Official Shit List
“I have five enemies, envy, lust, greed, pride and apathy.
If I can hold my own against these in this lifetime, then I shall consider myself a lucky man…”
This page is where we posted the names of those who had offended or cheated Sensei Ashida Kim, the reasons they were selected for this distinction and our proposed course of action to rectify the situation. These miscreants included publishers and literary agents who stole millions of dollars in unreported and overseas sales, who refused to honor contracts signed in good faith and swapped Sensei’s intellectual property amongst themselves like vampires sucking the blood out of any other victim. But we stopped them. By asking people to boycott their products, by publishing Sensei’s books and videos ourselves.
There are trolls and cyber-commandoes, who, out of jealousy, pollute the internet with lies and slander and constant questions to which no amount of answer was satisfactory. All to get attention for themselves, so they could imagine and pretend that someone is listening to them, in a vain attempt to fill the awful loneliness of their pitiful lives. But we beat them. By ignoring them, by refusing to believe the trash and filth that they spew like little monkeys throwing their own feces at the zoo. For, indeed, they are no more than that. We strive to be better than that, to serve a more noble purpose.
As Sensei has said, “All these things are merely steps upon the path. What is done is done. We cannot have ‘revenge’ on any of these people. Nor can we hope for ‘justice’ or fair play. Neither should we seek to modify their behavior in any way. Each of them must work out his own karma. All we can try to do is set a good example by our own lives. We are men of peace who can fight like ten tigers, sworn to protect and defend the Homeland. This is the ancient martial arts tradition upon which we are based.
He explained it this way, “One day soon, my friends, you will wake up and say to yourself, ‘What a beautiful day!’ And, as you go through the day with that feeling of joy you will ask yourself why you continue to drag around the baggage of battles long ago fought and won or lost. You cannot go back and fight them over. Each contest stands alone, you must know when they are done and move on.
“Nor can you concern yourself over much with threats or fears of what may happen tomorrow. No one knows what the dreams may come. Each day, like a scholar at his first class, prepare an empty mind upon which the day may write. Be here now, enjoy this moment, follow your bliss and do your best. That is all that is required. The chattering of monkeys is of no consequence and men do not beat drums before they hunt tigers. We are all here for a reason. Discovering that reason and acting upon it is the sole purpose of our time on this planet. Human beings are, after all, creatures of light having a temporal existence. It is a voyage of self-discovery.
Plato said, "The only real service we can be to our fellow man is to remind him of the experience of Eternity, the memory of which is lost at birth.” knowing this, and that concurrently the only thing one can 'take with them upon passing' are the memories we have created here, then it only makes sense to try and make good memories. To accomplish this, the ancients have taught us the martial arts..
To this end we let go our vengeance. We do not forgive, nor forget. We seek only to better ourselves by following the Way. In so doing, we learn the lessons of the past, without allowing them to burden us, so that we are prepared for the undiscovered country, the future.
It is said, ‘the mood of the warrior is waiting for the enemy to appear.’ The mood of the Ninja is also waiting; waiting for something wonderful to happen. May you find your own Way as pleasant.
In 1979 I began to write a series of books for Paladin Press, Boulder CO,
some of the titles of which include Book of the Ninja, Secrets of the Ninja, Secrets of Invisibility, Ninja Death Touch, Ninja Mind Control and
Forbidden Fighting Techniques of the Ninja. The copyrights for all of these books were applied for by Paladin Press and they are registered
in my name. Between 1980 and 1995 revenue from these books rose to a peak of $40,000 per year in 1984. That means that I alone made the company
$400,000 in one year, more than any other author they have had before or since. In spite of this success, royalties quickly and steadily declined
thereafter despite numerous secondary rights sales to companies like Citadel Press, Bantam Books, Penguin Publishing and countless overseas sales and
translations, and the fact that I wrote eight more books for the company. During this period I discovered that the royalties for most of these books were
going to a New York literary agent who organized many of the secondary sales and overseas rights. In fact, Secondary Royalty reports from Citadel Press
listed him as the author. When I asked about this, the editor I spoke with told me this was an “accounting device" to "make sure the money went to the
right person.” Which apparently wasn’t me. Also, several of my books suddenly had new titles and covers. Secrets of the Ninja became Invisible Ninja and Book of the
Ninja became Ninja Training Manual and so on. When I asked a twenty-year employee of Paladin who had risen through the ranks from editor
to treasurer about this, she referred me to the New York agent who told me flatly, “Those books are mine, you are not entitled to any money from them.”
And hung up the phone. The next day, the trusted employee was fired. I continued to deal with Paladin and demanded an accounting, among the materials sent to me was a note clipped to royalty reports
from South America saying that I and several other authors should receive no royalties for these sales, per instructions of the owner of Paladin Press.
