March 22, 2006

Letters To The Editor For March 22nd
printable version

Stopping Online Copyright Infringement

Hi, Angela,

You may single-handedly put an end to online plagiarism!

Thanks again for all your help, and for all you do to help writers.

Best,
S.

Another Victim Of Copyright Infringement

Hi Angela -

I appreciated your article this week about stolen work. About six years ago, I submitted a very short vignette to a web site and was dumbfounded (as was the web site owner) to find it IN PRINT on a calendar, with my name on it!!!

I had a few go-rounds with the publisher's lawyer, got a letter claiming "fair use" - and after I came back, all they would promise was not to use it in future editions of the calendar! After another couple of go-rounds, I decided it was not worth my time or energy, and so dropped it. The owner of the web site, I believe, did contact the authors of the product, and did take my story off her site. But, I would not be likely to bring a new project to that publisher....

G.

Editor's Note: Many attorneys assume writers are ignorant of copyright law and can't afford attorneys when they contact the offender directly. Consequently, they may feed you incorrect information like the "fair use" excuse in the story above. Don't assume an attorney for the other side is going to tell you the truth. They're going to say what their client tells them to say in an attempt to make you go away.