On Mar 25, 7:47 pm, David Babcock wrote:
the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

From Milton's Work's _Contract Bridge_ (1927):

"Reckon an Ace as 4, a King as 3, a Queen as 2, and a Jack as 1." (p.
28).

On a related matter, I have spoken with Amazon about the
misattribution of the authorship of the Harkness reprint to Goren in
the listing on their site; their customer support representative
appreciated the information, repeated everything back to me (at his
suggestion), and said he is forwarding the information to a
supervisor. Perhaps Mr. Sloan's hope that the error will be corrected
is just a bit closer to realization.

David

Amazon Customer Support is the galactic opposite of eBay. They
actually listen and then act on the information. I manage several
forums, of which one is for book sellers. 99% of the members speak
well of Amazon.

On Mar 25, 6:47 pm, David Babcock wrote:
the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

From Milton's Work's _Contract Bridge_ (1927):

"Reckon an Ace as 4, a King as 3, a Queen as 2, and a Jack as 1." (p.
28).

On a related matter, I have spoken with Amazon about the
misattribution of the authorship of the Harkness reprint to Goren in
the listing on their site; their customer support representative
appreciated the information, repeated everything back to me (at his
suggestion), and said he is forwarding the information to a
supervisor. Perhaps Mr. Sloan's hope that the error will be corrected
is just a bit closer to realization.

David

Thank you very much. It certainly bothers me that they list Charles
Goren as the author rather than Harkness first because Goren is much
more popular among bridge players and readers and some will feel no
doubt feel misled when they find out that the book is actually by
Harkness, and secondly because I reprinted the book primarily as a
tribute to Harkness since I have also reprinted two of his chess
books.

Thank you again.

Sam Sloan

"Carl" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Mar 25, 7:47 pm, David Babcock wrote:
the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

From Milton's Work's _Contract Bridge_ (1927):

"Reckon an Ace as 4, a King as 3, a Queen as 2, and a Jack as 1." (p.
28).

On a related matter, I have spoken with Amazon about the
misattribution of the authorship of the Harkness reprint to Goren in
the listing on their site; their customer support representative
appreciated the information, repeated everything back to me (at his
suggestion), and said he is forwarding the information to a
supervisor. Perhaps Mr. Sloan's hope that the error will be corrected
is just a bit closer to realization.

David

Amazon Customer Support is the galactic opposite of eBay. They
actually listen and then act on the information. I manage several
forums, of which one is for book sellers. 99% of the members speak
well of Amazon.


This may be so; however, even for Amazon it isn't a simple matter to
determine
who owns a Copyright. Sloan seems to be selecting books that might either be
in the public domain or under Copyright that isn't likely to be defended.

The grossest error he has made so far is to copy a book by G.M. Kasparyan
(Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies). This is an important book that went
through several editions in Russia. Kasparyan died in 1995, so the Copyright
cannot have expired. The English translation was published by 'Progress',
which didn't survive the ravages of Capitalism. Most likely one or another
of the Oligarchs holds the rights to the book lists of Progress and Mir,
the foreign language publishers in the days of the Soviets; and sooner or
later
they will realize that these are valuable.

On Mar 26, 7:24 am, Jürgen R. wrote:
"Carl" schrieb im ...



On Mar 25, 7:47 pm, David Babcock wrote:
the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

From Milton's Work's _Contract Bridge_ (1927):

"Reckon an Ace as 4, a King as 3, a Queen as 2, and a Jack as 1." (p.
28).

On a related matter, I have spoken with Amazon about the
misattribution of the authorship of the Harkness reprint to Goren in
the listing on their site; their customer support representative
appreciated the information, repeated everything back to me (at his
suggestion), and said he is forwarding the information to a
supervisor. Perhaps Mr. Sloan's hope that the error will be corrected
is just a bit closer to realization.

David

Amazon Customer Support is the galactic opposite of eBay. They
actually listen and then act on the information. I manage several
forums, of which one is for book sellers. 99% of the members speak
well of Amazon.

This may be so; however, even for Amazon it isn't a simple matter to
determine
who owns a Copyright. Sloan seems to be selecting books that might either be
in the public domain or under Copyright that isn't likely to be defended.

The grossest error he has made so far is to copy a book by G.M. Kasparyan
(Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies). This is an important book that went
through several editions in Russia. Kasparyan died in 1995, so the Copyright
cannot have expired. The English translation was published by 'Progress',
which didn't survive the ravages of Capitalism. Most likely one or another
of the Oligarchs holds the rights to the book lists of Progress and Mir,
the foreign language publishers in the days of the Soviets; and sooner or
later they will realize that these are valuable.

The Kasparyan book was published in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union
did not honor international copyright law and pirated many, many books
published in the West. An example is "My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby
Fischer.

Since the Soviet Union did not recognize our copyrights, we do not
recognize their's.

Also, the Kasparyan book was itself a copyright violation. Kasparyan
himself composed only a few of the problems in the book. The rest were
created by other composers. For example, the Kasparyan book cites "365
Selected Chess Endgames" by Norman T. Whitaker. Whitaker was an
American. I knew him well. (Nothing to do with the Lindbergh
kidnapping though.)