In 1995 Paladin severed all contractual obligations to me. At that time, according to the letter they sent me, they would no longer publish my books and
all rights to all books reverted to me, although some continued to be published by Citadel and Penguin and others, most of whom I am unaware of because
they kept all these dealings secret, under “secondary rights” contracts that could not or would not be voided. In 1999 Citadel Press, who was responsible for many of these unreported sales and copyright infringements on behalf of Paladin and
the literary agent, declared bankruptcy. At that time I had three separate contracts with them beyond secondary rights on the above
titles, all stating that in the event of bankruptcy all rights reverted to me and the contract was void. But, that is not what happened. Instead, I got a
letter from their attorney saying that clause was “unenforceable” and that my contracts had been sold to Kensington Publishing. That same year Citadel "re-copyrighted" all my best sellers by claiming they had "added new material." In so doing the installed
their literary agent friend as the "author" because that is how he was carried on their accounting books. They could not possibly have added any new
material because they know nothing whatsoever about the subject. Despite their supposed bankruptcy, Citadel Press still maintains offices in NY and a
website and have continued to operate as a covert distributor of all of my books worldwide and stolen all of the money from those sales. For ten years I tried to work with Kensington. I offered new books, I tried to find out what had happened to all my old books that
they supposedly now owned. All to no avail. When they wanted to release the new edition of Secrets of the Ninja to “honor” me for being inducted
into the USMA Hall of Fame in 2009, they refused to make changes in the original manuscript that had been wrong from the first edition, and never
corrected by Paladin either, and added an endorsement from Haha Lung, one of their house writers, to promote his books against my wishes. This insult was
the last straw. Many people think that I am Haha Lung. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is a name invented to insult me. It comes from
the references made to the Hai Lung Ryu, or Black Dragon School. When the publishers decided to take advantage of the incredible success of
Ninja Mind Control, they invented Haha Lung. To them Haha Lung = Hai Lung, laughing at me all the while. On his website he admits that he is not
a martial artist at all but instead a "staff" writer for Paladin Press who also uses the name Dirk Skinner to write "frontiersman" books, another subject
about which he knows nothing. His "books" on mind control are little more than recycled NLP (neurolinguistic programming) technqiues. A psuedo-science at best,
whose methods have been largely abandoned by serious psychologists. The names of these methods are "shrouded in mystery" and wrapped in mystical names
taken from a medieval role playing game like "mind slayer" and "psychic flail." The sad part is that so many people were led to believe Haha Lung was
me in disguise and actually fell for this scam. DOJO Press will shortly release a true edition of Advanced Ninja Mind Control techniques that will be
unlike any trash foisted on the public by this fraud. Real Ninja do not meditate on dominating people or manipulating them. We strive only to be of
service, so that good deeds will spread out like the ripples on a pond and cover the whole world. In the last two years I have become aware of how incredibly well known and widely read I have been all this time and how, through a
series of shell companies and artful dodging, my books have been sold all over the world for three decades without me receiving a pittance of the income. When I broke with the first publisher, all rights reverted to me. When the second publisher went belly up, all those contracts
went void. I have no contract with the third publisher at all. Therefore, as the copyright holder of all of my books and all of the variations and
editions of my books known and unknown I declare that DOJO Press is the only legal and legitimate source for any of my books and that all others are
illegal pirated editions. Any other vendor, retailer, distributor, warehouseman or seller in possession of them will be prosecuted to the fullest extent
of the law. Don’t buy any book with my name on it unless you get it from Dojo Press. For years I gave away Secrets of the Ninja free on
my website to keep the publishers from profiting by it. As soon as I took it down they came up with this latest scam to rob me again. The new Dojo Press
edition has fifty more pages and 80 more pictures than the original. We have re-worked and re-mastered all of my books, REALLY adding new material and
making them better all the time. I am the most well known and best selling Ninja author of all time, and I have nothing to show for it except the fortunes these
thieves have made off my work. Please understand, this is not for myself or for revenge. I tell you this not to discourage you from trying to
accomplish anything. But rather so you will be aware that there are many devils on the road who will gladly pretend to be your friend so they can steal
you blind. Even if you are so good you make the company, any company, millions of dollars, they won't share it with you. Even if you sign a contract in
good faith, it's not worth the paper it is printed on. Even if you have the copyrights in your name, if you don't have an army of lawyers and thousands
of dollars and years to spend in court it means nothing. Consulting a business lawyer can be just as expensive as hiring a crimnal defense attorney for
legal advice. Same thing happened to Billy Blanks and his Tae-Bo workout tapes. Same thing happened to Susan Powter and her Stop The Madness
Diet. I think of how proud my parents would have been to know what a great author I was and how I could have made their lives so much easier. I think
of all the good I could have done in the world and all of the people I could have helped, if not for swindlers like these. I went to the FBI with this
many times, even before 9/11, and they just laughed, saying that my paltry $5 million was insignificant. The law is supposed to protect honest people from unscrupulous and unfair business practices. Instead, it is twisted to help them
rob us and all we ever hear when we ask for help is, "Sorry, nothing we can do." But there is... Ninjitsu is the most inoffensive and non-violent martial art known to man. But, it is a martial art and a method of self-defense.
I therefore ask that everyone employ passive resistance to this cause. Boycott and protest the sale of these books wherever they may be found. It worked
for Dr. Martin Luther King. It worked for Mahatma Gandhi. It will work for us as well. All you need do is nothing, refuse to participate in their crime.
By so doing they will be powerless and broken. Henceforth, these books and this knowledge are KINJI-TE, forbidden, and will ONLY be given by me to those
I feel worthy. Now, there are a lot of pimply faced little trolls that have been jealous of me for decades because they think I am rich from all
these books. This is the real story of what happened to all that money. If I had any of it, there WOULD be a Ninja temple where people could be safe from
liars and thieves and cowards like these. And, that is the name of that tune, ‘cause Ashida Kim said so!You might also enjoy from DOJO Press:
