I received an interesting message yesterday from E.D. Easley who seemed to have a complaint about Copyright.

Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know

Price: $25.78 USD

I have listed his message first together with my reply in an attempt to clarify just what the Writer's Rights to Copyright are.

I would also appreciate any comments you may have regarding this matter and will, without bias or favor, print them right here for everyone to read.

Here is Ed's first contact message with me...

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"I noted with interest that you reprinted a copyrighted article of mine in this edition. I'd like to be paid for the use, please."

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This is in relation to an article we have re-printed on this site. You can read it here:

http://writing.golden-books.com/writing-fiction/romance/characters-in-a-romance-novel.html

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Naturally, as a strong defender of Copyright, I wanted to make sure I had my facts right before I replied.

Shown below is my answer...

G'day

I noted you claim to copyright for the 'free to use' article available from article directories and attributed to author Patty Apostolides who's resource box is listed at the bottom of the article.

Unless you can substantiate your claim, we are well within our rights to use this article without copyright payment.

regards. Dave Lucas

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It wasn't long before I had a reply. This is what Ed had to say...

"Dave, Understand that I don't want to get really uptight about this.

It should be a little embarrasing that a writing magazine would pick up an article without authorization from the author.

I only sold first rights to the e-zine. You had the bad luck to publish it without asking. As far as substantiating my claim, it's a matter of your presenting documentation you were authorized to print it or that the writing was available through the Fair Use Doctrine or was in the public domain.

In short, it's up to you to prove you had the right to use it.

They call that theft where I come from.

Just send the check and let's not hassle about this.

The original article was part of a $110 sale. I think $55 is a fair price for reprint rights.

Thanks,"

--Ed Easley

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Hmmmm? I was getting a little suspicious now. Could this be genuine - a real complaint - or a scam?

Better check ezinearticles.com for their clarification.

Once that was done I wrote back to 'Eager Ed'.

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G'day Ed and many thanks for your swift reply.

As a published author myself, I hold very strong views regarding copyright, and naturally wouldn't abuse them.

This article you CLAIM is yours is currently available free of charge at ezinearticles.com at this address:

http://ezinearticles.com/index.php?Characters-In-A-Romance-Novel&id=31613

According to the Terms of Service:
http://ezinearticles.com/terms-of-service.html

I have complied with every aspect of copyright - including:

Paragraph 4. No additional permission is required from the author of any article within our directory as long as you agree to every term listed above in section 1. a) thru 1. n).

Which I have done.

You still don't sound like Patty Apostolides either?

regards. Dave

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I have to make it quite clear here that MAYBE a writer like Ed uses the pen name of Patty Apostolides. I have no way of knowing that fact - nor do I really wish to explore that posibility further.

But as you can guess - Ed wasn't going to let this serious matter go.

He wrote back - within the hour - such was his urgency.

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"Dave, Like I said, I've only granted first rights to the publication I sent it to. How anyone assumed I'd given them permission is beyond me.

They're my next letter.

It's not hard for me to establish ownership of the piece. I have a magazine editor who would back me up. She was a co-author on one of the articles. It's also the first appearance of the piece you could possibly find.

Go ahead, give me Patty's e-mail. I'll bother her.

I didn't want to do this except I intended to resell that piece, and could. That was before it appeared to be a public domain article.

In any case you should be more careful with reprints. It costs us all money.

And in a writing publication...

Man."

--Ed

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Not a happy chappy...

So there you have it. The saga of the 'Is Ed - really Patty?'

I still don't know if this is a Con or not?

Writer's who supply articles to the ezine and article directories do so for FREE with the sole intention of getting their work published and then PASSED AROUND.

The price is the link in the bottom of the article which increases publicity to them - and if they have it - a website.

I do it - if you write anything - you should do it too.

It makes sense to distribute free articles to spread the word about you, your website and your writing. You always retain copyright -you are not giving THAT away. Just the right to re-print the article in exchange for the Resource Box at the bottom of the work.

Sounds like a fair exchange to me and WILL help you get published and recognised. It's a tool I personally use and I recommend it.

As for Ed...

I await more comments.