Dear Fellow Enthusiasts,
Yesterday on this list I promised to look into the allegation that we, the
Austin-Healey Club USA, had "stolen" an article for use in Austin-Healey
Magazine. I would now like to report back to you with what I found out.
(Although this whole subject touches on several issues, in the interest of
keeping this focused and as short as possible I am going to try to resist
the temptation to elaborate. Unfortunately this is still long and I must
ask your indulgence and forgiveness in advance.)
The bottom line to this whole affair is: The accusation that we stole an
article for Austin-Healey Magazine is utter non-sense. (It is also wildly
irresponsible, and, since it was made in a public forum, may constitute
slander and defamation.)
I first checked with editor Greg Kaufman. By the way, for those of you who
have not had the privilege of meeting Greg, he is one of the most
dedicated, hard-working, positive and ethical people you could ever hope to
meet. We are very lucky indeed to have him as editor. Here is his reply
to my inquiry:
It was absolutely NOT stolen. There are a number of stories he has written
with the tag line at the end reading "May be copied."
If Frank himself has issued a complaint, I will cease to use his stories
and offer an apology. I will also ask why he has included a tag line that
grants permission if that is not the case.
I did get his stories off PDLJMPR and I was given permission to use such
material from Les Myer. Even so, I've only used stories that contain the
"May be copied" tag line.
That friends, is an example of high ethics in action. (A) We sought and
received the permission of the "publisher" (the website owner) to use
material on his website. This is akin to writing to the publisher of a
magazine to ask permission to reprint something that they published (which,
by the way, we do). The permission of that publisher is normally all that
is necessary. It is not common practice, nor have I ever even heard of,
also seeking permission of the original author of a published article
(although the publisher may choose to query the original author). (B)
However, although Les Myers's permission to use material on his website
constitutes, at least in my opinion, all that a reasonable person could
reasonably expect, Greg has gone even farther and used only those articles
that specifically state that they may be copied. As I said, high ethics in
action.
I also checked with Les Myer, the owner/operator of the PDLJMPR website.
He posted his reply to the list, but I will repeat the most relevant
portions here for ease of reference:
Hi Reid and list,
Yes, I remember making this statement to Austin Healey Magazine. Our
agreement was that you could use anything on the PDLJMPR site, as long as
you gave the Author and PDLJMPR credit. For example: "by Frank Clarici -
reprinted from PDLJMPR Web Magazine". I find it hard to believe that Frank
really cares, because he was given credit - but I have not discussed this
with him. I certainly don't care to make an issue of it.
So all you guys on the list, who are pissed at Austin Healey
Magazine.......If you need to be pissed and argumentative - then send me a
nasty e-mail. I'm the one who said they could do it. If the concensus is
that you don't like what I did with PDLJMPR - then I can make it can go
away, much easier than it was to start and maintain it. I just returned to
the list, with the idea of putting out a new issue. I want you to know
this is very discouraging.
As an aside - I know from experience how hard it is to find material for
new issues. Probably, the magazine should apologize to Frank, for not
asking him (out of courtesy and comraderie). The rest of you should
realize, that the magazine did not do anything even close to copyright
infringement.
Personally, I find it an honor to have PDLJMPR material appear in Austin
Healey Magazine. If PDLJMPR continues - then my same policy will continue.
I put a blanket statement about use of PDLJMPR site articles - a very long
time ago. Austin Healey Magazine did follow those guidelines, and also
specifically obtained my blanket permission.
Thank you for that, Les.
A few more points of my own (I promised not to elaborate too much, but
there are a few things that need to be stated):
The author of the article is not a member of the AHCUSA and Editor Greg
Kaufman would therefore have no way to contact him anyway, even though my
contention is that it was wholly unnecessary due to (a) our existing
blanket permission to use material published on the website, and (b) the
notation right on the article itself that specifically stated that it may
be copied.
