back to article Copyright wally of the week

At El Reg we're happy to license our copy, and if you ask nicely, you might even get use of it for free. But this is the most unusual request I've ever received. Subject: Sunny Spain article use for local US newspaper Andrew, Thanks for the hard hitting and brief article on solar power. I would like to submit it to our local …

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  1. Ken 16 Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    so do you have a link to that newspaper?

    I mean you were totally giving him permission to use it, dude!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sometimes...

    ... a quick whack on the head with a large blunt object and a stern talking-to is just that more effective. The ``whatever, dude'' is just asking for a double helping of same.

    Besides, if the possibly unnoticed threat of a $150k fine isn't helping, would threatening with a $300k fine help? Besides, these jokers probably aren't worth even $50k, so tough cookies trying to collect. *shrug*

  3. Turtle

    Not clear at all!

    The official position of this website seems to be that music piracy should be punished by the most meager of legal sanctions. And that the jury awards against pirates such as Jammie Thomas et al verge on being crimes against humanity. Shouldn't you also be campaigning for changes in copyright law that will essentially decriminalize the outright stealing of YOUR ARTICLES TOO? Or should it be only music and movies that are exempt from copyright protection? If there are reasons for the theft of music and movies to be penalty-free, but your articles protected by copyright, please explain them, as the situation as it stands now is not clear at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Proportions

      The difference between a "pirate" like Jammie Thomas and this person is that 1: Jammie Thomas and all are not making money out of other people's work, just taking it without paying. Still a crime, but not the samr yhinh

      2: This person is proposing to publish (and likely get payed for ) someone else's work AND taking credit for it.

      The second one is the kind of actions that the DMCA was supposed to stop and punish with 6 figures fines.

      BB, cause he doesn't see the difference either.

    2. Annihilator
      Boffin

      Erm, not quite

      There is a big difference. As Andrew points out, El Reg will allow you to republish content as long as you name the source, but may charge for it.

      What this "dude" is doing is akin to me downloading a copy of Bananarama's "Love In The First Degree" and releasing it as a single, possibly by Milli Vanilli, to turn a profit. Admittedly it wouldn't be much of a profit, but you see my point.

    3. Mike Brown

      not really the same...

      Downloading music isnt the same; there isnt many freetards that download Lady Gagas latest single and try and pass it off as their own......

    4. Z 1
      Headmaster

      Ummm

      Do you read a different website? El Reg's coverage has been about whats happening and any campaigning has been about bringing in sensible reforms where authors/musicians are compensated and users get their stuff easily enough. Never have I seen anywhere on the Reg any condoning of piracy. They have, however, been scathing in the way the music business and other lobbying bodies have reacted.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Confused?

      I think you are mixing up the attitudes of the average Reg comments page with the attitudes in Andrew Orlowski's articles.

      Agree with him or not, he's pretty consistent on the subject of authors and artists being rewarded fairly for their work - it's a central theme of a lot of his stuff. A freetard he most certainly ain't.

    6. Alex Wells

      Well, pretty clear actually...

      The Reg have been pretty clear (see multiple 'freetard' articles) that they strongly disagree with piracy, even where idiot Music corps are involved - writing about defunct distribution mechanisms and knee-jerk litigation/kicking-the-door-down of companies' own customers is not the same as giving carte-blanche to 'pirates'.

      The discussion could go on and on regarding the above - but please remember that legality is not an issue with piracy - copyright infringement is a civil offense, one which this chap has every right to complain about on a website to which he is a contributor.

      By the way Capslock writing went out with the 90's, you should be able to provide emphasis within your comment without resorting to bad grammer... paragraphs may help.

    7. Intractable Potsherd
      WTF?

      @ Turtle

      Just to add to the rest of the people saying that you really haven't got a clue, El Reg's "official" position (such as it is), and Andrew Orlowski's in particular is that the world has moved on, the old distribution model for music etc is outdated, and that the music companies in particular should not be able to use draconian laws in order to maintain market dominance. There has never been any suggestion on these pages that content creators should not have their rights protected.

