Received from Hacked:

Date as transmitted 11-02-08

"Without Prejudice"

REFERENCE : Your comments on LondonFGSS

I make my living from building bikes.
I dont build crap bikes and I dont build dangerous bikes.You are inferring by way of your comments on this web site that I do both !

I carefully strip down each bike and rebuild,refurbish or replace ALL worn parts with new components.
I re-dish wheels, I align the freewheels to give a straight and close to perfect chain line at a good tension.
I carefully road test every bike that I build not once not twice but on average 3 times.
I have worked hard to build my professional reputation and I now see it in tatters on your site, based on what ???
Do you or any of those commenting have any personal experience of buying and using one of my bikes?

I build very good bikes, my bikes are good value for money, especially the one in particular that your fellow members and yourself chose to "slag off".

I have never given you permission to cut and reproduce comments from my advertisements on eBay, they are my property and not for your puerile amusement or to damage my livlihood. Further to this letter I will be taking advice as to whether I may pursue you personally for compensation.

I would like you to make a clear and very public apology and retraction of the personal comments made about me, my bikes and my customers on your discussion boards. I would like it to be displayed on the LondonFGSS "Home" page in a style and position where it will be seen by all visitors to your site for the next 28 days

I feel that 48 hours from the transmission of this email would be an adequate period of time for you to take the action I have requested for a public apology and retraction of the comments made.

Ian MacPherson

Ian, I am sorry. Seriously. For implying that all you do with your bikes is match chains to bar tape, etc. I can't ensure that this apology remains at the top of the forum for 28 days as you demand (only a moderator could ensure that) but this'll probably be on the front page for at least a few hours. If you want to give it further airing just add a comment to bump it to the top.

In return, perhaps you can apologise oublically to the entire forum for pretending, in a separate thread, to know nothing about converting bikes, for asking inane questions and being fraudulant yourself through pretense of a lack of cycling knowledge (whilst simultaeously bragging about your sales). Did you seriously think anyone would fall for that?

Anyway. Some people here like protracted wars of words. I don't. I'm here because the internet gives everybody a certain freedom of speech. I doubt there is anything libellous in my words, and I think you'd be wasting time and money going down that route. This is an apology. A word of advice though. The forum generates a lot of discussion, often critical, about bikes and brands. (Have you got our general impression of the Langster yet). A bit of jocular commentary on your colour schemes is hardly offensive. Toughen up.

Anyway, this is the last I will comment on the matter, but I hope you can direct any potential customers to this thread to insure them that I have taken back all the nasty things I said about your bikes.

one, two, three........GO!

I think they should have a fight and/or a race to sort this out, like warriors.
No need for lawyers.

ooohh

tomasito would stand no chance-"Anyhow I am impressed with the speed of this bike I was overtaking other riders on the straight"

it would be fun tho.. "yes is that you Lawyer?...yes id like to sue this chap called tomasito...yes he lives on the interwebs..."

Ooh, shit, nice spot Aidan.

Tomasito, I hope you can fight, dude.

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ok...whats his address?
...err,http://www.londonfgss.com/account.php?u=899

I am not sure, but I think as soon as your words touch ebay they own your ass.

OK, but I'm riding my own bike ;)

I fail. Just imagine the "harden the fuck up" video in place of this nonsense.
Can I go back to bed now please?

don't you sell singlespeeds with only one brake? That's a bit dangerous and a bit crap.

there was nothing libelous in what tomasito said, threats of action and pursuing "personally for compensation" are ridiculous but very funny.
i have never seen such self righteous verbal pomposity on a forum before.

it reminds me of Jeffery Archer and his sword of truth and trusty shield of fair play speech.

fair enough to cash in on the hipster fad by re-buildin crap bikes in trendy crap bikes.

good work object :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

And technically illegal...

I saw two single speed conversions with only a front brake yesterday on my way home and both were drilled for rear brakes too. Who is making these things?

not archer, aitken

after the guardian suggested that a bill for a stay at the ritz was picked up by a very wealthy saudi arms dealer. aitken had this to say:

“If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight. The fight against falsehood and those who peddle it. My fight begins today. Thank you and good afternoon.”

it emerged later that he recruited his wife and daughter to lie on his behalf - the web duly fell apart during the libel trial, leading to the collapse of the case, the end of Aitken’s career in politics, his subsequent bankruptcy, arrest, trial, conviction and imprisonment for 18 months.

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1995/apr/11/uk1]

Jonathan Aitken

Too slow!

archer? aitken? all snivelling tory fucktards who deserve a good shoeing

i hope he is registered self employed, tax and ni contributions up to date.

love all this cant copy my words pon the interwebs nonsense. reminds me of the FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! forum over at www.barryboys.co.uk

haha not been there in a while.

Archer perjured himself as well, of course. said he didn't give 2 grand ( an 'archer') to a hooker, and he did.

As I told HACKED, we don't have moderators. We still don't. We just have lil' 'ol me... the admin of the service and not a content moderator.

I'm keeping count btw, and this is the second set of legal threats we've had from bike makers since inception of the forum. Tony (dafoney) Malone and now HACKED. It's rather tiresome. I will get around to making a big disclaimer soon that explains how the internets work and how it's really not my problem what people post and that people can and do post whatever they want.

I wouldn't worry about ever making apologies to anything. Unless you knowingly did set out to mislead the public about something or other. Even then, do it in a gross caricature way and you'll fall under first amendment provisions protecting free speech... did I mention we're hosted in the USA? St Louis, MO to be precise. The server is under that jurisdiction, the posts are owned by those who post them so would be under UK jurisdiction mostly. How a civil libel case in the UK would ever manage to subpoena a US criminal court for access to contact details from a US hosted server is beyond me as I am not a lawyer. Needless to say, it's going to be pretty hard for any threat to ever materialise unless you really go way over the line.

where is the original 'libellous' thread?

and what is wrong with the world today? he's threatening to sue you? you should sue this man for his terrible writing style, ignorance of the apostrophe law and angriness.

leave this up for 28 days, see what happens. if i was him, i'd quit while i was ahead, 'tatters of a reputation' has to be better than no reputation at all.

hehe, I think tomasito knew what he was doing posting his petrol soaked apology ..just sat back and waited for the FGSS pyromaniacs to come along ;) ...click...click....shake...click

I always feel like sueing is the adult version of "I gonna tell on you" when we were kids...

That is just ridiculous & most amusing to read!

i read the other thread.

it ended in flowers and then hacked made some revolting joke about having his nose in a lady's fanny. i hope he washed his hands before matching bar tape with chain, that's all i'm saying.

The server is in the States?
So would it be appropriate to say "Hacked is a douchebag!"?
Well done on your small business enterprise, hope your bikes don't injure anyone... are you insured? HTFU.

hacked is taking this way too seriously. i really don't think it's a matter for the courts.
you can't come on a forum pretending to be something you're not, and then get offended when people give you their opinion on your products.
and as for permission to cut and paste sections of the auction, it's not his to give. when you put something on ebay, ebay owns the copyright. look at the page.
i think he's very lucky to get an apology at all. i doubt anyone would think badly of tomasito for just telling him where to go, but he's actually stood up and apologized just to end the whole thing.
i think hacked should be very grateful for that.
that's just my opinion anyway...

Yeah man I'm gonna sue because someone openly dissed meon the internet..

jesus. fucking. christ.

What are you, 5 years old?!?