Re: Discuss EliteFitness.com News: How Anthony Roberts & Steroid.com Raped George Spe
George Spellwin said:
That could be helpful since I do not read the other sites. And it could be helpful if other sites hear our side of the story too. It is not that I do not think there are other sites out there that are great, because I know that there are many. I just do not want to go on another site and make a spectacle of myself - I try not to do that even here.
HERE IS THE LATEST CRAP AR IS POSTING ALL OVER THE NET .. ON HIZ BLOG AND ON ROID.COM .. REAL PIECE OF CRAP HE IS..SAD SOME PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE THIS SLEEZE BALL
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My reply in full to Elite’s bullshit claims.
Filed under: Other — admin @ 2:29 pm
My comments in Black, Elite’s in Red if I missed anything, let me know and I’ll make another blog post.
“Anthony Roberts and his partner Brian Clapp and their sites…”
I don’t own any of Brian’s sites, and he doesn’t own any of mine (I own more than one, currently), nor are we partners in anything, legally. Neither of our names appear on the company charter of either of the other’s LLC’s or Inc’s. We’re partners in spirit, and treat each other like partners, but we have 2 totally different issues here with EF.
“…Anthony Roberts, a friend and colleague of mine, and his partner Brian Clapp, with their sites Steroid.com and *********.com plotted to take control of ************.com by filing a frivolous lawsuit in Texas and by flooding our Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with notices demanding that our entire web-site be taken offline.…”
If the lawsuit was frivolous, then why has EF had to take down Anabolic Gameplan before it even went to court? If you look, it’s no longer for sale on their site. Also, ********* has nothing to do with me. I don’t get checks from them and have my own line of products that have nothing to do with those. [Although I do use the Clen from *********.]
“[they sent] our ISP providers with notices demanding our entire web-site be taken offline”
Note: This is what EF did to me, personally, and here’s a signed document showing that they lied to do it:
http://forums.steroid.com/attachment...4&d=1202801058
“Everything started with a talented entrepreneur who went by the name of Jeff Summers [Real name: Bart Harcourt]…. successful at deceiving guys into thinking they were buying anabolic steroids when they definitely were not.”
Who, you may be asking, is Jeff Summers? Well, Jeff Summers, if we’re keeping score was William Llewellyn’s old business partner - just in case you were wondering. Here’s some proof from when things went sour, and Bill and Jeff/Bart parted ways…it’s a post where Jeff bashes Bill:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...84&postcount=1
And here’s one where Bill bashes Jeff:
http://forums.steroid.com/showpost.p...73&postcount=1
“Anthony Roberts idolizes his partner Brian Clapp and Brian Clapp idolized his friend Bart Harcourt [Jeff Summers].”
I don’t idolize Brian; he’s my friend. And Brian didn’t even know Bart Harcourt…they never met and never spoke. I don’t know how the **** that makes them friends…
“In order to find customers, he copied the ************.com ideas for an anabolic steroid discussion forum community and he partnered with Anthony Roberts - a guy who was only thirteen when EF went live - to write steroid related articles.”
It’s a bit silly to say that Brian copied ************’ “idea” for a steroid forum. I can’t imagine anything that the two sites have in common really. As for me being 13 when ************.com went live (1996), I’m 30 right now, and that was 12 years ago, so I was 18. This ****ing guy can’t even do simple math.
“The idea behind Brian and Anthony’s Steroid.com site is actually quite ingenious. Steroid.com pretends to support and educate the bodybuilding community, but at the same time it really exists to cheat its members into buying the fake steroids that they sell at their sister site, the *********.com.”
Steroid.com isn’t “my” site…I work there as senior editor. I don’t own it. I ****ing wish I owned it! But as for “*********” being the idea behind steroid.com, steroid.com was around for like 5 years before *********. So that’s just ****ing dumb. I also don’t know how steroid.com pretends to support the bodybuilding community. I could give a **** about bodybuilding, and the “bodybuilding” forums are the slowest ones on the site. Steroid.com is a steroid site, not a bodybuilding site. As for ********* products, they’re supplements, and no more or less honest than Gaspari or MuscleTech or whoever.
