User:Marklyon

Mark Lyon (born 1981) is an American computer programmer, author, political technology consultant, and is currently a law student at Mississippi College School of Law. Lyon also operates a small business and political consulting firm, MH Lyon Consulting, which assists businesses in many aspects of the operation of their business and in obtaining government contracts, and helps Republican political candidates with their technology needs.

GMail & The GMail Loader
Lyon created the Google GMail Loader (GML) shortly after GMail was launched. With the program, a user can upload their existing email into GMail's service. With the accessibility, searchability, and storage space offered by GMail, this became an attractive option for those who have accumulated email that they wish to retain even though they desire to use GMail. GML has had approximately 50,000 downloads since it was made available.

Lyon was a contributing author to Chapter 6 of the Second Edition of Google Hacks, an O'Reilly publication edited by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. Chapter 6 focuses on GMail; his contribution to that chapter focuses on GML and how to manage existing mail with GMail.

Lawsuit Tracking Websites
Lyon, using the resources available to him as a law student, has created at least two websites to track legal action of interest to a large community of Internet users. This type of "tracking reporting" differs from traditional reporting in that it allows for direct access to the legal pleadings so that readers can review the source of the analysis.

Sony BMG
Lyon was involved as a plaintiff in the Sony BMG CD Copy Protection Scandal, filing his lawsuit against Sony BMG for the damage resulting from his use of a CD by the band Our Lady Peace while studying for law school exams. MTV News. Lyon's Complaint alleged Breach of Warranty, Fraud, Invasion of Privacy, Negligence, Computer Fraud and Trespass, Denial of Access, Use of Access, and an Offense Against Computer Equipment arising out of the infection of his computer with spyware and the resulting instability of the machine. Lyon created the website SonySuit.com to track the various lawsuits arising out of the copy protection controversy.

Flip This House
Lyon created another lawsuit-tracking website, Flip This Lawsuit, in 2006 to track the lawsuit arising out of a dispute between Richard C. Davis and A&E over the rights to the television program "Flip This House", a program that focused on a small business involved in buying, renovating, and selling properties for profit. A&E, when a contract agreement could not be reached, replaced Davis and his company, Trademark Properties, with new cast members from Atlanta, GA and San Antonio, TX. A&E didn't publicize the change in cast, and quickly shut down discussion of the new cast on their internal message boards. 

Lyon stated that he created the Flip This Lawsuit website because he, as a fan of the show, was "quite disappointed in A&E’s sudden change in cast, lack of notice to viewers, and lockdown of the message boards when viewers posted that they were unhappy with the replacement cast".