From: <jamkrazev4life@aol.com>
To: DarkWolf
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2003 7:11 PM
Subject: LD Email: Blatant rip off.

I just thought I would note this, as I am sure many have before.

Your blatant stealing of a brilliant idea like 8-bit Theatre disgusts me. It looks like a ploy to catch a good rap from something someone else did with a web comic, hoping people will come to your site first.

There is no such thing as 9 bit.

Now, I have gone through some of the other things on your website, and they aren't too bad. Hell, some of it is really good. But the fact that you and your boys basically stole a brilliant idea, and tweaked it ever so slightly, just plain sickens me.

Not only did you pilfer it, you did a bad job. The sprites are crappily put into the file. It is obvious someone was using paint software to edit some of them. The backgrounds look seedy or trashy, and you stole the persona's of Fighter and Black Mage right out from Brian Clevinger's hands. Most likely because those are the two best known characters.

Either way, it was cheap, and under handed. Also makes me wonder just how much of this site you and your people actually made, or is stolen from other sites I haven't been to.

Next thing I know I will be hearing about ninja's chopping people's heads off and not even giving a damn.

Well, aside from the fact that ninjas really do love to flip out and kill everyone, and not even care ... 9-bit started as a fan comic of 8-bit. Brian enjoyed it so much, that he offered to link to our site whenever it was up (this is back when 9-bit was on Crimson's own site).

I'm sure you've scoured the 8-bit site and seen some of the other people that have done fan comics, no? Do you realize that these aren't rip offs, but tributes? Hell, Crimson used the title 9-bit, to symbolize it was a fan comic of 8-bit ... but at the same time carried it's own story.

It's in no way a "ploy to catch a good rap from something someone else did with a web comic", hoping people will come to our site first. I'm assuming you followed the link on 8-bit, and decided to look around the site. Now, let's put two and two together. If Brian is linking to us, don't you think he's familiar with 9-bit? He's linked to us on several occasions ... not only that, but he has placed a permenant link to us on his "Links" page. Shouldn't that tell you that not only is he aware of our little fan comic ... but also maybe enjoy's it?

Let this serve as a lesson for you. Next time, before you start assuming the worst, how about you stop, and use whatever mental capacity you may have.

Oh, just thought I'd also point out, you're only the second person of well over 100,000 unique people who've been to our site, to not realize that 9-bit is a tribute to 8-bit. The first was in our [horribly underused and neglected] forums, if you'd like to see how long it's been since someone else was as simple minded as yourself. And I've forwarded this message to Crimson, as I'm sure he'll want to respond to your accusations as well.

- DarkWolf's

P.S. Of course there's such a thing as 9-bit. Your drivel wouldn't make any sense if you were bitching about something that doesn't even exist. Retard.

Dear Fuckhead,

You said a lot of pretty harsh things in your e-mail. Now I present you with my response. And because, like a coward, you blocked your e-mail address and refused to accept an answer, I will make my grievances toward you public. Burn, pube.

Not only is Mr. Clevinger aware of 9-Bit Theatre, he absolutely fucking loves it. I will explain.

About two and a half years ago, I ran a paltry little personal website called Crimson's World of Debauchery. I was a big fan of 8-Bit Theatre at the time (have been since Episode 8 or so), and I decided one long night to take a crack at putting together my own sprite comic, just for the hell of it. I decided to take Clevinger's versions of Black Mage and Fighter (since his comic had zero supporting cast at the time) and put them into a new situation (the modern world). I put the strip up on my site that very night, making sure to put all kinds of disclaimers about this just being a tribute to 8-Bit and linking to Mr. Clevinger's site and so on, just to make sure all my traffic (maybe 50 people a week) knew where the source was, and how far superior it was to what I'd made.

I also e-mailed Mr. Clevinger that night, to let him know what I was doing, and to tell him that if he disagreed with 9-Bit in any way I would take the strip right back down and apologize profusely.

He wrote me back and said he loved it so much, he'd link to it from his front page. He did. It broke my poor server in two.

About a year later my friends and I put together a little website called LethalDeath.com. I let Mr. Clevinger know about the move, just in case he wanted to know, and he made another mention of my strip, a link to LD on his front page, and added our site to his permanent links (they were on the front page back then). Shortly into LD's history, the site was in peril. We weren't sure it was going to stay up. Mr. Clevinger, upon hearing this, offered to permanently archive 9-Bit Theatre on his site if LD went down. He said it was "the best 8-Bit tribute [he'd] ever seen," a sentiment concurred by dozens of praise e-mails since then.

Do you really think he'd be so ignorant as to link to a site that "ripped off" his comic strip and not KNOW about it? You don't give the guy much credit, do you?

I chat with Mr. Clevinger (I am not comfortable calling him Brian, as I owe him so much) on a semi-regular basis, so if you're so much of an asshole that you want proof, I can acquire it for you in very short order.

In summary, a few points:

1) Mr. Clevinger knows my work and approves of it. I have had a long and casual relationship with the guy, and have been a fan of the site probably longer than you have. Yours is the first mail I have EVER received that was anything but positive, so you have to wonder: If 50 people "get" what I'm doing and you're the only jackass that doesn't, what's that say about you?

2) Check out the word "homage" in the "H" section of the dictionary. It's 5 letters after "C," the section in which you will find the word "clue."

3) I have never seen so much conviction and so much ignorance in one person. Do not EVER send me this misinformed trash again. Next time you get up the gumption to mail someone with your lame, ill-conceived opinions, scrape together what few brain cells you have left and THINK THINGS THROUGH first.

Don't Ever Write Me Again,
- Crimson