I just want to give Kirt Christensen some credit here.

Kirt Christensen did send me a prompt reply to my email - promising an immediate full refund and personally addressing my criticisms.

I find it very good of him to:
1) Immediatly honor his satisfaction guarantee - no bogus like some businesses.
2) Respond here on FT giving his side of things.



I also want to say I cannot agree with all the criticisms of MM. While there are things he could have done differently, I don't find it unethical to publish information available in the public domain and sell it. Please note that most of the information availble in any book you read is available somewhere in the public domain for free. The author should have a unique way of presenting information in an area where they have extensive knowledge organised in a user freindly manner. The purpose of buying a book may be to save time and effort - not because you couldn't find out somewhere on the internet for free.

There are many sides to the issue of sharing information about deals (as we are doing eveyday on FT) including the shortening of a deal's lifespan and I don't want to get into a long debate about this.

However, I urge those who are labelling this unethical to take a close look at what they determine to be unethical.
- Is it unethical to charge a large sum of money of money for information people already know?
- Is it unethical to charge a large sum of money for information people do not know (organised in a unique helpful manner) but could aquire elsewhere if they spent time (they don't want to spend) searching?
- Is it unethical to charge a small sum of money for information people do not know (organised in a unique helpful manner) but could aquire elsewhere if they spent time (they don't want to spend) searching?


Provided every customer feels they are receiving a bargain for what they paid I don't think selling information (available in the public domain) is unethical. Provided people are being helped - consolidating information available in many different places, organising it better, communicating more effectively what others said, adding personal advice, saving others time, etc is a valuable service people are willing to pay for.

Please don't misunderstand me - I am NOT saying the above was the case here. I am saying selling information is not itself unethical.

Does anyone own the information we gather as a community on FT? I think not. We are each free to share the information with others - in our own words and giving credit where it is due. If we take time organize this information into a resource others want to pay for, does it logically follow we are acting unethically?