Hi everybody.
I'm the chap who wrote the distasteful blog regarding Chipmunka, their weird copyright issues, and the sad state of Mr Pegler's character.
I think one poster here really had it right when they said that my intention was to very quickly cast Chipmunka and Jason Pegler in an incredibly bad light. Not especially noble, I agree. Hopefully it has been effective, though.
I take the point that I could have sued the company, but I am no longer in the UK, the emails I received were sent anonymously and I doubt they would stand up in court, and most importantly I would have been forced to reveal my address.
The problem with the book they were publishing was that it was a character assassination of most of the people in my family - some who do deserve it, and some who definitely do not. The book was written by someone who was (and still is) severely mentally ill, and was a way of lashing out at people the author wanted to hurt and defame.
Probably the best solution for me would have been to just notify Chipmunka of the inaccuracies in the book, and to inform them they were publishing material to which I held the copyright, had that dealt with and then walked away.
As it was, Chipmunka actually conspired with the author to discredit me, saying that nobody would believe my ravings (I was always polite, if firm, in my dealings with the company), with Jason Pegler even going so far as to say in one email that I was just a disturbed individual and the book should just be published as it was originally, copyrighted text and all (while I would agree that I have been damaged mentally, I don't believe it invalidates my copyright, and is definitely not something I would expect to hear from a publisher who supports the mental health community).
Email subjects passed back and forth referring to me as a 'nutter,' and a 'pain.' Understandably this is upsetting.
Basically Chipmunka aided and enhanced a member of my family's delusions to the point that we will never have contact again. I know this is not entirely Chipmunka's fault, but I also know that they are not blameless. In one email Andrew Latchford said that they had similar cases going on a lot of the time, and that eventually everything would blow over.
They crowed at one point that there would be no need to even consult a lawyer (though they said they had spoken to their legal team, who had told them they could publish my letters) because if I spoke to a lawyer he/she would "tell [me] to grow up."
I don't know if any of this is coming across well, but essentially I found that instead of any beneficial effect to the mental health of my relative, they were simply making things worse all the time. They set me up as an insane enemy and portrayed me as such to my relative.
So, to the blog - originally I knew that I could not achieve any satisfactory resolution to the copyright issue without causing myself significant pain and also risking this spreading to my new family overseas. I didn't feel it was right that they should get away with what they had done - I felt people should know that they had displayed ignorance of publishing law, that they had enabled my relative's dysfunction, and that they had mocked me for being mentally ill.
Then Jason Pegler released his autobiography for free for a limited time as an eBook. I downloaded it, expecting to read it and find amusing examples of bad writing. These I did find, but I also found the passage where Jason Pegler described how as a teenager he raped a girl. This was scandalous, of course, but I figured he'd at least be repentant, and that at the end of the book he would describe how he felt bad about the things he had done.
Instead I read that he said that he did not believe he had it in him to become a rapist. "Jason," I said to myself, "you
are one."
My relative's mental health issues stem in no small part from her being sexually abused (as do mine). I was horrified that the person who was now exploiting her, and making her illness worse was also someone who could believe that their sexual assault was just some kind of youthful folly.
I figured to hell with being reasonable because I couldn't believe that this was in his book - a book that Stephen Fry recommended, for heaven's sake - and that his company was lauded for all the good things it did while this flagship book sat there with its horrible dissonance.
So I wrote my dirty little post, and I think it has at least had a little effect. The celebrity endorsements still stand, and the funding from Mind and the Arts Council seems to continue for now, but I hope that in time this will not be the case.
In any case, I know some people have expressed doubt that the passages were taken in context, so I feel I should at least support myself as best I can there.
I found that Google Books got around to indexing the book in question, here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cnWwYL8fH0YC&dq
The relevant passages, for anyone who may care to see, are here:
Description of rape:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cnWwYL8fH0YC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=jason+pegler+rapist&source=bl&ots=3V-2mghVyv&sig=3mGAexNA0jir0fH2p12relmqR0U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KemjT4rPPJOY8gSwptXQCA&ved=0CHAQ6AEwCA#v=snippet&q=%22who%20had%20passed%20out%22&f=false
Denial of being a rapist:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cn...CA&ved=0CHAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=rapist&f=false
I suppose apologies are in order for dirtying the pages of this thread with my grubby revelations, but I'd like to at least explain in part how this came to be, and to show that dealing with Chipmunka even when you don't have a contract with them is unpleasant in the extreme.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, those of you who did. It's appreciated.