I have reprinted both the Whitaker book and the Kasparyan book. See:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891846

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891870

Somebody on this group, it may have been Jürgen R. himself, contacted
the Russian State Press when my reprint of the Kasparyan book came out
last year, and reported back here that they have no rights to and no
interest in the Kasparyan book.

Sam Sloan

On Mar 26, 6:43 pm, Jürgen R. wrote:

There is no point correcting your misconceptions about copyright law,
but one thing is certain: You have no right to most of the books
that you are copying and trying to sell.

Readers here should be made aware that Jürgen R. is an Internet gadfly
who has a long history of attacking me all the time.

It was Jürgen R. who announced that I was dead, a report that was
widely believed at the time. See:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...2a877bdcae8075

What had really happened is that I was moving and lost my Internet
connection for about two weeks. By the time I got back online and
discovered the "Sam Sloan dead" thread, there had been one hundred
postings about my supposed "death" and even church prayers had been
extended for me. Even two of my children thought that I was really
dead.

Recently Jürgen R. has been saying that my reprinted books are made at
Kinko Copies. Anybody who has seen my books and has seen the
incredibly high quality of production knows that this is not true.

Now Jürgen R. is saying that my reprints violate copyright laws. I can
assure the readers here that in every case I have checked the
copyright status carefully. In the case of my books, where the authors
are still alive, I have signed contracts with the authors to print or
reprint their books. And example is Elista Diaries where a former
world chess champion asked me to reprint his book. (Book sales are
down worldwide and many major book publishers have gone out of
business. Suddenly I have become the book publisher of choice. I have
published 37 books in the last year and a half. (Note that the number
went up over what it was a few days ago.))

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891978

Regarding the Watson books, Louis Watson died in 1936. His widow
remarried only one year later. He had no kids. Under copyright law in
effect at that time, the copyright had to be renewed in exactly the
28th year or else it had expired. The copyright was not renewed. Thus,
the book is in public domain and I or anybody else has the right to
reprint it. The first book of the two books will be out in the next
two or three days.

As this has been going on for several years, I probably should sue him
but, like so many Internet posters, Jürgen R. is a fake name. Nobody
knows what his real name is.

Sam Sloan

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

"samsloan" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Mar 26, 6:43 pm, Jürgen R. wrote:

There is no point correcting your misconceptions about copyright law,
but one thing is certain: You have no right to most of the books
that you are copying and trying to sell.

Readers here should be made aware that Jürgen R. is an Internet gadfly
who has a long history of attacking me all the time.

It was Jürgen R. who announced that I was dead, a report that was
widely believed at the time. See:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...2a877bdcae8075

What had really happened is that I was moving and lost my Internet
connection for about two weeks. By the time I got back online and
discovered the "Sam Sloan dead" thread, there had been one hundred
postings about my supposed "death" and even church prayers had been
extended for me. Even two of my children thought that I was really
dead.

-----------------------------------------------------

Why don't you tell them about the report of Peter Leko's death? Or shall I?

Peter Leko is a well known Hungarian chess player. Sam Sloan is ... well you
have gotten
a whiff of Sam Sloan recently, so you have some idea what he is.

Sam Sloan, before he became a publisher, used to pretend that he was,
among other things, a journalist. One day he reported that Peter Leko, who
is a live and well, had died. This became a joke on the chess news groups,
because it describes Sloan's regard for the truth so well.

Not much later Sloan disappeared from his favorite news group
(rec.games.chess.politics)
which I sometimes read for entertainment, apparently because
he hadn't paid his phone bill. So I posted the spoof that he had died.

Of course, nobody believed that it was true; but some people had fun
pretending to believe it. Typical responses we

" I'll only believe it when I hear it confirmed by Peter Leko. "

"If this is a joke this is in the worst possible taste."
"Could any statement about Sam Sloan be in bad taste?"
"I agree. It's just wrong to get people's hopes up like this."

etc. etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------

On Mar 27, 5:28 am, Jürgen R. wrote:

Why don't you tell them about the report of Peter Leko's death? Or shall I?

Peter Leko is a well known Hungarian chess player. Sam Sloan is ... well you
have gotten a whiff of Sam Sloan recently, so you have some idea what he is.

Sam Sloan, before he became a publisher, used to pretend that he was,
among other things, a journalist. One day he reported that Peter Leko, who
is a live and well, had died. This became a joke on the chess news groups,
because it describes Sloan's regard for the truth so well.

Not much later Sloan disappeared from his favorite news group
(rec.games.chess.politics)
which I sometimes read for entertainment, apparently because
he hadn't paid his phone bill. So I posted the spoof that he had died.

The "Peter Leko is Dead" incident was a hoax that took place on Dec 1
2002 at 11:46 pm, which is nearly six years ago.

It was first reported on ICC that Peter Leko was dead by a hoaxer who
has never been identified. I heard that Peter Leko was dead almost
simultaneously from several sources, all of whom turned out to have
seen it on ICC.

