[El Diablo]

Mason,

I'm fully aware of how the real world works, in business contexts that are orders of magnitude greater than the poker world in which you exist. I've been directly responsible for over $100 million in software company fundraising. This year companies I've been involved with in an advisory role have sold for over $300M. Relatively small scale in my field, but through this involvement, I am intimately familiar with all of the different interests involved and how various investors, bankers, analysts and companies all depend on each other to keep the machine rolling. When the companies are solid, this is very positive and leads to creation of great value. When there are shady dealings, it leads to a propped up deck of cards. The dot-com boom and bust illustrated how these things can have major impact on the market in both directions.

The less regulated and more private the businesses involved, the more important it is for key players to play an advocacy role for those involved. Your public silence on this matter speaks volumes.

As for AP going down, you vastly overestimate the reach and power of 2+2 if you think making a statement as a publisher of a lot of top poker books is likely to cause "AP to go down." There's a realistic chance that they and others might actually do more than give lip service to making real changes, though. As for hurting other sites in the short term, if a couple of steps backwards is what it takes to legitimize the industry in a way that has never occurred before, then I think that's a great tradeoff.

Of course, as I do indeed understand how the real world works, your stance is exactly what I expected.