---
title: "Just Say No to Sys-Con: Aral's Jihad"
date: 2009-07-27T16:19:41Z
modified: 2009-07-27T16:19:41Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/just-say-no-to-sys-con-arals-jihad/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 2148
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2009-07-27T16:19:41Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

Sys-Con once accused my friend [Aral Balkan](http://aralbalkan.com/) of “cihad”. Well… Aral may not have been a man on a mission before, but he certainly is now. According to Wikipedia, one definition of Jihad is

> “to struggle to improve one’s self and/or society”

So let’s see. Aral has been threatened and bullied by Sys-Con. The full sordid story is [here](http://aralbalkan.com/2284).

> To summarize, I’m being bullied by Sys-Con because I spoke out against my content and identity being misused. I’ve been attacked time and time again with libelous articles that appear to be part of a systemic attempt at character assassination. This whole Sys-Con affair is the last thing I need right now. It’s a huge distraction from work and a generally nasty affair to have to deal with. However, I am not going to take this bullying lying down. It’s time to say “no” to Sys-Con.

One might assume Aral is being paranoid, were it not for the fact Sys-Con has used similar tactics in attacking, for example, Adobe’s [Ted Patrick](http://www.onflex.org/). There is also no doubt that Sys-Con has an “interesting” relationship to other people’s IP and writing on the web.

I am not going to say a great deal more, but please read Aral’s post. If you think it the firm’s behaviour is reasonable, go right ahead and keep engaging with them. But Aral isn’t just fighting for himself now, this is a struggle on behalf of a number of people whose content is being re-appropriated by a third party.

disclosure: As I have said, Aral is a friend of mine. I don’t have any other axes to grind.