“Brian is the one raking in the cash, living in a mansion, and now he’s the one driving the Lambor***ni perhaps even the same one that was once owned by his mentor Bart.”
Actually, Bart was dead for awhile when Brian got his new Lambo…which is the current year’s model, so unless Bart bought one after he died, it’s not the same one. Also, Bri has a nice, large, 4br/4bath house…I don’t think it’s a mansion though. I drive a nice car, but it’s not a Lambo.
“You have to give Brian and Anthony credit, it’s a great idea really; use your Steroid.com EF clone site to sell fake steroids in your very own *********.”
Once again, it’s not my idea at all. And why are nutritional supplements “Fake Steroids” ? Oh…and how the **** is steroid.com an EF clone site? Did we start charging people to use the search function or something?
“You see, most businesses are successful because of repeat customers; however, you can imagine that after you buy something from the ********* only to discover that it is not an anabolic steroid, you’re not going to go back and get ripped off again.”
I think Brian told me that ********* has a 40-60% repeat business rate. The stuff I’ve used from them works, but I’ve only used the clen which is a caffeine/synepherine/capsacin/guggul based fat burner.
“In 2006, Anthony approached us about writing an e-book about the new use of peptides and insulin growth factors in bodybuilding and we said that we would read it and sell it for him if he wrote one. The result was a collaboration between my staff and Anthony called “Beyond Steroids” and as steroid books go, this one is really pretty good.”
I did approach EF about writing that book for them. I earned about $14k off of it that year, with my editor earning an equal amount. There was no ****ing collaboration between any EF staff and myself…they contributed nothing to the writing of that book. Paul/George designed the cover, I think, and wrote the sales letter. So basically I got a 30% cut of Beyond Steroids, and shared 50% of that cut with my editor, for life. And I’m money-hungry?
EF charges people to use the search function!
Doing the math on Beyond Steroids, this means Paul/George/EF earned $60k+ from one of my books, and that one was not (for the record) the book I have earned the most money off of. Is it no wonder that they are crying to keep my books on their site even while they are bashing me? If I’m not earning them loot, then why haven’t they given me the books back yet? Why are they hating on me, yet still selling my books? Think about it. Why does the EF store still carry MyoGenX, and why is it that I want nothing to do with them, and they refuse to stop selling my books?
Because I ****ing earn money for them. They can’t get rid of my books because they outsell every other one they have, and frankly, EF is not doing well financially. That’s a cold hard fact.
“We had worked with Anthony, promoting him and his book for a long time, when he introduced us to his partner Brian and said that Brian wanted to advertise on ************.com. Having no idea at the time about the connection between Steroid.com and *********.com, we signed an agreement to run Brian’s advertising on the ************.com site thinking we would be promoting Brian and Anthony’s Steroid.com discussion forums.”
Why the **** would steroid.com advertise on another discussion forum? How would that ****ing make sense? Also, they knew Brian before I did!
“We had an agreement with them obligating us to run their ads, only to discover that we were not going to be running Steroid.com ads at all. Instead, they forced us to run banners advertising their ********* because the guys on Brian and Anthony’s Steroid.com site weren’t buying their garbage any more.”
Actually, I had little to nothing to do with this. And when Brian pulled the ********* ads, ************.com was ****ing crying to get back the advertising dollar (he was paying more than every other current sponsor, added up). It just wasn’t financially worthwhile to keep the ad up. Same went for ****, so the ads were all pulled. The idea to pull them was my buddy Tohma’s (a manager here), who started tracking sales and clicks and noticing that EF wasn’t even breaking even for the money Brian spent. Also, how the **** can they say Bri has a mansion and a lambo and that people aren’t buying his products???
“Finally, in the late summer of 2007, our arrangement with Brian came to an end and we got to pull their ********* banners”
Actually, both Paul/George and Rick were on the phone with me weekly trying to get Brian to advertise with them again. Nothing, however, would have made that profitable.
