Message Board : Changes at NPA

Ex-Stoxpoker-Fan said

I think the way that you’ve been treated by Stoxpoker is absolutely
scandalous - and if it isn’t them then please put an end to all the
speculation and innuendo by naming and shaming. I literally cried when
I heard the news. What an indictment on the money-grabbers - it has
done NOTHING for the reputation they are trying to build as a genuine
community. I for one (and my cousin for 2) will not be renewing our
stoxpoker membership. Don’t be bullied Ed. You’re a good guy, and
NotedPokerAuthority is building up your reputation so that you can one
day make serious money without tying yourself in to onesided deals.

Tim said:

“Pressures are exerted all the time in the business world. There is
nothing wrong or immoral about it. It's the way business is done in a
capitalist system.”

Your reasoning is precarious. You are classifying something as moral only due to the fact that it is accepted in a capitalist system.

That being said I don't think there is any sense in dwelling on the subject either. Involement of Stoxpoker in threats of any form has been officially disclaimed (as expected). And apparently it is not in Ed's interest to share any details about the alleged threats, which is perfectly fine.

Little Old Lady said:

Now Edward is not a little chick

---

I agree, Ed doesn't look even a little bit like Keeley Hazell.

Hi Ed,

by now you must be rather tired with this subject I guess…

Please take it as an appreciation of your great work that some of us got quite emotional when we read about the reasons behind the changes. I can only speak for myself, but I am surely not the only one who wants to offer his assistance in case there's anything we as a community can do to get the pressure off you.

I am aware that it's almost impossible to explain your reasons (in a PUBLIC!!! forum) once it comes to naming people or institutions behind all this. So we all should simply take your word on who is NOT behind the threats you told us about.

It might be easier for us to get along with this, if we would understand, why it is so important to someone that we pay for certain content. Is it a copyright issue? Is it a tax issue so that this site can/will be treated as a “commercial” site?

It's hard to believe that you or someone else wants to make big bucks this way. Who would pay for something that is possible to get for free during the first 30 days? This doesn't sound like a great business model, but rather something you came up with to get some “public servants” off your back.

Anyway I respect your right to not give us any more details if you don't want to! Please let us know if there's anything we can do as a community!

Greyzy

Regarding Bryce, my namesake, I have serious questions about whether he is human or not. Anyone who has heard one of his poker videos might reasonably conclude he is an excellent pokerbot.

Just to be clear, the preceding reply was from someone with a similar user name, not me.

OK…….Mason says it was Stox, Ed says it's not Stox……………..

ED Help clear this thing up so we know. I have been a subcriber to Stox and don't like the way they Auto renewed me without my permission. I been thinking of cancelling anyway except I love your lessons thats why I bought your 4 DVD set.

Come on Ed put this thing to rest.

What Matt Flynn said in this thread is true. Mason Malmuth is the one who has been trying to force changes here at NPA. It started in about September of last year, and it's gone from an initial demand that I shut the website down entirely to a letter from his lawyer demanding that I remove all articles older than 3 months to threats of breaking deals with Stoxpoker if they couldn't convince me to alter the site.

I struck a deal with Stoxpoker designed to appease Mason and keep him off Stoxpoker's back. I'm not sure it's the right thing for Stoxpoker, and I'm not sure I did the right thing either.

This NPA stuff is just the tip of the iceberg with Mason. He's been pressuring, harrassing, and smearing me and the people I work with (Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta, the Stoxpoker guys) for nearly two years now. He says it's about book sales or this or that, but there's no doubt in my mind that his main motivation is purely personal. He's trying to “get” me any way he can think of.

I hate this kind of stuff. I just want to talk about poker. My original strategy was to keep doing my thing and not to dignify Mason's nonsense with a response, but it's pretty clear now that Mason is going to keep pushing and pushing until I can't ignore him anymore. I should have nipped it in the bud, but I didn't, and now we'll see where it goes from here.

janeg said:

It's a shame he's getting away with this; if you're not publishing copyrighted material does he have a leg to stand on, legally? Just because he published a few of your books surely doesn't give him the right to dictate limits on what publish publicly for the rest of your life!

Tough decision for you and the guys at Stox; just hope giving him an inch doesn't make him think he can take a mile.

Of course, Mason doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. If he did, he would have stood on it months ago. There is no non-compete clause in Edward's contracts. I know because I went over the first one with a fine tooth comb, and I had some concerns about it. His lack of legal standing is what motivated Mason to involve StoxPoker. He threatened StoxPoker with actions which were within his capacity to follow through on. Both StoxPoker and Edward as a member of the StoxPoker team felt that Mason's proposed actions would have had negative consequences, and so, as Edward says, he and the StoxPoker honchos negotiated a deal which they hoped would appease Mason and get him off their backs and would make Edward's capitulation to Mason's demands essentially on StoxPoker's behalf a little easier for him to take. I can only hope that these public revelations will discourage Mason from trying to take a mile, as janeg put it.

It should be noted that as far as I know the other 2p2 authors involved with StoxPoker or who publish material elsewhere than 2p2 are not experiencing this nonsense. To paraphrase my old classmate Donald Trump, “It's not business; it's just personal.”