
To: jason@textfiles.com
Subject: CNet info

  OK!  Here's a little REAL information on CNet...contrary to that which has
been posted publically for so long now...I tried to address all major
fallacies which were posted to the BBS Directory.

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With respect to Mr. Anderson's comments:
==============================================
Andrew Alexander of Window of Illusion BBS writes "Ray Akey Purchased the
rights to the code of the orignal 3.05c version which was the most stabe
version of CNet Amiga BBS software. The orignal author was Ken Pletzer who
lived in Canton Michigan at the time of it's creation. Ray A. Akey is not
the creator and CNet was not made in Canada. Ray A. Akey in fact brought all
development of the software to a screatching halt and has angered many in
the Amiga BBS community. Ray A. Akey's true part he played in CNet BBS
software should be correctly disclosed. Any research on this topic will be
hard to find but it's out there in news groups. I would as a CNet BBS sysop
perfer to see the correct creator get the credit for this excellent software
he made BEFORE AKey got his hands on it."
==============================================

NOTE:  I have been expressly forbidden--under penalty of litigation--from
ever using my ex business partner's name in any form, so henceforth, I will
use "my ex business partner" in substitution for his name, thereby
fulfilling my legal requirements.

Ken Pletzer--the originator of CNet--had incorporated many of my suggestions
over the years into code, and when he decided it was time to move on, I
jumped at the chance--on my birthday, March 30th, 1996--bought the rights
and the development machine.  My ex business partner and I formed ZenMetal
Software about 4 months later...he agreed with me far more often than Ken
did about certain things, so it was a logical thing to pair up with him to
get what we both wanted accomplished.  I should have known that there was
something "fishy" right from the start, since my ex business partner kept
dragging his heels about legally registering the business...even though he
already had the A2000 and all of the CNet source on his desk.

The "purchaser" noted above (my ex business partner) of the rights to CNet
is incorrect, and this impression has been propagated publically for several
years in order to make my ex partner feel superior, and basically to get his
foot in the door in other companies while taking a ride on my nickel.

The rights to CNet were purchased from "Kenneth Pletzer/Perspective
Software" "by Todd H. Knight", and the "purchaser" noted above by Mr.
Alexander was only a witness to the CNet source/rights purchase contract.

The rights to CNet and/or it's derivatives were NEVER transferred to my ex
business partner, NOR to ZenMetal Software, as ZMS never reimbursed me for
the cash outlay of acquiring those rights.   They WOULD have been
transferred after the initial investment in the source and development
machine were recouped, but since this never occurred, rights transfer
documents were never prepared, and by logical extension, never transferred.

Any claim to the contrary is a blatant falsehood designed to sway public
opinion...it has no bearing on the facts of the matter.

My ex business partner ceased development at the end of 1998, when the line
of credit I secured for the business ran dry, and I refused to sign any more
blank cheques without seeing the receipts for what the money that was
"supposed to be" in the ZMS bank account were being spent on.

After several years of regular abuse and generally being hated for trying to
save CNet for the loyal SYSOPs who DESERVED MUCH BETTER THAN THEY RECEIVED,
in early 2002 (January 30th, to be precise), I got fed up and legally
removed ZenMetal Software as a registered Canadian business entity.  Within
48 hours, my ex business partner practised what can only be deemed as
"spoil-sport tactics" by shutting down the web site,  to make sure that all
ZMS customers no longer had access to information.

This was an "aside" to his real agenda, which was to destroy CNet, and any
chance I had of keeping it a viable project.  What OTHER reason would
someone post all prior customer's personal information on the net?!?  Very
handy to pirates, one would think, to have a list of all registered users
and their serial numbers, eh?


With respect to my ex business partner's comments:
==============================================
Ray A. Akey writes "ZenMetal Software purchased the CNet source code and
rights to the CNet name from Ken Pletzer in 1996. Previous to this date,
CNet Amiga had no native internet connectivity. It was Ray A. Akey (me) who
implemented a native IRC client (based on ORC; a 3rd party IRC client, the
source of which ZenMetal purchased). Under the auspices of ZenMetal
Software, I also implemented built-in FTP, telnet and internet email
functionality and other widely praised internet connectivity features and
fixed many of the outstanding 3.x series CNet Amiga bugs. As for the
"killing" of CNet Amiga, that was not by choice. The reason CNet Amiga is no
longer is due to a failed partnership in which I, as the developer,
relinquished ownership of the source code to my former partner, Todd H.
Knight, who has done absolutely nothing with the CNet Amiga source code. I
have moved on and am now working for Amiga, Inc."
==============================================

Once again, I restate that the rights to CNet and all source and derivitives
were NOT purchased by ZenMetal Software.  ZenMetal Software was not formed
until SEVERAL MONTHS later.  My ex busines partner's name appeared on the
original purchase documents SOLELY as a witness.  He knows this, but the
general public does not, as they have been force-fed a tremendous amount of
self-serving lies fabricated by my ex business partner to serve and further
his own interests.

