I am such a goody goody when it comes to copyright. It's not just the fines if you're found out, it's the embarrassment and the fact it's just plain wrong to steal someone's work. No wonder so few writers can make a living from writing. Anyway, like I say, I'm a goody goody.
But...I'll come clean. My Weekly - possibly last week's now, I'm not sure - has an article about writer Lorraine Jenkin setting off for South America, which would be brilliant for my literacy students. Interesting, nice photos, etc. Except, of course, it's much too hard for them to read, so I need to abridge it. Savagely. And, being the polite person I am, I'd like to know that's okay. But can I find a contact for this lady? No, I can't. Can I find a dept at My Weekly that seems remotely interested in copyright? No I can't.
Not sure why I'm worrying seeing as my writing has no single sentence in common with the original and there's no copyright in ideas, but I'd like to take the mag in and say: this is about this lady, shall we read our version? without even a smidgeon of doubt about the legality of it. Why does that have to be so hard to organise?
6 comments:
Ring My Weekly admin?
Yes, I might have to do that, Penny, altho' I'm wanting to use it next week. I was hoping maybe the author would have a Google Alert set up on her name that would bring her here. Always one for the lazy option...
Her books are published by
Honno Welsh Women's Press. You could email them and ask if they'd forward it to LJ.
Thanks, that's a good idea, Pat. I think I've been so careful now tho' about how I've worded it that I've probably worked as much on this version as she did on the original!
PS - good thinking, Pat - I got permission back from Honno within the same morning.
That's great, Honeysuckle. Now you can 'rest easy'.
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