Accident Prone

~ Seattle, Alpha group HQ ~

Wednesday

8:12 AM

That morning, instead to his office, Max went to the IT department, looking for Ian.

Ian is the lead of the team who takes care of Alpha group's public image. Their task is to find negative comments in media about Alpha group (ideally, before they become viral), to assess the impact, and based on the results of the assessment to take corresponding action which can be: removing or modifying the content or alerting the legal team about it.

"Oh, the young master is here!", Ian teased.

Max grimaced. "Can we talk in private?"

"Sure." Ian gestured toward one conference room and grabbed his laptop.

Ian is a man in his mid-thirties, who despite his cheerful personality and a relatively handsome appearance, is still single. He loves the ladies, but he finds them troublesome. Ian prefers the company of computers who listen to his commands and don't complain about his eating habits or expect him to take them on dates and stuff.

Ian and Max get along well ever since Max got Ian into one party after which Ian woke up in an unfamiliar place with four ladies whose naked bodies were intertwined with his. He still remembers how that morning he was confident that he died and ended up in Heaven. Because if there is such a thing like Heaven, Ian is confident that it will involve naked women who are eager to please him. That was about four years ago, and since then Ian respects this 'young master' and tries to stay on his good side with hope that he gets to experience such a party again.

"Tell me…", Ian said when Max closed the door behind them. "What brings you into my kingdom?"

"There is some content online which I want removed…"

Ian powered his laptop and asked Max to show him what they are talking about.

Ian skimmed through four websites which talk about Max as a playboy.

One of them has a screaming header: 'Unique hookups of Seattle's greatest playboy'. That is the one where Max's and Liz's photo was posted, followed by lecherous comments which focused mostly on Elizabeth.

"Are these lies? Slander?", Ian asked.

"They were published without my permission.", Max responded.

Ian's eyebrows shoot up when he understood from Max's response that they are the truth.

Ian's attention went to one site which has a variety of information related to Max and polls where people vote about Max's next achievements. "Man, I knew you are popular, but this… Look at this article! Since when you give interviews?"

"I don't…", Max grumbled.

Ian didn't remove his eyes while scrolling through the content. "If these are not lies and you are not the source… Does that mean that you have people following you and collecting all this information so that it can be posted online? Wow! Are these really five steps to guarantee a hookup? … WOW! WOW! You hooked up with 52 different women in one month! That is an average of more than 1.6 girls a day even if the month has 31 days! … Look at this…"

Max snorted. "Focus. How can I get them offline? And there are probably more sites like these…"

Ian looked at Max's grumpy expression and stifled a laugh. "Ah, troubles of being popular. OK. Here is the process: first, each of these sites has a contact information, an email usually. You send to that email a polite request that they take down the content."

Max paused while thinking, can it really be that simple? "Does that work?"

"Usually… no.", Ian admitted and explained: "They are making at least ad revenue on this, and based on the amount of comments, it seems that your name is giving them a significant traffic. If they care about what is morally correct, they would ask your permission to use your name and maybe even share the profit."

Max exhaled in frustration. Why is Ian telling him about things which don't work? "OK. What's next?"

"Next is that you contact the provider who is hosting the site. That is usually a company who owns servers, and website owners pay fees to that company to keep their site online and available for netizens. You tell them that the website they are hosting is using your name without your consent, you asked them to stop and they are not willing, so you are asking the provider to do the right thing take down the sites."

"Does that work?"

Ian bobbed his head for few seconds before responding: "Sometimes… but you will need to prove your identity and any claim you make. Those people are paying for their site being hosted, and you are asking the provider to give up on their income because your feelings are hurt and maybe your privacy as well. But will they care about it? …" Ian shrugged helplessly.

Max frowned. "You are saying that someone can use my name and my photos and publish content while falsely claiming me as the source… and there is nothing I can do about it?"

Ian sighed. "Listen… The provider can be anywhere on Earth and most of the countries don't have any laws to handle these cases. If you are lucky and some laws about online content and personal information exist in the country where the provider for that site is, you can reach out to our legal department to file a case."

"OK. What's next."

"Normally, that is all you can do. You can also go to these sites and post your comments as: 'I am Max, and this is not nice.' But that would usually only bring additional traffic to the sites, so it's not advisable."

Max leaned back in the chair and exhaled while trying to stay calm before speaking again: "Assuming that I go through these steps of sending emails, how long does this take?"

"Days at best. And worst? ... Months, or you don't hear back from them."

"Ian… I am sure that you are doing more than this for Alpha group to guarantee your hefty paycheck."

Ian smiled and spread his hands helplessly while explaining: "Alpha group is a company. When people slander us it usually falls under corporate law. And you know that private and corporate are totally different things. Here is what I can do… I can run my program to pull out all the sites which are mentioning your name or using your photo."

Max took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes at Ian. "I hear you use words like 'normally' and 'usually'. I want to know when it's not normal or usual. I need this content gone yesterday. I am talking to you because I want to hear solutions and not what can't be done."

Ian leaned closer and spoke in a whisper: "There are people we can contact to take care of this, but that is not necessarily legal."

"How does that work?"

"You heard about hackers, right? Some of them offer services. In this case you need a hacker to take down those sites, remove existing users, authors, ensure that the sites don't come back to life, monitor any future sites that might come up… as long as you pay, it can be done."

Max nodded in understanding. He heard about hackers, so he has a general idea. "You have a contact?"

Ian confirmed. "Works under alias Sigma. Very fast. Is this how you want to handle this issue?"

"Yes. I will cover the expenses.", Max responded confidently, happy that Ian has a solution… even if it's not necessarily legal.

"OK. I will contact Sigma to check if he is available and then the two of us can discuss what should be done…"

About half an hour later…

Ian's program found seventeen more websites which are mentioning Max (and it was still running), and Ian took his time going through the sites and reading the content. When he saw that Max is losing his patience, Ian started suggesting how to handle the problem.

Max snorted. "I don't want to hear about strategies. I want this removed, not available online and unable to come back to life. Understood?"

Ian sensed danger and leaned away from Max. "OK. OK." His eyes lit up. "Sigma responded!"

Ian read the email response and pursed his lips. "Sigma is not available. He is going to the Adriatic Sea. But don't worry, I have another one. He goes by the name Omega. This one charges more but is also reliable…"

A minute later, Ian got a response from Omega.

Ian grumbled after reading the email: "He is also going to The Adriatic Sea. Can you believe that? Eh, hackers are enjoying life. Or maybe they have some hacker convention… Why are both Sigma and Omega announcing their location? Aren't they afraid of being tracked? …", Ian mused.

Ian saw that Max's face is getting darker and it reminded him to stay on topic. "Max, don't give up hope. I have one more. I never worked with him, but we can try… Goes by alias Viper…"

…

When Max finished handling things with Ian, he went to meet with his father. It's time to go back to work.

Nathan was on his way to his next meeting. "I thought that you are not coming today."

"I was in the IT department, with Ian.", Max responded.

"Did something happen?"

"It's personal. I asked Ian for an advice."

Nathan didn't probe further into this. He is happy that Max is at work. This is the third day in a row!

Nathan is pleased to see that Max went to Ian to ask for a guidance on how to handle an issue. Nathan likes this Max who is not ignoring problems and is asking experts in a given area for an advice. No one has all the answers, but a great leader will surround himself with capable people who will help him find the answers he is looking for, and he will be wise enough to listen.

Based on Max's cheerful expression, Nathan can tell that Ian helped Max deal with whatever challenge he is facing.

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