      Now, Turtle, get back in your shell and swim away.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Hey, they asked!

    This sort of thing happens all the time without the thief asking permission, at least this thief was stupid^H^H^H^H^H^H polite enough to ask for permission.

  5. Tom_

    At least he asked

    Many people wouldn't even bother doing that. You can just say, "No."

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Er

    Dude, can't you take a compliment? He thought your article was so good he wanted to redistribute it, and the way he wanted to do it didn't allow for you to get attribution (or pay, but I'm assuming no-one would have got paid for it). His solution was silly, but complaining about it publicly is pretty rude considering that at the end of the day the guy was paying you a compliment.

    1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

      "I was paying her compliment"

      Is what the Flasher told the Court.

      1. mmiied
        Joke

        re:"I was paying her compliment"

        can I use that excuse?

        I will of corse pretend that is mine and will not credit you but at least I asked

        thanmks dude

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      No compliments here...

      It's not about compliments at all! Would you work for free -- or let somebody else take credit for your work -- just because it was somehow a compliment? "Great work on that report, but I'm going to pass it off as my own and you should feel honored that I think it's worth plagiarising." My plumber won't work for free, no matter how great it is for him to expend his efforts on my toilet.

      Contrary to common misconception, the value copy-able material CAN BE diminished with each copy made. I read The Reg because there's content there that is unobtainable elsewhere. My page impressions are a marketable commodity, which in turn pay for the fees awarded to the writers whose content compels me to endure the ads.

      The Ohioan freetard didn't get nearly the drubbing he deserves.

      1. veti Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: No compliments here...

        "Great work on that report, but I'm going to pass it off as my own" would indeed be an Evil sort of compliment.

        "Great work on that report. Is it okay with you if I pass it off as my own?", however, is quite a different sentiment.

        He's only asking. Take a deep breath. Accusing the guy of anything, or even calling him a "freetard", is entirely unwarranted.

        tl;dr: Whatever, dude.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Re: Er

      Er, indeed. "Dude", it isn't a compliment when someone comes up with a cock-and-bull story about having a "local person" submit an article under their own name. If the tone of the article serves the agenda of this clown (is that a compliment, too?), but someone gets to rub out the name of the author and put their own name on it, it starts to look quite a bit like astroturfing to me: "Local resident Joe Q. Sixpack is outraged, blah, blah, here's his take on the matter."

      Such people should just go back to Facebook and keep clicking the "like" button on stuff - it's clearly where they belong.

  7. JimC

    Sadly

    the only suprising bit is that he contacted you at all...

  8. Lionel Baden

    What do you think

    Whatever Dude !

    *request for "the Dude" Icon please

    1. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      "Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."

      From now on, Andrew Orlowski will be known to me as "The Dude." Andrew, I will drink a White Russian in your honor. The Dude abides.

    2. Ministry of Truth

      Oh my yes

      The Dude Abides

      But don't forget my cake icon.

      And maybe a "the cake is a lie" icon too.

      No icon - boycot them til we get the new ones!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    simple...

    Whatever, Tom.

  10. JimmyPage Silver badge
    WTF?

    At least he asked

    unlike the Daily Mail

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      daily mail

      You dont need permission to make stuff up down the pub the night before your deadline!

      1. JimmyPage Silver badge
        Coffee/keyboard

        icon

        says it all

  11. Brian Miller

    Maybe you should contact the paper

    It looks like Tom would like to see the article in his local paper. How about if you contacted the paper directly? They might be willing to allow you to main in a signature, instead of needing to show up in person.

    1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Maybe you should contact the paper

      But why would I want to do ... anything?

      1. Petrea Mitchell

        Well, fraud and all

        Maybe to warn the paper that any op-eds this astroturf group does give them should be investigated a little more than normal?