“…while we were selling his personal consultations, we would find out that he was not speaking to the guys that had paid for his consults at the scheduled times.”
The fact of the matter is that Elite had one ****ing simple job to do, and that was to mail my clients legal waivers and forms to fill out. They did not do that, and I did not talk to any clients who did not sign them and fill them out.
Currently I work with all the same clients, although with the majority, I do so for free at this point.
“I too had become concerned about him as a number of our Moderators were suggesting that they thought Anthony had a substance abuse problem.”
The only moderator who I’ve ever met from Elite is Mandy Polk. She doesn’t seem to think I have a substance abuse problem, nor do any of the others that I actually know. I have spoken to a couple on the phone as well, like Nelson, Carl/Triceptor, and others. Actually I was part of the vote that brought Nelson back. I brought Carl/Triceptor to the site outright, as well as Mandy, and I like to consider Needto a friend as well, and have spoken to him on the phone as well as in e-mails.
“The final straw came when Anthony asked me to ban another Mod who is a friend of mine because this Mod allegedly suggested that one of Anthony’s friends might not be a natural athlete.”
It wasn’t alleged, it happened, although I didn’t ask for anyone ot be banned. Also….Paul/George has never met a single current member of the moderation staff personally, never e-mailed them, and never talked on the phone to them. Really close friends, I guess….
When Beyond Steroids came out, the entire mod staff thought I was guerilla marketing the thing because ************ had sent out a PM blast in my name, promoting the book (which I did not write). He doesn’t keep them in the loop at all, and they’re hardly friends. They don’t even know his real ****ing name!
“I had always liked Anthony and was glad to help give him his start. I also thought he showed so much promise.”
Give me my start? I was already writing for Steroid.com, ********, ****Rx, and other sites! I ****ing was a published author! Give me my start? Are you out of your mind?
“In a weird way, I felt like I had when my first girlfriend in high-school broke up with me – I wondered what I myself had done wrong.”
Maybe I can help here….you’re gay, dude. You’re 36 and live with your boyfriend Patrick in a penthouse apartment in New York City. Like…I don’t want to be a dick, and I don’t care what sexual orientation someone is, but maybe she dumped you because her Gaydar was going berserk around you?
“But I did not realize Brian and Anthony’s primary goal was to get ********* back on the ************.com site any way possible. And they intended to sue me if they needed to in order to get the *********.com banner ads back on our forums.”
Actually, as I understand it Paul’s lawyer expressed that he simply does not have the capitol to pay what he’s likely to lose in this case, so as I understand it, they worked out banner ads as a form of potential payment for a settlement. Brian pulled the advertising…why would his whole intent be to get it back? And aren’t we overlooking the fact that EF STOLE FROM ME AND BRIAN????
I commented on EF’s finances before, also:
http://robertsblog.com/2008/03/09/**...l-financially/
“Dino Strong writes a book and ************.com gets sued by Brian and Anthony. Dino himself is not even named in the lawsuit.”
Way to throw Dino Strong (Mark) under the bus. He got into a bit of trouble when his dealer (Jason Arntz, IFBB pro) got busted as I understand it. Ever wonder why he wrote a book and disappeared off the face of the earth, and no longer posts on EF. Bingo!
“And get this, they have not yet told us in writing what they allege was copied.”
Perhaps this is because we took about an hour on the phone with you, and online, showing you specifically what was copied? Also, my lawyer was under the impression that a settlement would be reached today, ironically.
“I’ve been told that a few paragraphs they claim Dino copied were posted on their sites, but they have not to this day sent me anything more formal telling me what Dino did wrong.”
