[Note: In this online copy of my lawyer's letter to Mr. Petty-Schroeppel, I have deleted the name of a Cyber Access employee and replaced it with "S____" to protect her privacy. -- Ron N.] May 20, 1997 VIA FACSIMILE (617/497-1582) AND CERTIFIED MAIL - RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED Mr. Peregrin M. Petty-Schroeppel President Cyber Access Internet Communications, Inc. 2000 Massachusetts Avenue #4 Cambridge, MA 02140 RE: Mr. Ronald Newman - Demand Pursuant To M.G.L. c. 93A Dear Mr. Petty-Schroeppel: This letter addresses your corporation, Cyber Access Internet Communications, Inc. ("Cyber Access"), and you personally. It is a 30 day demand letter pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, Section 9. This letter also states a need for immediate remedial action by you. This law firm represents Mr. Ronald Newman of Somerville, Massachusetts, with respect to his claims against Cyber Access and you personally resulting from Cyber Access' wrongful termination of Mr. Newman's Internet account (user name "rnewman") and refusal to return or permit Mr. Newman access to his private files previously stored on your server. Mr. Newman's immediate concern is that his private files be returned without delay, including read and unread e-mail messages, web pages and other documents, and that pointers from his former web pages and e-mail address to his new locations be created. Failure to do so will irreparably harm Mr. Newman and will require him to take immediate court action for injunctive relief and monetary damages. Notice is hereby provided that if Cyber Access fails to contact me to address these issues by the close of business on Thursday, May 22, 1997, Mr. Newman intends to immediately file an action against Cyber Access. Between Friday, May 9, 1997 and Wednesday, May 14, 1997, Cyber Access was disconnected from the rest of the Internet. Mr. Newman was informed by Cyber Access on May 9 that service would be restored within a half hour. Service was not restored as promised. Mr. Newman's repeated calls to Cyber Access went unanswered and Mr. Newman found nobody present when he visited Cyber Access' offices in person. Frustrated by his inability to contact anyone at Cyber Access, Mr. Newman visited a public-access Internet terminal at Harvard University's Science Center and posted the following message to the public Usenet newsgroup ne.internet.services on Sunday, May 11, 1997: From: Name.Withheld@cybercom.net Newsgroups: ne.internet.services Subject: What happened to cybercom.net? Date: 11 May 1997 16:09:19 -0700 Organization: ISP Watch - Boston Message-ID: <515jiv$d26@drn.zippo.com> Does anyone know why cybercom.net has disappeared from the Internet? It hasn't been connected to MCI since some time Friday afternoon. If anyone lives in the Porter Square area, could you try visiting them tomorrow at 2000 Mass. Ave. #4 in Cambridge, and see what's going on? Please post a report to this newsgroup. On Wednesday, May 14, 1997, Cyber Access restored access, albeit slow and intermittent, to the Internet. On Thursday, May 15, 1997, Cyber Access wrongfully terminated Mr. Newman's account by, among other things, disabling Mr. Newman's username and password and removing Mr. Newman's files from Cyber Access' server. Mr. Newman's files and access structure included a famous web page entitled "The Church of Scientology vs. The Net," "The Good Net-Keeping Seal" specification web page, various Perl scripts, Mr. Newman's resume and personal photograph and various other files which he had saved, including e-mail from a prior Internet account. Mr. Newman also had several e-mail messages which were received on his Cyber Access account, but which he had not yet read. The deleted web pages are very well known in the Internet community. Many other web sites exist with hypertext links to Mr. Newman's web pages and these other web sites rely on the maintenance of Mr. Newman's web pages. On Friday, May 16, 1997, Mr. Newman spoke with "S____" and "Augustine," two Cyber Access employees, at Cyber Access' office. S____ began to restore Mr. Newman's access and files until Augustine demanded that she stop stating that Mr. Newman's account had been terminated and the files removed because he posted the above-quoted Usenet message. Augustine also stated that Mr. Newman's files on Cyber Access' server were not his property and would not be restored under any circumstances. S____ ultimately agreed to restore the files. Although the files were restored at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, they were again removed from the server by 5:30 p.m. Friday evening. Mr. Newman was not able to retrieve his files during this short time. Thereafter, Mr. Newman's telephone calls to Cyber Access were again not returned. He did, however, receive an e-mail from S____ stating that someone had deleted not only Mr. Newman's account and files, but also his files "in its original location." Mr. Newman hand delivered a letter demanding return of his files to you at your home on Saturday, May 17, 1997 and at Cyber Access' office on Monday, May 19, 1997. You have failed and refused to respond to these demands. The actions by Cyber Access in its wrongful termination of Mr. Newman's Internet account, refusal to return or permit Mr. Newman access to his private files stored on your server and interference with his e-mail and web page relationships constitute willing and knowing unfair and deceptive acts or practices within the meaning of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A and 90 C.M.R. §3.15(3) and a civil violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2710. As a result of these unfair and deceptive acts, Mr. Newman has been injured in that he did not receive the services for which he opened an account with Cyber Access, he has been forced to open a new Internet account, he has been deprived of access to important private files, he has been prevented from receiving his e-mail messages and he has suffered damage to his reputation and public relationships due to Cyber Access' deletion of his web pages which prevents others from viewing them and also interferes with other web sites which have created hypertext links to his web pages. We therefore demand on behalf of Mr. Newman that you and Cyber Access: (1) immediately return via overnight mail or in hand delivery to us Macintosh formatted diskettes containing all of Mr. Newman's files or otherwise provide Mr. Newman immediate access to such files, (2) immediately create pointers from Mr. Newman's Cyber Access web pages and e-mail address to his new web pages and e-mail address, and (3) refund to Mr. Newman the $530 that Mr. Newman paid for his Cyber Access Internet account. I will expect to receive a further reply from you with respect to all demands contained herein within the thirty days required under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, Section 9. If full compliance with the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, Section 9 and other legal rights of Mr. Newman is not made as demanded herein, Mr. Newman will pursue all legal rights available to him, including the recovery of multiple damages and attorneys' fees and costs under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, as applicable. You or your counsel can reach me by telephone at 617/854-4247 or e-mail at john_maconga@pscboston.com, but your reply within thirty days pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, Section 9 must be made or confirmed by a writing sent by First-Class mail. Very truly yours, John W. Maconga, Esq.