While my family suffers in homelessness, desperately seeking legal representation against Amazon's ACX, attorney Sara S. has decided to start fabricating lies about the case.
In an interesting turn of events, attorney Sara S. of Washington, D.C. has come to the defense of Amazon’s ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), and after I informed her that she is a terrible counselor, she promptly refunded my money through the website ContractsCounsel.com, stating that, “John signed up for ACX with multiple aliases which cannot be tracked.”
The problem with her assertion is that:
- I did not sign up with ACX with multiple aliases. I used 1 email address that I no longer have access to (because the account is closed) to create an ACX narrator/producer account, and another email address (that I do not recall) to create an ACX author/rights-holder account. Creating two accounts, one for producing audiobooks for other authors, and one for producing audiobooks for the books you have written yourself, is standard practice at the ACX website.
- ACX does not claim that I “signed up for ACX with multiple aliases.”
So, in other words, neither I, nor ACX, nor anyone at all, except attorney Sara S., is claiming that I “signed up for ACX with multiple aliases.”
Imagine hiring an attorney that not only comes to the defense of your opponent, but concocts some goofiness that doesn’t have anything to do with the situation at hand.
After I informed attorney Sara S. of Washington, DC that she is essentially a second rate scrub when it comes to legal counsel, she responded, “Your messages are rude and condescending, you clearly have not read the contract with ACX you signed and I gave you a huge discount which you ignored. You have provided NO documentation to back up your claims, in the form of statements or otherwise, so this project is cancelled. Good luck and do not contact me further.”
I am quite familiar with the ACX contracts. No ACX contract grants ACX the power to withhold royalties from a narrator/producer even after that individual has proven their identity with government-issued identification, and answered ACX’s own security questions satisfactorily.
As for documentation:
- My unique human voice is the signature of my work inasmuch as any other artist would “sign” their unique artwork with the unique humanity of their actual signature, brush stroke, etc. The audiobooks I narrated and produced were created before AI “voice cloning” was good enough to be nearly indistinguishable to the real person. There is, in other words, no denying that the audiobooks were voiced by me, John Alan Martinson Jr.
- The record of royalty deposits made to my old bank account can be acquired if necessary.
- The data that proves that I am the account holder is still in the account, and any ACX customer support agent can see who the account holder is and what audiobooks that narrator/producer has produced.
- Most importantly, ACX does not deny that I, John Alan Martinson Jr. am the account holder, nor does ACX deny that I am the narrator/producer of any audiobook created under a pseudonym, they are simply refusing to transfer the titles to my new account, and pay me all past due royalties.
So, where does Sara S. get the idea that ACX has simply become confused because “John signed up for ACX with multiple aliases which cannot be tracked”? I don’t know where the attorney got that idea because neither I, nor ACX, nor anyone else whatsoever has asserted such a thing.
Here’s the message I sent Sara S. before she decided to fabricate some nonsense in the defense of Amazon’s ACX:
You (Sara S) stated, “Ok do you have any prior royalty statements? How about screenshots from your account before it was shut down? It seems ACX may be having a hard time correlating all of the pseudonyms with your one account since the contract refers to a “Producer” and not multiple Producers / aliases. Do you have any proof those aliases are yours, whether through Amazon statements or otherwise?”
Your statement, “It seems ACX may be having a hard time correlating all of the pseudonyms with your one account since the contract refers to a “Producer” and not multiple Producers / aliases,” is an insult.
I was very clear about what is going on. Your statement is the product of ignorance about how the ACX system works, and your disbelief about what is going on. Such counsel is not even worth a penny of my time. EVERY ACX CUSTOMER SERVICE representative can access any narrator/producer account and IMMEDIATELY SEE ALL TITLES PRODUCED BY THAT ACCOUNT REGARDLESS OF PSEUDONYMNS USED.
The ACX customer support representative can also see who owns the account, the address, bank information, etc. Therefore, it is IMPOSSIBLE for an ACX agent to not know who created the audiobooks because it is IMMEDIATELY VISIBLE and EASILY ACCESSIBLE DATA.
I sense that we are not going to accomplish much together. A man walks into a bank and shows them his ID, and he has been using that bank for many years, but one day the bank decides that they won’t let him have access to his money even if he shows government identification. A counselor responds, “Maybe it’s because you wear a different color shirt every time you walk into the bank and show them your identification.”
You obviously do not believe or comprehend a word I told you, and yet you are trying to charge me money for your “counsel.”
I will repeat:
- I answer ACX’s security questions that confirm that I am the account holder.
- I also have provided ACX with proof of my identity via government issued identification.
- ACX simply refuses to transfer the titles to my new account, and repeatedly stops responding to messages.
Shall I record a phone call with them to prove that they will confirm that I am the account holder, and then they do nothing when I request to receive my royalties?
So, while my family is HOMELESS and defecating in plastic bags when there is no convenient public restroom, and pissing in bottles, and while we are trying to get my royalties back, you want me to pay you for “counsel” and you neither believe or comprehend the issue at hand?
Oh, do tell.
Now, you’ll have to excuse me, because I’m going to heat some one-dollar burritos in this 7-11 microwave now to feed my family, while I continue to try to save to convert a box truck into an RV so we can get the fuck out of this minivan.
I shall continue to try to find some COMPETENT PERSON that COMPREHENDS what it is means when I say that ACX IS CRIMINALLY WITHHOLDING MY ROYALTIES REGARDLESS OF ANSWERING THEIR SECURITY QUESTIONS AND REDUNDANTLY PROVING MY IDENTITY USING LAWFUL GOVERNMENT-ISSUED ID.
I have a history of royalty deposits from ACX on a bank account. Any other royalty data is matter of corporate record, and it would be “inside” the ACX account (iwritebooks@protonmail.com). You do realize that I have nothing to lose and a Mexican cartel almost kidnapped my daughter while my family has been homeless because of all of this wicked shit, right? How is it that you would dare to take $50 from a homeless person, demand $100 in total, and demand even more, and dare to respond with such an insult? You think there must be some “confusion” going on here on the part of ACX, which means that you don’t believe or understand a word that I have said…and yet you are trying to take my money.
UPDATE
I responded to attorney Sara S. with the following:
“You are an adult man with a child, you have no savings, assets” What part of my family being robbed at gunpoint by seven Mexican police officers, and then subsequently being locked out of my primary source of income (royalty checks from Amazon’s ACX) is not understood? Now you are attempting to make it seem like I am some typically homeless loser. As I explain in my books, my first experience of homelessness was INTENTIONAL, as was the case with the man who pretended to be black and wrote the book BLACK LIKE ME. So, after being targeted by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Golf Cartel, and after 4 black Americans were were also kidnapped (after the unsuccessful attempt on my daughter), you have the audacity to attempt to portray me as some pathetic loser who has “no savings, assets” etc.?
Is that how you typically speak to your clients that are in financial need, after being the victims of two MEXICAN TERRORIST groups, and after being the victim of blatant criminal actions of Amazon’s ACX?
I will be be posting any and all lies you spread about me and my family.
Please consider donating or purchasing a book to help the Martinson family.
About The Author
