Friday, September 21, 2007

SPECIAL REPORT: PPN shutdown

The following has been posted as part of the newsletter circulated by PokéZam:

I thought I'd begin this article with a Pokemon site closure that happened just a few days ago. PPN had been a major Pokemon website for over 5 years. It was best known for its frequently updated Pokemon news and for being a founding member of the Pokemon Community, one of the most active Pokemon forums on the Internet today. If you try to access PPN today you will get a message from the webmaster, Steve, stating that his website was shut down by Pokemon USA due to copyright infringement. This seems suspcious to me because Steve has always worked closely with Pokemon USA and didn't have anything such as ROMs on his website that would get him shut down. In a subsequent news post from TSS Killer, a news poster on PPN, Steve is claiming that his house was raided by the police with everything from his computers, Nintendo DS, and even posted notes taken. This seems like a bit much if he was just breaking copyright laws. It is fact that Steve is a registered sex offender in the state of California, which may have lead to his house being raided. Also, if you may recall, Steve disappeared for over 6 months last year with no explanation of his whereabouts. We will keep you informed as this news story develops. This is easily the most bizarre situation I have ever experienced as a Pokemon webmaster in the past 8 years.

Blimey. The sex offence claim surfaced back in March, when Kylie-chan posted a notice on PC alerting members to the fact that Steve was on the Megan's Law roster in California (the webmaster of Pokézam has since told me the listing had been removed in negotiations). But all the while, it seemed the PC admins were sweeping this all under the rug:

(9:59 AM) Informant: how old are *you*?
(9:59 AM) --: 19. ;;
(10:00 AM) Informant: You're a creepy paedophile
(10:00 AM) --: Like Steve.
(10:00 AM) Informant: Steve? The admin?
(10:00 AM) Informant: yeah XD
(10:00 AM) --: Yeah.
(10:01 AM) --: Did you see that webpage?
(10:01 AM) Informant: technically Joe's a paedophile too
(10:01 AM) Informant: no o_o
(10:01 AM) --: Oh.
(10:01 AM) --: So you don't know that Steve really -is- a paedophile?
(10:01 AM) Informant: No
(10:01 AM) Informant: OMG
(10:01 AM) Informant: I WANT LINKS
(10:01 AM) --: Kay, one sec. Gotta find it.
(10:02 AM) --: While you're waiting. Answer this question. Who's more awesome, me or Sassy?
(10:02 AM) Informant: Kelsey, she's a chick
(10:02 AM) Informant: Sorry XD
(10:02 AM) --: Thanks, I wanted that. XD
(10:03 AM) Informant: I know. XD
(10:03 AM) --: XD
(10:03 AM) Informant: But he really is a paedophile? DX Is this why Erica left? XD
(10:04 AM) --: No, they all knew for a while before she left.
(10:04 AM) Informant: Oh. ...Then why did they stay?
(10:04 AM) --: Because they loved PC I guess.
(10:05 AM) --: Found it.
(10:05 AM) Informant: This better not be some stupid prank. XD
(10:05 AM) --: [Defunct register listing]
(10:05 AM) --: It's not. XD
(10:06 AM) Informant: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT'S STEVE?!?!?!?
(10:06 AM) --: Well, the name.
(10:06 AM) Informant: How'd you know his last name? XD
(10:06 AM) --: Pokesph
(10:06 AM) --: Stephen Patrick Heffron
(10:06 AM) Informant: OHHHHHHHH.
(10:06 AM) Informant: So you're 100% sure?
(10:07 AM) --: His birthday is the same.
(10:07 AM) Informant: O___O;;; all this time we were on a forum by a PAEDOPHILE. ew.
(10:07 AM) --: The age is the same.
(10:07 AM) Informant: He's older than my Mom.
(10:07 AM) Informant: O___O;
(10:07 AM) --: And, the conclusive evidence.
(10:07 AM) Informant: yeah, he got those kid's addresses didn't he?
(10:07 AM) Informant: kids'*
(10:07 AM) --: The zip code.
(10:07 AM) Informant: running those competitions and stuff o___o
(10:07 AM) Informant: Did Kwesi kick out Steve? And who found out this?
(10:07 AM) --: Yeah.
(10:08 AM) --: No, as far as I know, Kwesi always knew about it. And one of the higher staff, I forget who.
(10:08 AM) Informant: Does that make Kwesi an accomplice?
(10:08 AM) Informant: Uh... Bobby/
(10:08 AM) Informant: ?*
(10:10 AM) --: Don't think Kwesi is an accomplice. Unless he kidnapped the children for Steve.
(10:10 AM) --: Did you know Bobby is only 14?
(10:10 AM) Informant: No
(10:10 AM) --: He told everyone he was in his 20s.
(10:10 AM) Informant: I know O_O;;
(10:11 AM) --: But one day he confessed to Jorge to being 13.
(10:11 AM) Informant: Maybe Bobby literally was Steve's lapdog
(10:11 AM) --: Yeah, I know.
(10:11 AM) Informant: Uhhh... did that guy who ran VR know?
(10:11 AM) Informant: holy crap! I bet Steve got off to the picture thread O____O;
(10:11 AM) --: Casey? I dunno.
(10:12 AM) --: But, I PMed all the admins with that link and none of them replied to me. XD
(10:12 AM) Informant: Hm, maybe we should report PPN to that site, and they can look up the whois information, and if it's masked, they can get in contact with the host
(10:13 AM) --: Go for it. Because I have no idea what you just said..XD
(10:13 AM) Informant: Do any of the members know, by the way? XD Or is it just some huge staff scandal?
(10:13 AM) Informant: Well
(10:13 AM) --: No.
(10:13 AM) Informant: When you make a site, you have to give your contact details -- the valid ones -- to the webhost
(10:13 AM) Informant: And you can get them to fill up your whois with crap XD so no one can stalk you
(10:14 AM) --: Some of the staff decided that nobody outside of the higher staff knew about it.
(10:14 AM) Informant: you can look up any site, whois it, and find out their details, unless it's whoisguard'd, in which case you try to get in touch with their host if it's legal stuff
(10:14 AM) Informant: but isn't that technically wrong?
(10:14 AM) --: That's what I said.
(10:15 AM) Informant: Would parents want their kids on a site run by a molester?
(10:15 AM) Informant: Knowing he runs competitions and stuff?
(10:15 AM) --: People have a right to know if they're in contact with a convicted paedophile.
(10:15 AM) Informant: =/ It's wrong morally and probably legally.
(10:15 AM) Informant: I think someone should just troll post it.
(10:15 AM) Informant: ...Can I do it?
(10:15 AM) Informant: I don't give a shit about PC anymore. XD
(10:15 AM) --: Go wild.
(10:15 AM) --: XD
(10:15 AM) Informant: OMG, thank you --. I promise I won't blame you. XD
(10:16 AM) Informant: ...how many themes does Jake make a month?
(10:16 AM) --: Meh, they'll most likely know it came from me. I haven't exactly been keeping it a secret. XD Too many.
(10:16 AM) --: He has about four more in the works too.
(10:16 AM) Informant: including the theme contest? XD
(10:17 AM) --: No, these are just his own ones. XD
(10:17 AM) Informant: Oh. XDDD What happened to the theme contest? O_o;
(10:17 AM) Informant: did he ever bother finishing it/
(10:17 AM) Informant: ?*
(10:17 AM) --: I have no idea, I didn't even know there was one. XD
(10:18 AM) Informant: XDDDD People kept bitching to him to get it done. We ran a contest for members to submit images and stuff and Jake would code their layout. It probably never happened
(10:18 AM) --: Probably not, Jake gets lazy when it comes to doing themes that he hasn't created. XD
(10:18 AM) --: Ew, PC's new default theme is fugly.
(10:20 AM) Informant: is Jake still Mr. Power control guy?
(10:20 AM) --: No idea.
(10:20 AM) Informant: I'm so tempted to be a retard and title my threads J'accuse... eh, I should probably plan this for a more lulzy, full-out attack
(10:20 AM) Informant: I mean, is he still bossing everyone around? XD
(10:21 AM) --: Erm, I guess. XD
(10:22 AM) --: I don't think any of the staff on PC has really changed since I was first modded there way back when.
(10:22 AM) Informant: Awww. DX Except some got more annoying XD
(10:22 AM) --: Well, they all grate on you at some point. XD
(10:23 AM) Informant: XDDD Some never.
(10:23 AM) Informant: You, Kelsey, Karli, Jorfe... some others...
(10:23 AM) --: Aww.
(10:24 AM) Informant: come on, you lot are cool XD
(10:24 AM) Informant: Kaga never pissed me off either
(10:24 AM) Informant: god I miss him
(10:25 AM) --: I didn't know him. He came just as I left and he left before I came back.
(10:25 AM) --: I think he was just a myth.
(10:25 AM) Informant: no he wasn't
(10:25 AM) Informant: he was real xD
(10:25 AM) Informant: he rocked
(10:27 AM) --: What happened to him?
(10:27 AM) Informant: http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=pokemonpalace&tld=net Aww crap, I don't think his whois is gonna help. He must have a dedicated server or something o_O I'unno, I'll ask

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