Yet, we spent all that time on the phone with you telling you and showing you what was stolen, didn’t we? No worries….it’ll all be posted on steroid.com later today. Also…what’s with the “”I’ve been told” bullshit? You clearly have seen the infringing work, as you wrote a letter to GoDaddy asking that it be removed from my blog, and you even signed it. Here it is, just in case you forgot:
http://forums.steroid.com/attachment...4&d=1202801058
“To make matters worse, after they filed the lawsuit, they sent demand letters to all of our ISPs threatening them that they would be sued too if the entire ************.com site was not taken offline. And for forty panic inducing minutes on February 29th, they actually succeeded in having our entire site shutdown until our lawyer explained things to our ISP.”
Kind of like what you did to my blog, numbnuts. Actually, that’s where I got the idea:
http://robertsblog.com/2008/03/01/**...if-i-know-why/
“Here’s what they want: “Plaintiff (that’s Brian and Anthony) seeks statutory damages in the amount of One Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($150,000.00) per willful infringement and Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000.00) per non-willful infringement.” And they want this money from me, not Dino Strong, the book’s author.”
Again, I love how the publisher is trying to place all the blame on his author, and hang him out to dry. Real ****ing classy. I’m not the plaintiff in Brian’s case, and he’s not the plaintiff in mine. We have separate lawyers, separate cases, and pay them separately. Brian offered to help me out financially with the lawsuit, and I haven’t (thankfully) needed to take him up on the offer. This is not what “they” are asking, it’s Brian’s case. I really like how Paul/George repeatedly tries to **** over Dino, even though he knew that the book was bullshit.
In fact, regarding my own claims and what I’ve requested in damages, this is from an e-mail I sent Paul, telling him what I want, dated Tuesday, December 11th:
“Stop selling Jekyl and Hyde right now, as well as Beyond Steroids, and
Anabolic Game Plan. Discontinue selling those first two permanently.
Remove the offending passages of Anabolic Game Plan, then continue selling it afterwards. Our contract is not valid, Paul. You’ve actively been pirating material from my previous work, after being alerted to it 2x.
It’s reasonable that I now terminate our contract- which is what I’m doing.”
Now, of course, I will not be as reasonable and let him off as lightly.
“What’s crazier still is that Anthony Roberts got a pre-release copy of Anabolic Gameplan and read it before it ever went on sale. Although he did have a few comments and suggestions, back when we were working with him, he certainly had no problem with our selling Dino’s work.”
I said the mother****er stole from me. I said it then, and I am still saying it now. I said take that shit out every ****ing time they talked about the book. In fact, a lunch meeting with Me, Paul, Rick, and Mark/Dino was cancelled because I expressed my intent to bring the issue up in person. SO basically this whole paragraph is bullshit. If I didn’t know he stole from me, and didn’t ask for it to be removed, then follow up by buying a copy, then how did I know where/what to look at? Why did I even buy a copy a year later?
“So I took her advice and we proposed a settlement that would have me pay Brian an amount greater than the ENTIRE profit that ************.com made on the sale of the Anabolic Gameplan e-book.”
Once again, notice that I don’t get shit…this is a settlement with Brian, on a separate issue. My issue and case is totally different, although it stems from the same cause. Also, Dino’s book did not sell as well as my book, not even close…so that would likely be a very small sum of money. Paul didn’t “propose a settlement” with me, he tried to claim that the two different cases (in different STATES) were going to be sorted out with one settlement (in which I got absolutely nothing).
“Finally, my lawyer learned from theirs what they really wanted. What they really wanted was advertising on ************.com — and TONS of it. To be specific, they wanted $180,000 in advertising and cash too that I believe would be used to pay their attorney. Essentially, they wanted to plaster *********.com banners on every page of the site.”
Again, no, this is not the case as I understand it. Paul/George/EF would likely not be able to pay a settlement to Brian in the amount he’d likely win, so this was proposed in light of that. As for my case, I asked for the ****ing rights to my ****ing books back. That’s it. Brian’s lawyers do not represent me other than in my role as an employee, should that ever come up in the future. And what the **** is $180k/year in advertising on a site that costs under $3k /month per forum sponsorship?
“I did not write the e-book in question, since Anthony had received a copy before it went on sale, and since no one believes that any significant copying ever took place at all.”
