Themestream = Thiefstream?

Themestream = Thiefstream?

Theft is such an ugly word. It brings to mind petty criminals, horrible small-minded individuals who have no honour, who only care about themselves. Pathetic excuses for humanity. The scum, those who have no right to share this planet with others. The greedy, the selfish horrible individuals who should be in jail.

By their own actions, the top hierarchy of Themestream have planted themselves firmly in this position, in my mind. They, in effect, stole from me by not paying me for work completed during the first paying quarter of 2001.

During 2001 (and previously during 2000) and I wrote numerous articles for Themestream.com, on the grounds that their ToS stated that I would get 2c per unique hit for the articles (and previously, 10c per unique hit per article). This changed a little later, so that there was a cap of $150 on each article, and that all 10c articles were to change to 2c articles. Many people jumped ship at this point, but I decided to stick with Themestream.

I was paid, as I should have, US$94.22c for my work during the last quarter of 2000. At the end of December, they stated the cut off date (31st of December) and that cheques were to be processed from that date onwards. I received the cheque a little over a month later.

So I continued with Themestream, creating new articles, with the Themestream ToS continuing to state that we would get the 2c per article up to the $150 cap on each article (I never reached this cap) and only allowing registered users to be counted as unique hits, rather than (as previously) everyone who read the article.

On the last day of March, a number of people were wondering if the cheques were being processed or not, because Themestream had not mentioned that the end of March was the cut off date, nor had they mentioned that the cheques were being processed. We received no communication from the Themestream people after the end of the First Quarter (end of March), and their ToS and "New Payment ToS" (regarding the $150 cap and 10c articles changing to 2c articles) were still there.

Despite this, I continued writing new articles and putting new articles on their site, allowing their adverts to be placed on said articles. They continued to collect all revenue from the advertisements on my articles.

It came as a considerable shock that, on the 11th of April (just in time for the Easter holidays!) that I received a message telling me that Themestream.com had 'closed its doors' and was not going to pay me a cent for the unique hits I had been getting for my work.

It strikes me as very odd - in my mind, it seems they knew about this closure before the end of the first quarter, yet continued to let us publish our work and continued to let new people sign up after the end of the first quarter, despite no attempt to pay anyone. They continued to let us publish until the time of the e-mail on the 11th of April (the 12th in Australia), and until then, people could still join.

Then they only allowed a very short time (two days or so) to download all of the articles, and save anything of value. I did not have enough time to download all that I wanted. It's very vexing.

But the thing that is the worst is that they are refusing, point blank, to pay for the work done from the 1st of January 2001.

By their own statement (which I have a screen capture of, as well as saving the HTML file), they owe me US$344.08c ... This was clearly shown on the Author's Page until the day they deleted everything on their site.

They are also in the process of selling off all assets. This would, I suspect, include my articles. Unfortunately the agreement was that if they paid me 2c per unique hit, then I would allow them to use my articles (as long as I retained copyright) as they saw fit. Now I suspect that they will be attempting to sell articles without paying me first, breaking this agreement.

I must protest at this behaviour.

Daniel McCarthy, president, CEO and board member of Themestream has the gaul to attend a VIP Panel Discussion and Cocktail Reception on April 19th 2001 about Publishing in the 21st Century.

I believe they owe me US$344.08c (if not more - I was not online when Themestream actually closed, so I am unable to prove that they owe me more than this).

I just wish to be paid what money is owed to me, and nothing more.

PS - One favour I do ask, please e-mail your comments about the articles to kunoichi@thekeep.org because it's your comments that keep me writing! Oh, and can you check out my other articles?

I've added a new search function to make it easier for you to find information in my articles!

© Caroline Seawright 2001