Ok, so our mass release (please see previous post) did not garner as much initial media attention as we all had hoped. We (TBA) thought that sending out a release a solid week before the week before the Breeders’ Cup, we might grab a few writers’ attention.
Although I am schooling myself on the virtues of patience (it’s a work in progress) I am extremely anxious, and now a little disappointed.
All is not lost yet though friends. Being the consummate PR pro that I proclaim to be, I realize writers and media types take time to respond to random releases that appear in their inboxes on a daily basis.
This being said, I was very surprised to receive the following email from a “correspondent” from one of the racing industry’s on-line magazines:
David,
Please tell me when the TBA is going to start paying for the columns they post on their sights(sic) written by people for publication elsewhere? It's called royalties in the music industry but the same principles apply. Please clarify.
In all the weeks and hours we’ve been working on this project, I never, EVER thought I would receive something like this. To me this is crazy. Am I wrong for thinking this “person” is completely off base? Is our little blog group taking food off the tables of struggling thoroughbred writers everywhere?
I didn’t think so. But then it struck me (actually, it JUST struck me about five minutes ago); this “writer” absolutely just JUSTIFIED OUR WHOLE PURPOSE FOR DOING THIS!!
I have no idea how old said writer actually is, but his (ooops!) attitude is exactly what's holding the thoroughbred industry from blowing up into something resembling poker, or even NASCAR.
Old school thoughts caught up in a wave of boxed in realities. If there ever was a need for the TBA, and if there ever was a better example of closed-mindedness, this is it. Right now. Please recognize.
I thank Mr. Unamed writer for trying to bring social and moral injustices to the forefront, however, in this case I think he is a bit misguided.
Stay classy.
Your Avg Horseplayer
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3 comments:
As far as I can tell, members of TBA have not been posting columns from other sites. They have been posting quotes from other sites in a manner that seems to be in keeping with the fair use limitations on copyright. According to the U.S. Copyright Office:
The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”
Copyright protects the particular way an author has expressed himself; it does not extend to any ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in the work.
More details may be found at:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
While I'm no lawyer, it seems to me that members of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance are following the copyright guidelines as well as the general blogging conventions of our time.
And generally, they spell correctly.
Someone needs to e-mail that guy "News flash, it's a blog, snippets of info from varying sources is how they work."
What a jerk. And I say that as someone who, yes, gets paid for her writing. If someone found something I wrote poignant or observant enough to reprint a snippet of, so long as it is credited, I would be flattered.
Exactly (x2)!!
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