Actually, as I’m going to show you….quite a bit of copying took place…check the main anabolic forum on steroid.com in a couple hours. The crux of my lawsuit is that willful copying took place and that (ergo) invalidates the good faith of the contract(s) I signed with EF, and I can therefore terminate them at will immediately.
“Brian and Anthony would not budge from their position of demanding $180,000 in advertising plus a cash payment too”
You ****ing numbnuts. Once again, read my e-mail above. It says everything I asked for. With regards to Brian, I don’t even know what he’s asked for, but once again, this is a separate case. All I wanted was for you to ****ing stop selling my ****ing shit. Also, Paul/George wants a clause written into the settlement whereby no parties involved can say what happened or what they got.
I’m not signing anything like that. Get ****ed.
“I have just hired a team of lawyers in Texas and I have resolved to spend whatever it takes to defend our site and our members”
In what way are you defending your members? Or the site? This is about a ****ing pirated body of work, which you profit from the sale of. This has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with you pirating my work knowingly and trying to pass it off as someone else’s. You’re really “defending” your author aren’t you? You’re basically trying to put him in your place!
Stop trying to look like you’re defending the members here…you’re just trying to save your ass, and get them on your side.
“To add insult to injury, according to my friend Bill Llewellyn who authors the Anabolics series that he updates every year, Anthony and Brian plagiarized his work extensively when they wrote their book Anabolic Steroids Ultimate Research Guide that they claim Dino infringed. And Bill has agreed to testify on our behalf.”
It’s very interesting that Paul/George would bring Bill into this discussion. Remember that he has said some pretty bad things about Jeff/Bart, Bill’s old partner…and tried to say that guy is Brian’s friend and mentor (although they never met). Notice that Paul/George never mentions that Bill was actually Jeff/Bart’s old partner, and then even lies when he tries to somehow connect Brian to him. The fact is that all the bad shit Paul/George was saying, doesn’t apply to Brian (who never met Bart/Jeff), but it would actually apply to his old business partner, a certain Bill Llewellyn, wouldn’t it?
And umm…not to be a total dick, but regarding substance abuse, didn’t Bill write an article about the effects of smoking pot for MD a few years back (December 2005), and (if you note) all of the pictures in the article (of the various bongs and shit) were all personally taken by Mr. Llewellyn? Where does one get so many personal pictures of bongs and pot and pipes and shit? Well, no surprise here, but old Billy boy admits in the article to smoking a joint or two “in his time” (his time, by the way, is before breakfast, daily, from what I’m told).
Now…Bill claims (as his wife told Brian) that we plagorized an alphabetical chart of every steroid produced (in the year that the books were each published). You can’t copyright that kind of thing (although the charts do differ in a few respects anyway)…think about it…you can’t copyright an alphabetized list of all 50 states and then claim that nobody else can alphabetize them in their own book in the future. You need some kind of unique mental effort, not a list of all steroids A-Z.
Nobody is allowed to alphabetize a list of steroids? Even if it’s different? Huh?
Also, Brian owns 2 separate copyrights for the work…one for the book itself in whole, and another for just the profiles.
”The good part of Bill’s testifying is that Anthony and Brian cannot enforce a copyright that is shown to be invalid itself.”
But that is not the case. We’ve already had lawyers look this over, 2 years ago, when Bill’s wife called us (and they did NOT even attempt to sue us). But even so, Bill “testifying” wouldn’t do shit. He’d have to sue us himself, then win.
But in any case, we’d still have the other copyright, which covers all the profiles on the steroid.com site (w/o the chart Bill’s wife erroneously thinks is “stolen” or whatever). And our other copyright easily covers the infringing work.
Look…Elite sole from me, and all I asked for was to have my contracts terminated and to leave, and for them to no longer carry my work.. They wouldn’t do that. Now we’re here, and I guess they’re getting desperate and putting out a bunch of bullshit…but just like I told you EF would get shut down, and they’d have to stop selling AGP, I was right.
And I’m telling you they will not win their case against Brian and they won’t win against me either.
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