Q: What is TOTSE all about, anyway?
A: A lot of people have some weird idea that this web site is a Bad Place, a place for hackers, software pirates, and anarchists. The reason that they think this is that there are informational text files on here about hacking, piracy, and anarchy.
However, there are also text files on here that discuss politics; democratic, right wing, left wing, libertarian, communist, and everything in between, but this is not a political web site.
There are files on here that discuss Jesus Christ, Muhammed, Buddha, Crowley, John Smith, and "Bob", but this is not a religious web site.
There are files full of short stories, science fiction, humorous articles, and great works of literature, but this is not a literary web site.
There are files with information on rocketry, radio broadcasting, chemistry, electronics, genetics, and computers, but this is not a technical web site.
This web site is about INFORMATION. All sorts and all viewpoints. Some of the information you will agree with, some you will find shocking, and some you will probably disagree with violently. That is the whole point. In this society we go to schools where there is one right answer: The Teacher's. There is one acceptable version of events: The Television's. There is only one acceptable occupation: The pursuit of money. There is only one political choice to make: The Status Quo.
On this web site you are expected to make decisions all by yourself. You get to decide who and what to agree with, and why. You get to hear new viewpoints that you may have never heard before. On this web site people exist without age, without skin color, without gender, without clothes, without nationality, without any of the visual cues we usually use to discredit or ignore people who are unlike ourselves. All of these things are stripped away and the ideas themselves are laid bare.
You will change. You will transform. You will learn. You will disagree.
You will enjoy it.
CRAZY!
Q: I am a transgender mutant from Planet X and my people are taking over this planet. I need to gather clam shells and pea pods for my intergalactic transmorgrifier. You will pay for your insolence!
A: You're a loon. Seek medical help.
Q: I have PROOF that YOU are SECRETLY ALIGNED with the [FBI / CIA / LDS / Freemasons / NWO / WWF / insert name of favorite bogeyman here]. I am going to EXPOSE your DEVIOUS PLAN for WORLD DOMINATION!
A1: You're a loon. Seek medical help.
A2: Write it up as an article and submit it for publication. We could use a good laugh.
Submissions
We're always looking for new and interesting articles and stories here at totse.com. Why not send us one?
To the best of our knowledge, the text on this page may be freely reproduced and distributed.
The site layout, page layout, and all original artwork on this site are Copyright © 2000 TOTSE Media Ventures.
If you have any questions about this, please check out our Copyright Policy.
totse.com fully supports holders of legitimate copyrights.
From 1989 until about 1998 I ran a dial-up BBS system called "& the Temple of the Screaming Electron." It was widely regarded as the largest text file distribution BBS in the world.
In those days, if someone wrote something and wanted it to be distributed and read, they'd stick a "freely reproducible" stamp on it, upload their story to as many text file BBSes as possible and hope that people would download the text that they wrote.
The totse.com text file archives have grown since 1989 to encompass over 50,000 text files. The vast majority of these were written for free distribution, to get as wide of an audience as possible. Many of the files are copyrighted by the authors but are also freely distributable as long as credit is given to the author for their words.
Copyright implies ownership of the words. If the copyright holder wishes to make those words freely distributable, that's up to them. Copyright does not mean that something cannot be copied, only that the holder of the copyright reserves the right to decide whether and how something may be copied.
With as many files as people have sent to us, it's entirely likely that there are copyrighted files in our archives which are not freely distributable. It is NOT our intention to pirate copyrighted works. If you spot a page on our web site that is copyrighted and not freely distributable, please e-mail totse.com's Webmaster and include the URL of the page in question. Just highlight the URL on your web browser, then copy and paste the file name into the message you send. Without the file name, we cannot track the file down and correct the problem.
If you personally are the holder of the copyright in question and can prove it, we offer the following remedies:
We can remove the page in question.
Or, if you are willing to send us a letter authorizing our use of your words, we will provide a link from our copy of your copyrighted work to your home page. Since totse.com gets hundreds of thousands of hits per day, this should help to increase traffic at your site as well. Send letters to: totse.com, P.O. Box 5378, Walnut Creek, California, 94596.
If you are not the holder of the copyright in question, we will simply remove the page once we've established that it is indeed copyrighted material and is not freely distributable.
Government publications are not eligible for copyright protection under United States law. Works by agents, representatives or members of federal, state or local governments, whether paid or unpaid, are therefore in the public domain. This includes the legislative, judical or executive branches, the U.S. military, all law enforcment agencies and all other agencies or divisions which are supported by taxpayer dollars, such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control and other quasi-governmental organizations.
All works produced under sponsorship, subsidy, direction or control of the U.S. Goverment, their agents or representatives, whether classified or unclassified, including all works produced by independent organizations receiving direct funding from the U.S. Goverment for such works are ineligable for copyright protection. ©©️™️®️ ™
