I was killing some time over at prehensile tales last night and came across a Cease and Desist problem Halcyon was having with Fruit of the Loom. (It was news to me, but the battle actually transpired back in ‘98.)

Anyway, after reading that I was reminded of a similar “mean-company-bullies-small-human” story regarding Walter Jon Williams from about that same time period. He had written a book way back in the mid-80s called Hardwired. It’s what gave him his boost as a “real” author. Anyway, several years later, still enjoying the success of royalties and whatnot from that book, Walter is suddenly told by Wired Ventures, then-publishers of Wired magazine, that he was not the rightful owner of the term Hardwired, but that, in fact, they were. (Go here for the complete details.)

The dispute has since been settled in Walter’s favor, but I remember it being a very stressful and nerve-wracking situation for poor Walter. I was communicating with him pretty regularly at the time: He had agreed to write the Foreword to volume two of the ‘zine I publish, Catch. It was all he could talk about at the time, and understandly so. As in the case with FotL vs. Halcyon, it is a sad example of the big guys thinking they can have anything they want whenever they want it.

So anyway, I was happy to read the outcome of the Halcyon case, particularly because of what it says about the power of this, our collective online community.

Makes me feel all giddy … like when the earthlings finally started annihilating the aliens in Independence Day.