[luvly] Someone's been stealing my words
A luvly post by Giles Turnbull
Wed, 22 Sep 2004 12:59:36 +0100
Thank goodness for Google alerts.
An email from Google alerted me to a web page at a Mac news site, and on it was an article written by me. The publisher of the web site has not paid me for the article, nor even asked if they can use it.
Thing is, the article was one from my regular PA column. I filed it to PA some weeks ago and forgot all about it.
The web site concerned does not appear to be a PA customer. I've tried contacting the editors but all phone calls end up at voicemail boxes, and my email to them has been ignored.
They even had the gall to put my byline on the story (that's how Google alerted me to it - yes, I have an ego-surf Google alert for my own name), and worse still, to slap a Copyright claim at the bottom (I retain the copyright for that column).
I'm not going to name the site here, nor link to it, because there are possible legal consequences and I don't want to mess things up.
It's infuriating. My articles are my living, but if sites on a low (or nonexistent) budget want to re-use my stuff, all they have to do is ask and I'll almost certainly let them use it for free. Several of my O'Reilly articles about Mac stuff have appeared online in foreign translation in this manner.
Of course the obvious answer is to set up a Creative Commons licence that reflects these terms. I'm not at all sure that PA, or any other customers of mine, would agree to my filing articles in such a manner, but it's probably worth asking them to see what they think.
More information: on the luvly mailing list, or on Giles Turnbull. To send feedback or comments, send email to giles at gorjuss dot com.