Miragemengate

Subjects I’ve always tried to avoid on HPANWO are those David Icke categorizes as “little gaming”, the almost continuous and endemic falling-outs, hostility and internecine suspicion that infects the conspiratorial/UFO community, however there are occasions when words need to be said and this is one of them. My character has been impugned and the record needs to be set straight. Believe it or not, it’s all to do with a single YouTube link. A few days ago the film Mirage Men by John Lundberg and Mark Pilkington appeared on YouTube; I watched it and wrote a review of it, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/mirage-men-film.html, naturally I included the YouTube page where I’d watched it. Soon afterwards the video of the film was removed for reasons of copyright violation. I suspected from the start that this might happen and that the vid was an unauthorized upload, but I proceeded on the assumption that it wasn’t. It’s not possible to check the copyright status of every video I watch. As it happens, as you see, it was indeed unauthorized and YouTube have correctly removed it. The producers clearly do not want the film to be available on YouTube yet. Naturally I respected their wishes and haven’t posted any replacement links; I haven’t even looked to see if any exist. I thought that was the end of the matter, however, in one Facebook group, I was immediately lambasted for video piracy. This is insulting and ridiculous; all I did was post a single link to one measly YouTube video that turned out to be dodgy. It wasn’t a link to a page on “bootleg-films-r-us.com” or somewhere similar, and of course I’d never upload the film myself.

The person who initiated this attack against me is a lady known online as “Xpose UFOTruth”; here’s her website: http://xposeufotruth.com/. She is currently investigating the erstwhile UFOlogist Darren Perks whom she believes is engaged in fraudulent and deceptive activity. Fans of Planet X Live will know that he used to be a fellow host on the station with me; in a nutshell this is what triggered her animosity towards myself. I have refused to assist her in her operation because I feel I have been badly misrepresented in this situation. I did originally agree to assist her and I wish I hadn’t. She may well have a legitimate gripe about Perks, but her campaign has been very shrill and self-righteous. As the line from the film Ben-Hur goes: “You’re either with me, or against me!” As is often the case, if somebody resents you for one reason they tend to be far harsher with you for other reasons, even if they’re entirely unrelated. Nevertheless I enjoyed being part of that Facebook group we were both in and wanted to continue interacting with other members on different subjects; so I just avoided discussing Darren Perks there. I even tried to extricate myself from the conversation when she launched her assault against me for the YouTube link. However she has since made references to an offence she alleges Darren Perks has committed, that he deliberately broadcast and published information on how to obtain illicit copies of Dr Steven Greer’s Sirius movie. “Xpose UFOTruth” has compared my actions to Perks’ directly. This cannot go unanswered, and it shall not. The comparison is grossly unfair and defamatory. I have quit that Facebook group and blocked “Xpose UFOTruth”, something I should have done at the beginning of this debacle. I hope this statement makes it clear: I have never attempted to breach the copyright of the Mirage Men producers. I mistakenly posted one YouTube link. I apologize for that and I will not post any more now I know that it is unauthorized to do so. My mistake was reasonable, after all YouTube is a public video sharing site with internal protocols preventing copyright theft. I appeal to HPANWO-readers, if you come across any declarations by “Xpose UFOTruth”, or anybody else, accusing me of being a “copyright criminal!”, “video pirate!” or anything else along those lines, could you please let me know.

By the time you read this article there may well be a tirade in the comments box by “Xpose UFOTruth” disputing everything I’ve said above. I won’t delete that comment; I don’t practice censorship on HPANWO and I allow readers to make up their own minds. However I will not be reading her comment myself because if I do that I might be tempted to post a counter-rebuttal; then she and I will be trapped in an infinite loop of ego-driven tit-for-tat personal argument, a distressing and time-wasting situation that is already far too everyday in the conspiratorial/UFO community.You will also hear that am guilty because I was shown evidence against Darren Perks and ignored it; actually this alleged "evidence" was a package hurled contemptuously into my face with a wrapping paper of rhetoric, threats, insults and moral blackmail. There is only one response I ever give to such treatment: I returned it to sender with a note enclosed containing a raised middle finger and a strident "fuck you!" I shall reply by saying only this to “Xpose UFOTruth”, a completion of the quote from the script of Ben-Hur: “If that is my choice… then I am against you!”