I reported it to the chess newsgroups and to readers of my email
lists. Several others did as well, including Susan Polgar who
broadcast it on WCN, the World Chess Network.

Only nine hours later, I reported that it had been a hoax. This is the
part of the story that Jürgen R. fails to mention every time he brings
this up, that not only was I one of many who fell for the hoax but
also I was among the first to report that it had been a hoax.

Jürgen R. also fails to mention that Susan Polgar who is Hungarian
like Peter Leko and had actually grown up with him in Budapest, also
reported that Peter Leko was dead.

Almost every news reporter has fallen for a hoax at one time or
another. Dan Rather still to this day refuses to admit that the
infamous "Killian Documents" were a hoax.

None of this justifies the report by Jürgen R. that I was dead, nor
his claim now that I had failed to pay my telephone bill nor his many
other false statements that Jürgen R. (who remains anonymous) has
posted about me over the years.

Sam Sloan

"samsloan" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Mar 27, 5:28 am, Jürgen R. wrote:

Why don't you tell them about the report of Peter Leko's death? Or shall
I?

Peter Leko is a well known Hungarian chess player. Sam Sloan is ... well
you
have gotten a whiff of Sam Sloan recently, so you have some idea what he
is.

Sam Sloan, before he became a publisher, used to pretend that he was,
among other things, a journalist. One day he reported that Peter Leko, who
is a live and well, had died. This became a joke on the chess news groups,
because it describes Sloan's regard for the truth so well.

Not much later Sloan disappeared from his favorite news group
(rec.games.chess.politics)
which I sometimes read for entertainment, apparently because
he hadn't paid his phone bill. So I posted the spoof that he had died.

The "Peter Leko is Dead" incident was a hoax that took place on Dec 1
2002 at 11:46 pm, which is nearly six years ago.

It was first reported on ICC that Peter Leko was dead by a hoaxer who
has never been identified. I heard that Peter Leko was dead almost
simultaneously from several sources, all of whom turned out to have
seen it on ICC.

I reported it to the chess newsgroups and to readers of my email
lists. Several others did as well, including Susan Polgar who
broadcast it on WCN, the World Chess Network.

Only nine hours later, I reported that it had been a hoax. This is the
part of the story that Jürgen R. fails to mention every time he brings
this up, that not only was I one of many who fell for the hoax but
also I was among the first to report that it had been a hoax.

Jürgen R. also fails to mention that Susan Polgar who is Hungarian
like Peter Leko and had actually grown up with him in Budapest, also
reported that Peter Leko was dead.

Almost every news reporter has fallen for a hoax at one time or
another. Dan Rather still to this day refuses to admit that the
infamous "Killian Documents" were a hoax.

None of this justifies the report by Jürgen R. that I was dead, nor
his claim now that I had failed to pay my telephone bill nor his many
other false statements that Jürgen R. (who remains anonymous) has
posted about me over the years.

Sam Sloan

__________________________________________________ ________________

Description of the Leko Death Report by the Chess Writer Jeremy Silman:

A cruel hoax originating from his native Hungary stated that Leko had died
in a tragic car crash late Sunday night in Budapest, and the news had
filtered through to former women's world champion Susan Polgar (the elder of
the three famous Hungarian chess-playing sisters) in New York, who at the
time was playing on the ICC and posted a brief note to that effect; though
prudently added she would have to check her own contacts back home to
confirm.

Unfortunately from here the rumors soon ran out of control, thanks to one
over-eager online newshound looking for a "scoop" - regardless if the
information is right or wrong. Without checking the facts, or even
confirming with the relevant authorities as any competent journalist would
do under such circumstances, the infamous Sam Sloan (who doubles as a New
York taxi driver during the day) immediately posted Leko's death as
matter-of-fact "breaking news". Incredulously, Sloan's sloppy piece of work
also went as far as to report "that Leko died in a car crash while analyzing
a game he had played against Shirov on a pocket set".
__________________________________________________ _________________

On Mar 22, 1:17 pm, samsloan wrote:
Late last night I sent "The Outline of Contract Bridge" by Louis H.
Watson to the printers for reprinting.

It should be out and available for sale in ten days to two weeks. When
it comes out it will be available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

The book is out, published today. See:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

However, thanks to Tim Bourke I now have a copy of the original cover.
I will be putting the original cover on the book in a few days.

Sam Sloan

I just this minute sent the book "Watson on the Play of the Hand at
Contract Bridge" to the printers. This is the famous book that every
strong bridge player in the world has read and studied in great
detail.

When the book comes out in about ten days or less, it will appear at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

I need especially to thank Tim Bourke. He sent me a scan of the cover
of the original book. The cover itself contains useful information. I
have restored the cover to its original perfect condition and put it
on the book.

I am also re-doing the other Watson book for the same reason: That is
the book entitled "The Outline of Contract Bridge: Part I Contract
Bidding Part II The Play of the Hand". Thanks again to Tim Bourke I am
in the process of putting the original cover on that book as well.

That book is available now at

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

but without the original cover yet.

Sam Sloan