Push Comes to Shove

For those of you who have made the Wayne Valley 67 Class Directory website a frequent stop, you will discover that you can't.

The reunion committee, specifically Peter Milano, has filed copyright violation charges against our site and caused our website host to suspend the site until an adjudication can be made.
This isn't about copyrights. It is about competition for attention. It is about insecurity. It is clear that someone doesn't want the directory to be.

Push has come to shove. The reunion committee, failing to prevent the directory from existing by suggesting at first that our class didn't need one, then complaining to Facebook that Linda was using copyrighted material (your high school year book photos) to post on your pages as a reminder of your youth, now has apparently decided that it is the owner of all the Embers photos, and the images that were taken of you at various reunions and accused us of copyright violations of materials that were only posted as copyrighted retroactively.

So I am appealing to you, the class of 1967, to prevail upon the Reunion Committee to drop their invidious complaints, and move forward in the best traditions of the true class spirit of the Wayne Valley Class of 1967.

I can deal with the reunion photos, although I cannot understand any claim to own your images. I will not accept that anyone owns anything contained in Embers. You will notice that I have not complained that they used my graduation photos. I'm just not like that.  Legalisms were not a part of the equation until the directory went on line. This is not the place for lawyers. It is the place for classmates. This is not the place for divisiveness. it is supposed to be an opportunity to come together.

If you think we need a class directory so everyone can contact anyone who wishes to be contacted, if you think that our veterans should be recognized, if you think that our dead should be memorialized, if you think that this effort deserves to exist and be supported and that there is room for all such efforts including the organization of class get-togethers in addition to the official Reunion, then email them, telephone them, talk to these people and tell them to stop the madness. What is next? Creating an approved list for attendance at the reunion? Where will it end?

It is time to grow up. It is time for them to face the entire class and tell them that their actions are in the best interests of the class. If they insist on their current course of actions, we will find a way to make sure this information is available to you. Just give us a moment to assemble an alternative venue.

Thank you for all your encouragement and support. May your faith in this project bear it through this hiatus.

Merry Christmas to you all. Milton and Linda Yuan