I spoke with my personal lawyer after I discovered (via an egosearch)
appropriation of my copyrighted material on a web site. She evaluated the
situation and is ready to write a collection letter, but this particular
infraction pales in comparison to the bald-faced thefts of 3000-5000 words
of my copyrighted writing by a number of reasonably well known literary
figures / hard copy publishers. When one of these pirates was in town for
a reading, I staged an unannounced performance within that situation by
arranging for two of my consulting literary lawyers to attend. The reading
bored them (and me) and has remained a standing joke between us, but we
enjoyed the aftermath in which I asked the visiting writer to define the
relationship between appropriation and piracy. "Fear and Trembling".
At least twenty years ago, a known publisher called me out of the blue to
request permission to include thousands of words of exactly comparable
texts in a volume they were in the process of editing. They followed up by
mailing me a permission form, which included a statement of the maximum
amount they were willing to pay per word. A few years afterwards, the same
publisher asked to reprint comparable material in another volume. The
price they were willing to pay per word as stated on the permission form
had risen. I accepted both offers and in retrospect remain completely
satisfied with the transactions.
At present I'm in search of a literary lawyer who can take official action
within the UK. Suggestions welcome.
Barry Alpert
On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:49:49 -0600, Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>One thing that does bother me is that I've found one or two web sites
>that have appropriated my copyrighted verse translations without
>attribution. These sites, of course, include no contact information
>to complain to. I suppose I could sue them, but the costs of tracking
>them down and getting a lawyer would almost certainly be a very high
>multiple of any award I could get, so I've decided not to bother. I'd
>be interested to know, though, if anyone else has done anything like
>this.
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