I don't agree that anyone owes the author any apologies, although Greg - in
yet another demonstration of his bottomless good faith - offered one.
Some people on this list do owe the Austin-Healey Club USA a public apology
however, but the kind of people who throw around wild, irresponsible
accusations are also not normally able to bring themselves to do the right
thing in such cases so I'm not holding my breath.
An accusation does not equal guilt. Next time someone launches some wild
accusation, try to bear that in mind. It does not help anything when some
list members "pile on" with "me too" comments based solely on unproven
accusations. No matter how many times a lie is repeated, it does not
become truth.
We are scrupulous about getting permission to print material. Allegations
to the contrary are simply ignorant.
I also want to repeat something that Les said, "I want you to know this is
very discouraging." Amen, brother. You see, Les and Greg are two of those
all too rare individuals who work hard and bend over backwards to try to do
something positive for people like you and me. They're not out there
slinging wild, shoot-from-the-hip accusations and snide remarks and trying
to stir up trouble. But how is their hard work repaid? With wild,
slanderous and defamatory accusations made in public. To everyone reading
this I would ask you to ask yourself: Who is my friend here, the guy trying
to do something positive, or the guy trying to tear it down?
Our reprinting something from the web is an example of how hard we work to
find material that will be of interest to Healey owners. These unpaid
volunteers that we call the AHCUSA officers put in a tremendous amount of
time, talent and effort to try to do something positive for fellow
enthusiasts. I've been a club officer on several occasions in several
Austin-Healey clubs, and I can tell you that expressions of appreciation
from members are fairly rare. They really make your day when one does come
through, but we don't live on them or we'd starve for encouragement. I
just figure that people vote with their checkbooks and if they join and
renew they must like what we're doing. Our club is growing, by the way.
Also by the way, our best estimate is that only about 20-25 percent of our
members are on line, so material reprinted from the web will be new to the
vast majority of readers. That said, we have nothing at all against
receiving fresh material and so if any of you should feel inspired, believe
me, it will be appreciated! We'll make you famous with your name in print!
You can send contributions by email to Greg's address, CC above.
There is ALWAYS a shortage of new and interesting material to publish in
club magazines. We do not pay for contributions, and that makes our task
only tougher. But you know something? We have twice in recent months
secured articles by John Sprinzel - ever heard of him? - for our magazine,
and he's working on another one for us even now. This guy normally writes
for compensation, and I hope I don't have to tell members of this list
about the role he played with Sprites - ever heard of Speedwell? But, we
get his contributions for free. Know why? Because the AHCUSA officers
work long and hard and with imagination to try to come up with quality,
interesting material to publish for the benefit of our fellow enthusiasts.
You don't think a year's worth of club benefits (the magazine is not the
only club benefit; if you think it is you're not paying attention)? Then
spend your $35 on 45 minutes (or less!) of a professional mechanic's time,
because that's about all you're going to get. That $35 is a bargain by any
stretch of the imagination. But go ahead, make your grand, public gesture
of quitting or not renewing. Meanwhile we'll still be here working in a
POSITIVE way to accomplish something POSITIVE.
Thank you to the list members who contributed to that thread with either
attempts to lighten it up and/or with voices of reason. These people do
not get enough praise and credit for the positive role they play on these
lists. Thanks also to the person who originally alerted me to this thread,
and to all of those who contacted me privately, in calm and reasoned tones,
to sincerely inquire about it, and not just trying to do some public rabble
rousing. The good people are in the majority, but unfortunately they just
don't tend to speak as loudly or publicly or frequently.
I'll deal with the personal attacks on me off-line.
If you'd like to know what Austin-Healey Magazine is all about you can get
a sample copy by just emailing your name and mailing address to
Info@healey.org
The recent discussion about copyright was very interesting, but you know,
I'd like to suggest that a discussion about slander may also be timely.
Cheers,
Reid Trummel
Unpaid President of an extremely ethical and positive Austin-Healey club
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