Already the letters are beginning to trickle in. Feel free to submit your own feelings on the subject.


Note: These letters originally started when the site was forced to be taken down for a day due to the Empire's claims of copyright infringement. 


Subject:      good luck
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 20:08:56 +0100
From:         [snip]
Organization: [snip]
To:           "Mike Wallis" 


i just bought msunix.org and msunix.net.


-----
reet*[@#oldschool%irc2.att.net]
That's reassuring. I'm sure you'll be hearing from them soon too. 
Subject:      mslinux
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 14:42:10 -0500
From:         [snip]
To:           "'mike@milliways.net'" 


Mike,

I thought the page was hilarious.....
I'm sorry I didn't print it out!

Any idea where a mirror of it is?

[snip]
(all thoughts are mine and not uncle sam's)
Uh-oh, even the DOD liked it, it must be wrong... I'd love to point you to a mirror, but I'm sure they'd be pissy about that too. 
Subject:      mslinux.org
Date:         Wed, 04 Oct 2000 16:51:16 -0400
From:         [snip]
To:           mike@milliways.net

Isn't there a "right to parody" built into copyright laws?  I think it
falls under fair use.  In any case, good luck fighting the empire(tm).

[snip]
----
"Truth is a matter of the imagination.  The soundest fact may fail or
prevail based on the style of its telling."
        --Ursula K. LeGuin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"
One would imagine so, since that was the same argument I used last time I dealt with the Empire's lawyers. However, I'd certainly love to actually hear from the lawyers themselves, rather than getting messages relayed through various ISPs. 
Subject:      Laugh
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 13:58:42 -0700
From:         [snip]
To:           

Can tell you this much everyone in my office got a good kick out of that web
page and really wished I had printed it out.  Even we knew it was a joke
don't see what M$ big problems is but guess we will never know.
As I've said... a web search for mslinux.org will start sprouting mirrors I'm sure. For the conspiracy nuts among you, the Empire appears to have a vested interest in Corel, who happens to have their own Linux offering. Coincidence? Perhaps... 
Subject:       www.mslinux.org
Date:          Wed, 4 Oct 2000 16:03:51 -0500
From:          "DaHat"
To:            


I can't believe they took the rout that they did, it just proves how childish they are.

I would like to know though how your website violated "Microsoft Copyright," if that is the case then there are many many other sites out there who've been doing much worse for much
longer.

I'd be happy to put up a mirror of that site for you on my website, it's not a domain, just as part of my school page.

They have no right to tell you to take that down, it's free speech!
We'd all love to know the reasoning behind this, and with any luck, I might even find out. 
Subject:      M$Linux
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 14:28:14 -0700
From:         [snip]
To:           

Mike,

        I don't know how or even who at M$ could possibly order something like
this.  Reading through the M$ Copyright documents there is nothing about
this type of parody being a copyright violation.  Please post there answers
on your site, I am sure that they will be interesting.  You and your other
supporters are right this falls under free speech as ordained by the First
Amendment of  the Constitution of the United States of America.

        On a side note, to the person who purchased msunix.org and msunix.net.
Keep on with the fight!


[snip]
Apparently it was the image of their beloved flag superimposed upon the penguin they were screaming about. You may notice the images now sport a subtly different look in order to avoid future complaints of this nature. 
Subject:      I would have told them to fuck off
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 14:40:34 -0700
From:         [snip]
To:           "'mike@milliways.net'" 

You are not making money off a product, so I would have told them to screw
them selves, If you want I will put the page up on my server, and gladly
fuck the system.


When they come for your guns, give them the ammo first.
Fuck GORE and all his censorship!

[snip]
Well, I suppose it takes all kinds... 
Subject:      M$linux
Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 2000 22:48:56 +0200
From:         "SupaDuke"
To:           

Mike,

I think mslinux.org kicked ass! Keep on fucking M$ as they suck themself!!

Grtz,
SuperDuke

--
If it has syntax, it isn't user friendly

Windows 95/NT - 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch
to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor,
written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
This one contains way too many mental pictures I never wanted to have... But, thank you for your support. 
Subject:      Empire(tm)
Date:         Thu, 5 Oct 2000 01:10:19 -0700 (PDT)
From:         Murphy
To:           mike@milliways.net

Mike,
Take a steel rod and shove it up their brown eye.
What's this kind POS censorship...
Good luck in uploading the page again
Waiting on it...

Internet is like humanity itself with a - added.
Like in...Indivi-duality
What is it with these violent tendencies? However, the page should be back up as you read this... 
Subject:      mslinux.org
Date:         Thu, 5 Oct 2000 12:56:56 +0200
From:         [snip]
To:           mike@milliways.net

there doesn't seem to be a mirror of your page on the web. I tried
several search engines.

I would throw up a mirror immediatly, if you could supply me with a
copy of the files. to reassure you that I'm not an M$ drone trying to
lure you into a trap, take a look at my domain, especially the
http://www.lemuria.org/mirrors/ section.

of course, I would claim that I made a wget before the site went
offline.
Thankfully, lying shouldn't be necessary, but you may want to go ahead and grab a copy now. Who knows what they'll scream about next... 
Subject:
Date:         Thu, 5 Oct 2000 13:42:05 +0200
From:         [snip]
To:           "'mike@milliways.net'" 

Hi Mike,

Even though I have worked for Microsoft for the better part of two years, I
still found your website absolutely fantastic and hillarious. Imo it was/is
an example of it being possible to make fun of each other - without getting
into the /.-ish retoric. I know, that Microsoft has been aware of your site
for quite some time (I myself found it about a year ago), and I have always
viewed upon it as a "thumbs-up" for Microsoft, because they clearly also saw
the irony in the content of your site.

... obviously - I was wrong ...


I hope, that you will be back online again very soon.


[snip]
Personally, I've often felt that the Empire's legal department isn't terribly well connected to reality. That's a risk you take with what amounts to higly paid consultants who set their own schedule and bill you hourly. But, I digress... 
Subject:      mslinux.org
Date:         Thu, 5 Oct 2000 10:27:55 -0400
From:         [snip]
To:           mike@milliways.net

Mike,
Looks like I was too late to see your parody.  Where are the links??
Well, now that I've put the site back up, I may start maintaining a mirror list if people tell me about them.