We would like to share our opinion and analysis on the recent paperwork that's been graciously provided by Jullie Pudem Scanlon of Silver Phoenix Society. Full disclosure: None of us are lawyers. We have no legal training, and as such this is not to be taken as legal advice.
Just as a quick recap: on 13 March 2018, Widdershins transferred the IP of Wicked Faire, Glimmerdark, and Steampunk World's Faire to Tammy Shipps. We've linked the Silver Phoenix Society post below.
Our key concerns in more detail are below, but TL;DR: we think this agreement has more holes than Swiss cheese, and does not stop Jeff from inflicting harm. We also have concerns about how this will work with SPS's non-profit designation.
1: The agreement between Mrs. Shipps and Widdershins does not have a non-compete clause of any kind. This means Jeff is not barred from creating new events that directly compete with WF/GD/SPWF, or are carbon copies of them. When Turtle Hill bought the rights to some of Jeff's adult events, the language in the contract included explicit non-compete clauses. Seeing as Jeff used his events as a hunting ground for victims, and knowingly allowed other predators to attend them, the ability of Jeff to start up new events is troubling.
2: By the terms of the agreement, Jeff maintains access to the Widdershins mailing lists, and remains in control of the SPWF FB Page. Establishing and communicating with a client base is the most valuable part of sustaining any small business. This means that Jeff has the ability to start a new event, and immediately promote it to tens of thousands of people. Alternatively, Jeff could become the silent partner in a new event company, and they immediately get his mailing lists, and access to the SPWF page.
3: The agreement to transfer the IP from Widdershins to Mrs. Shipps was strictly for the intellectual property (IP) rights, and was to Mrs. Shipps as an individual, not to Silver Phoenix with Mrs. Shipps as the officer authorized to make the transfer. Mrs. Shipps now has the ability to license those events to Silver Phoenix Society. We would have no objections to this under normal circumstances, but given the financial history of all these events and the significant financial investment Mrs. Shipps has in them, these are not normal circumstances. We're not 100% up on the details of how this would work if it is possible, but our concern would be that Mrs. Shipps would use any licensing deal to attempt to recoup her loss. We want to stress that we are not stating this is happening, and that this is not an allegation, just that it is a concern of ours.
4: By transferring the IP rights from Widdershins to Mrs. Shipps as an individual, Jeff has the ability to bypass any bans placed on him. Silver Phoenix Society has been very vocal about how Jeff is supposedly banned, but since Mrs. Shipps now owns the IP for the events, she is free to demand her own terms if she licenses the properties to Silver Phoenix Society. Those terms could potentially include Jeff Mach remaining involved. Again, we want to stress that we are not stating this is happening, and that this is not an allegation.
Despite what many people have alleged, our aim in starting this page was not 'burning things to the ground', 'making people suffer', or similar. Our sole aim was making sure that Jeff Mach is prevented from inflicting current and future harm on people. This agreement does not stop that. In fact, it allows Jeff to continue creating hunting grounds for himself, and for others. We're not going to spout lofty platitudes about 'protecting a community', but we will say this:
Until Jeff Mach is truly persona non grata, none of us are safe.
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