There is an interesting thread going on here at UFO Magazine forum. At first, the thing that irritated me was not that Maximillien de Lafayette was being called a scam artist, but the insinuation that UFO Magazine should police what their columnists are allowed to write about and/or who and what they can believe or interview. Obviously, I am totally against that.
Aside from that, it is highly likely that what John Ratcliff is saying about de Lafayette is totally true. I don't like to speak negatively of people involved in Ufology, but I made the mistake of ordering one of his books and while I was sadly disappointed with it -- that is not what bothers me about it. The book I have (and from what I have read at Ratcliff's blog, apparently all 200 of them) are not written by de Lafayette or don't seem to be, but seem to be mostly copy and paste from different articles and documents. So I wondered if these books may contain plagiarized material? That people like me lose $20 ordering one of these is not really a concern of mine (you can lose $20 on a vast variety of useless products) and it is possible there is useful information in the book, but if material is being stolen from the people that wrote it, that does concern me. I did a quick test, I would randomly open the book and then type a sentence into google. Each time my search would bring me to an article that was the same as the one in the book and that did not seem to be written by de Lafayette, some were written by well known ufologists such as Kevin Randle, some of them were India Daily articles (and other news sources) and yet I saw no reference in the book that they came from India Daily, which gave the impression that de Lafayette had written them. Some things were even written by unknown people using a user name on internet forums. In fairness, the Kevin Randle article started with "Kevin Randle stated" so at least it was known that it was not written by de Lafayette.
Now I do notice that at the end of a couple chapters credit is given to some of the people and places that originally wrote about the topics, but why isn't everything referenced and the original source known? Also, does merely referencing people give someone the legal right to copy an article in their book? Honestly I don't know, but it seems like there should be more people than de Lafayette listed as the author since there doesn't seem to be much in the book that was written by him. Likely it should say compiled by de Lafayette rather than giving the impression that the book is full of new material that was written by him.
10 comments:
Hey John! Thanks for your diligent efforts here, dude. I have taken a lot of negative hits on Amazon reviews because I saw this fraud brewing from the beginning, but was not smart enough to know how to expose him/them. You go. --JacquieB
For your consideration: The honest truth about Mr. Lafayette and his prolific work.
There are 2 periods in the writings/books of Mr. de Lafayette in the field of UFOs.
He explained to me once that he wanted a wider portion of the public and in particular academia and serious people to become interested in UFOs and support ufologists. So what he did (Probably his team) gathered the best articles and opinions on the UFOs subjects, to print these findings and present them to serious people. All the work of other writers were properly credited, whether within the article at the beginning, in the middle, or at the very end of a long segment or chapter, sometimes it easy to miss the references, but they are there. Lafayete afterward commented on their opinions. His aim was to give an exposure to all interesting theories. He has never claimed glory on the expense of others. He told me that he DOES NOT agree with all their opinions. Therefore he does not want others to believe that they reflect his beliefs. This period included his first 17 books on UFOs. As to the typos and mistakes in those articles, he made it clear in his books that he reproduced them AS IS and unedited to preserve the originality and authenticity of the articles as written by the original authors. Also he made a huge announcement to this effect on the very first pages of his books. You should refer to the revised and new editions of each book. So those mistakes (grammar, typos, etc) ARE NOT His. The man is highly educated.
Period two of his writings is SOLEY his own ideas and personal work. Ideas and theories on the Ulema and Anunnaki. Especially the Ulema, a field no other author ever wrote about. Lafayet was the first and has a monopoly on this subject. Explaining his prolific work is simple. He is not a superman…he is extremely humble. He has a team of perhaps 70 people in many countries who work on research and gathering data. So his books on the Anunnaki and Ulema are beyond reproach. It is fair to be fair. I do not agree with all his opinions, especially his strong criticism of organized religions. But I have a great respect for this man.
As to others’ claims that the 5 stars review of his books are fake is ABSURD. Highly distinguished authors were among those raved about his books and wrote glorious reviews such as Dr. Lynne Kitei, Gary Morgenstein, Farah Yurdozu (Watch her interview with him at http://www.jerrypippin.com/UFO_Files_farah_Yurdozu.htm)John O’Dowd, Dr. John Chen, to name a few. Besides, the way Bill Birnes introduced him on the history channel showed Birnes trust in Lafayette. Calling Lafayette and Sitchin fraud is a total dishonesty. Sincerely Ben. benzorab@aol.com
You made a huge mistake Mr. Master Mason Ratcliff.
In your blogs, the malice is evident. That’s alone constitutes a base or a legal ground for a lawsuit.
You called him con artist, another possibility for lawsuit.
You called all his associates and other legitimate companies (They are corporations with legal status) scam. More grounds for separate legal actions against you.
As I see it, each of one them could file separate lawsuits before separate courts in their respective states. We are talking here of a batteries of lawsuits against you. Can you handle all this? Are you will willing to hire lawyers for each separate lawsuit in different states. You will see they are going to create lots of headaches for you and drain you in court and litigations, and depositions, and discoveries and submission of all your records for years. They will put lean on your earnings and ask retributions for huge damages. It will happen. They are hurt and they have plenty of resources and professionals on their boards. They are probably watching each and every move you are making. Possibly they have copied everything you have said.
You said you are going to bring a lawsuit against them. Really? You are an ignorant of the law. Only those who can show personal damages in court of law (personally or to their families and business) can file such a suit? What personal or professional damages, these people and Lafayette have caused you?? Nothing.
