Styxnet.com

Styx, James Young: Cease & Desist Styxnet.com

August 10, 2006

Those of you reading this may or may not know the current state of this Web site. I'm here to let all of you in on what's been happening or more importantly what's recently happened.

First of all, I'm am currently and always have been the owner of the Styxnet.com domain name. I also own the server that hosts the domain and I administer the Web site. Most of the site's content in the past has been managed and maintained by Paul Holt. He was by all accounts what a lot of people refer to as "The Webmaster." My interest has always been in handling and managing the server-side aspect of the site, although I did end up creating a very basic home page with news, links, etc. after Paul had gone a long time without updating the site.

Styxnet.com was an ambitious undertaking (although I don't think either Paul or I knew it at the time) that took off and grew faster than anything I've ever been involved with, but has since become a virtual "ghost town" over the past few years.

That all began to change when I came home from work on Monday, July 24, 2006 and found a letter waiting for me that had been mailed overnight and dated July 18, 2006. My wife had already opened the letter seeing that it was from a lawyer, but before I could even open it and read it she proclaimed from the other room, "Styx is suing you!"

Not quite I guess but they were asking me to "cease and desist" and more to my displeasure transfer the Styxnet.com domain to them.

Here's a link to the actual letter.

Needless to say, I didn't sign it and return it because I don't "agree to" and I have no intentions to "fully comply with" their "provisions."

I did share the letter with Paul to get his take on it and he posted his thoughts here.

I also e-mailed the lawyer who signed the letter the following:

To: bgregory@foley.com
Subject: styxnet.com
Date: Tue 07/25/06 11:43 AM

Dear Mr. Gregory:

This is in response to your letter of July 18, 2006.

It is not, nor was it ever, my intent to misuse, damage, or confuse people that visit the Web site at www.styxnet.com.

I have removed anything that may be considered intellectual property owned by the band Styx and have even set up a prominent link to their official Web site to help even further avoid confusion.

I have no intention to transfer the domain name styxnet.com to the band Styx since there is no technical, legal, or logical linkage between the use of a trademark and the registration of a domain name.

Sincerely,
James Deem

I even sent the following to Tommy Shaw through his Myspace page:

To: Tommy Shaw
Subject: styxnet.com
Date: Jul 26, 2006 12:27 PM

Tommy,

I got a letter from one of your lawyers two days ago telling me to take my fan site at www.styxnet.com down and surrender the domain to you guys. I was curious if you even knew anything about it?

Sincerely,
James Deem

I haven't yet gotten a response from either the lawyer or Tommy Shaw so it's hard for me to know what, if anything, is going on on their end.

I've since learned that it's in my better interest to go public rather than be bullied if that is their intent hence this site update. (For a good example check out www.taubmansucks.com.)

I plan to continue to offer the free Styxnet.com e-mail as long as I own the domain.

The idea behind Styxnet.com was always "by the fans and for the fans" so long live Styxnet.com!

Sincerely,
James Deem

UPDATE: September 10, 2006 - Cynthia Seary, owner and Webmaster of StyxDreams.com, has taken her site down in support of Styxnet.com. Thanks for the support Cynthia! BTW, I still haven't heard a word from "the band's" camp one way or the other. I think they probably want this to blow over since they have a new CD and DVD coming out in November.