He did an excellent job of adding internet functionality, as noted above,
but stopped short in several areas due to other concerns which he refused to
discuss with me, stating that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement and
couldn't tell me about it.

Legally, as my business partner, he had a duty to disclose any such things
to his business partner (ie: me, at the time) PRIOR to signing any agreement
with any outside agencies, but that's neither here nor there at this point.
It would also have probably kept CNet alive and under
development...something which my ex business partner did not wish to do.

While he states above that he "relinquished ownership" of the rights to
me...well...it's kinda hard to see how someone can "relinquish" somethign he
never owned.  It makes him SOUND as though he "GAVE" me something that he
didn't...and that was the sole purpose of that statement.  Obfuscation fo
the truth of the matter.

As for the partnership having failed, it didn't "fail" but was "destroyed"
by a lack of consideration on his part for the business, it's customers, and
improper and woefully inadequate bookkeeping practises which he employed to
hide what happened with the money that was supposed to flow into the
business accounts.  A number of CNet purchasers have been very upset at me
for this, while they should have been upset at my ex business partner for
taking these payments under his own name without authorization.

Note:  Until I had a lawyer demand copies of all business documents shortly
after I unlisted ZMS as a business entity, I had no idea that the books had
been destroyed.  The only thing my ex business partner kept were about
$1700.00 in "miscellaneous" receipts that were paid for with cash...no
receipts that I had left in the files remained, as they all had my credit
card or chequing account on them...and that simply would NOT serve his
purpose when it came time to deny any knowledge of the partnership to it's
creditors when they wanted to be repaid!

At some point between the end of January 30th, 2002 and February 26th...any
documents which proved money was spent by myself on or for ZMS were
destroyed...and he even went so far as to conspire to commit fraud with the
aid of false receipts from a company in the US!!!  (This is NOT an
"allegation" of any sort, but a STATEMENT OF PROVABLE FACT.  I do have the
intention of handing this information off to the police at some future date
to see that he is prosecuted for "conspiracy to commit fraud over $1000.00"
as well as any other charges that might be laid in conjunction with it.  I'm
sure enlisting the aid of someone in another country will open it up to
some additional international fraud charges that I'm simply not aware of at
this point...but yet, I digress...

I've heard statements that my ex business partner "stopped development"
because of me, but the reality is sinply this:  If he'd have shown me where
the ZMS bank account went, I would not have refused to continue signing
cheques for the business.  Of course, had I known at the time that the bank
account was completely drained on a regular basis--and the cheques were
almost all written in my ex partner's name--well, I need make no
insinuations here...you can judge the facts for yourself.

As for my ex partner's "relinquishing ownership"...that would insinuate that
he had title to CNet at some point.  Of course, when it went to court when
the creditors wanted to get their invement money back, he had no idea...he
didn't sign anything...he didn't know anything about it...he didn't spend
any of it...you name it, he said it.  He just wanted the benefits, the
money, the credit, and when it came time to take care of his half of the
company debt... "Uhm...well....that's HIS problem...not MINE..."

Thanks.

I have no choice but to give the man credit, "my ex business partner" is one
of the most incredibly talented programmers I've ever heard of...hundreds of
times, I came to him with one simple idea--most of the time he laughed and
said it was a stupid idea and not worth bothering with at all--but then, and
almost always, a day or two later he'd drop me an email and tell me what he
did...my idea, with a half-dozen new facets of operation that I hadn't even
considered yet!

Some of my ideas were implemented over several years by Ken Pletzer himself,
prior to ZMS, but MOST of the major ideas I had were comitted to code by my
ex business partner.

Most of the bugs that were originally in CNet were written by Ken and
removed by my ex partner, and some were written right from scratch by my ex
partner.  ;)  Apparrently, there's a date bug "in the base"
somewhere...never saw it myself, so I don't know to whom it should be
attributed. ;)

The long and short of the whole saga?  I'll never get into another
partnership again unless we're already married, and she has already signed
something which states WITHOUT A DOUBT that she's not taking half of my half
when she fucks off with her half and sticks me with all the bills!!!

==========================================

CNet's future?

There are several people who may be considered for future CNet
developments...porting to other platforms, adding new functionality to bring
CNet up to where I PLANNED it to go when I first bought it from Ken, and
more nifty ideas that will bring it far into the future...just waiting for
the right programmer(s) to get the job done.

I can be reached via email at zencom.NoSpAm@NoSpAm.canada.com or
ElectroPig@NoSpAm.hotmail.com keeping in mind that there are a TON of spam
filters in place on the hotmail account, AND that it is NOT my primary
address, so I won't be checking ti nearly as often...

(Don't forget to remove the 'spamblocks' before you send.  ;)

"Snail" may be sent to:

        Todd H. Knight
    re: CNet PRO BBS
        104 Talbot West
        Leamington, Ontario
        N8H 1M8

Hope that clears up some of the misconceptions that have been pounded into
people's heads as though they were true for so many years now...and for
those who have stuck by CNet all this time, I appreciate your support, and
hope that someday in the near future, CNet will come back to haunt your old
machines once more...and your new machines as well!
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