You bet you will be sued? You are going to spend the rest of your life in court.
You should have asked the advice of a lawyer before you embarked on this trail of malice and viciousness, and used words by themselves are libelous. This great country of ours does not allow people to maliciously smear the reputation of others, citizens or foreigners. I careless about you or about the Frenchman. I was disgusted by your demeanor and low character. You will not get any recognition or fame by doing this. You will get courts judgments against you and you will ruin your family…financially and emotionally. No question they are going to sue you and if not I will disappointed.
I welcome the comments of any interested party. Email me at benworldswhowho@aol.com. Sincerely Benny/Shlomo.
I have my book right here and not all articles are referenced as to where and who they came from. Not that it matters, it is still illegal from what I understand of the law of fair use to use entire articles in a book without the permission of the person that holds the copyright.
Isn't it fascinating - Ratcliffe uncovers what appears to be a genuine scam, and someone shows up here to intimidate him - and that someone writes in the same style as all the bogus "reviewers". John, it looks like you've struck pay_dirt_. And Lesley, not only is is illegal to copy and paste other people's work and resell it, it's downright sleazy, the worst thing a "writer" can do to other legitimate authors. The field of anomalous research has enough of a credibility issue, without scams like the one that Ratcliffe has obviously uncovered here, to further muddy the waters.
dB
Apparently it isn't just de Lafayette doing it either. I won't give the person's name because I don't know if they want to be mentioned, but yesterday I received an email from someone that had been at B&N a few months back. They saw a book of paranormal Christmas tales and looking through it found 6 or so articles that they had written in there. The website was referenced, but not the author and nobody had ever contacted them and asked permission to use those.
Lesley, I have to confirm the report you made in your recent blog post.
I was reading through the book "Mind Blowing Dialogues With Anunnaki Ulema Masters Living Among Us:Revelations of the Greatest Information,Secrets & Mysteries of:: UFOs, Extraterrestrials, ... Dimensions, Occult and Life After Death" and I noticed something interesting.
When I was reading the book I found that it contained a lot of copyrighted material which had been directly lifted from other sources.
I contacted one of the authors of the copyrighted material, a Dr. W. Bernard Betts, to find out if he had given permission for his copyrighted work to be used in this book.
Dr. Betts article was copied verbatim into the book listed above. You can find the verbatim copy on page #251.
When notified of this violation of Dr. Betts copyright here was his response:
"I can state categorically that I have not given permission for Maximillien de Lafayette, or indeed anyone to publish in whole or in part my article 'How Life Began - The Origin Of Cells' at Suite 101 (http://biology.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_life_began_the_origin_of_cells) . That they might have acknowledged my copyright ownership of the article in no way authorizes the author or publisher to use the article.
I do, however, give you permission to use my statement (above) if it helps with a case to provide evidence of the misappropriation and unauthorized use of copyright materials.
Best wishes
Bernard"
This is only one example of the many instances of copyright violation in this book.
For example the following article was lifted verbatim without attribution:
http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/newse/foo/foo3.html
Here is an example of yet another article copied verbatim in the book:
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articleview.asp?Post=3
Additionally, massive portions of the articles hosted at the following website are copied verbatim.
http://greyfalcon.us/restored/Secret%20flying%20discs%20of%20the%20Third%20Reich.htm
From what I understand this far exceeds the 'fair-use' doctrine.
This handful of examples is only a tiny portion of all of the copyrighted material which has been included in just this one book.
However, if you look further online you will find that many people who have purchased these books have registered similar complaints about this author.
It is interesting to note that for the calendar year of 2009 this one author published 58 books totaling over 21 thousand pages via the 'CreateSpace' print-on-demand website and hosted on Amazon.com
In addition to the fact that these books contain a great deal of copyrighted material there are additional problems.
The authors of these books have been violating the terms of service of Amazon.com by posting five star reviews of their own work.
Please see here the reviews of Dr. Etienne Leroux who is also listed as the 'managing editor' of the 'International News Agency'. The 'International News Agency' is actually a website owned and managed by the author Maximillien de Lafayette.
http://www.internationalnewsagency.org/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AG7ZJ8ZZS364W/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Also see the reviews of Dr. Ruth Sielberg who is listed as the Editor-in-Chief of the 'International Herald Daily News'.
It's all pretty interesting once you start researching it.
At any rate, I thought you might appreciate some further confirmation based on the comments you made in your original post.
Wishing you the best,
Joseph Davis
Oh yeah, here are two more cases I found where people were leaving five star reviews but are also listed as officers on Maximillien de Lafayette promotional websites.
Also see the reviews of Dr. Ruth Sielberg who is listed as the Editor-in-Chief of the 'International Herald Daily News'.
The 'International Herald Daily News' is, again, a website owned by the author Maximillien de Lafayette for the sole purpose of promoting his books. The website is intended to give the false impression that it is an independent media source; which it is not. A 'whois' search on the domain of these websites demonstrate that they are owned by the author.
The 5 star reviews of Sielberg can be found at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3VCF3O31Z5KIV/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
As yet another reference, here are the reviews of Shoshanna Rosenstein, listed as the 'Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the New York Monthly Herald'.
Again, the 'New York Monthly Herald' is a website owned by the author Maximillien De Lafayette.
http://www.newyorkmonthlyherald.com/
The reviews of Rosenstein can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1YESTEMRYJ2OM/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
Joseph Davis
Thanks for the info Joseph!
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