Historians

From Terry Pratchett's Jingo:

Lord Vetinari:
'Oh my dear Vimes, history changes all the time. It is constantly being re-examined and re-evaluated, otherwise how would we be able to keep historians occupied? We can't possibly allow people with their sort of minds to walk around with time on their hands.'

Cooking an internet thief

I'd hope we are all aware of the problem of Intellectual Property (IP) theft on the internet, and that (sadly) numerous print magazines and book publishers and authors (who should know better) lift online material wholesale and without credit.

So draw up your editor's chair, uncap the red pen, adjust the eyeshade and refill the Chardonnay glass as I bring you a warming tale of an arrogant cookery magazine editor's demise through theft and hubris - as Conrad Black has found, a dangerous combination.

...writer Monica Gaudio, who was surprised to learn this week that the small culinary magazine Cooks Source had lifted her five-year-old story for medieval cookery blog Gode Cookery entitled "A Tale of Two Tarts" ...

Challenging the editor, Judith Griggs, with a reasonable request for adjustment, Griggs responded with a breathtakingly foolish reply I quote in full:

"Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was 'my bad' indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things. But honestly Monica, the web is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't 'lift' your whole article and put someone else's name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me... ALWAYS for free!"

Oops. To cut the long story short, after Gaudio crowdsourced the story, Cooks Source got a (legal) online hammering on their Facebook page - to the extent of moving to a new one (which, of course failed to stop the crowd's challenges. Griggs has been through a savage learning experience, as she recounts here.

The good news is that Griggs has made appropriate restitution to the author and apologised; the bad news is that what is a small magazine may fold from Griggs' overload due to the consequences of the problem. Some of the internet crowd found other (alleged) lifted articles and others contacted the magazine's advertisers with the result that some have withdrawn their advertising and others fight shy.

I was recently 'informed' that Intellectual Property was unprotected in the age of the internet, as bringing a legal case was too difficult and expensive against the potential award obtainable. (For the record, I don't think that's an accurate analysis, or true.) However this case clearly shows that an ignorance of copyright law and a lack of care (and inadequate internet savvy) are potentially lethal to publishers. Ignorance of the law is no defence, as we should all know; but it is not necessarily the process of law but online 'justice' that may render a - potentially disproportionate - correction.

Caveat emendator.

James

Thanks to 'Steve Crewdog' on WIX for drawing my attention to the story here, and to the linked online sources particularly Salon here and Gode Cookery.

Top Twain

An excellent article in today's The Age on Mark Twain by wordsmith Don Watson.

A couple of quotes.

Talking about his unusual approach to autobiography;

But more to his point was the language, and that depended on the manner in which the work was to be written. When we write about something that has just happened, he said, we write "naturally", as if we were simply talking about it. In this form, our accounts are "absolutely indestructible" and time "has no deteriorating effect" on the episodes they describe. By contrast, when we write from a distance in the historian's language, we rarely manage more than "a pale and tranquil reflection" of our subject.

And on writing:

Anyone needing a lesson in writing will profit from his letter to the "unteachable ass" who had the gall to edit his work. The letter is priceless not only for the lethal eloquence of his retort, but also for the insight into the writer's insecurity: the greater the writer, perhaps the greater the insecurity.

The full article here (for the moment), while the subject is the publication of his papers cum autobiography a century after his death.

James