      2. Adam Williamson 1

        Well...

        well the guy thought you wrote a good article and the readers of his local paper would benefit from reading it, and proposed a way for this to happen. It was you who, following your own particular obsessions, saw this immediately through the prism of 'intellectual property' and your 'ownership' of what you wrote. Not everyone thinks about this stuff all the time. That angle probably hadn't even occurred to the guy. His thought process was just 'hey, it'd be neat if this appeared in my local rag so some other people could read it'. Sure, for professional or amateur copyright law enthusiasts there are more proper ways to go about making that happen, but it's not as if he was asking you for permission to sell photocopies down the local market for a fiver, is it?

        1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

          Re: Well...

          "It was you who, following your own particular obsessions, saw this immediately through the prism of 'intellectual property"

          Duh, Adam.. that's because (wait for it...) *IT IS* about intellectual property.

          (I don't own what I write here, my employer does, it's a cash-for-IP arrangement.)

          "Not everyone thinks about this stuff all the time"

          Maybe it would help if at least some people thought about it for at least a little time. And your post demonstrates the confusion that arises when they don't.

          These are all fairly simple concepts, why do you find them so difficult to respect? Is it a professional inconvenience? Is it a grudge?

          1. Adam Williamson 1

            Every time

            "These are all fairly simple concepts, why do you find them so difficult to respect? Is it a professional inconvenience? Is it a grudge?"

            Every time I talk to you you seem to make the odd mistake of assuming I'm the same person as whichever unfortunate you're sinking your journalistic teeth into this week. let me remind you once more that I'm not a 'freetard', I don't download music, and I'm not the guy who asked you if he could have your article printed in a newspaper somewhere.

            "Duh, Adam.. that's because (wait for it...) *IT IS* about intellectual property."

            To you. Yes. To the guy who wrote the letter, it's about whatever the hell your original article was about (I've forgotten, now). I work for Red Hat. When people who have no particular interest ask me what I do for a living, I don't launch into a two-page diatribe on the importance of free software, because I understand that they probably don't give a shit, even though I do. This is the mistake you make in assuming everyone else cares a huge deal about 'creator rights' or whatever you're calling the law of copyright this week. Most people just don't care about it that much or know a lot about it. To lots of people, the request that guy made of you wouldn't seem particularly weird. They would think that perhaps you wrote the article out of an intrinsic interest in its argument, not just because you're a writer and you need to get paid, and hence you might like to see the article printed as widely as possible even if it happens not to be attributed to you. Of *course* you have the right to say no to this, which the guy was implicitly accepting by asking your permission first; all I'm saying is that to many people, the mere idea of asking wouldn't be so laughably absurd as you seem to assume it is.

            1. Trokair 1
              FAIL

              Uber-Fail

              Your posting privileges have been revoked.

              "To lots of people, the request that guy made of you wouldn't seem particularly weird." - Hey, I'm going to take your work, change a few things, then call it my own would seem weird to everyone but you apparently. Idiot.

              "They would think that perhaps you wrote the article out of an intrinsic interest in its argument, not just because you're a writer and you need to get paid" - Except that he works for a *wait for it* News Rag and it his job writing that puts food on his table. You are a moron.

              "to many people, the mere idea of asking wouldn't be so laughably absurd as you seem to assume it is." - To ask permission to reprint the article giving proper attribution is not an absurd action. To ask permission to actively plagiarize it is. Now go away and do-not-come-back.

              "to many people, the mere idea of asking wouldn't be so laughably absurd as you seem to assume it is." - To ask permission to reprint the article giving proper attribution is not an absured action. To ask permission to activly plagerize it is. Now go away and do-not-come-back.

              1. Adam Williamson 1

                Er.

                "Hey, I'm going to take your work, change a few things, then call it my own would seem weird to everyone but you apparently. Idiot."

                Everyone but me, anyone who ever published anything into the public domain (hint: that's a lot of people), and a rather large swathe of human history. How many songs do we have for whom the author attribution is 'traditional'? How many old stories? Have you ever wondered why copyright isn't particularly respected in China? It's because socially they haven't developed - fairly recently - the tradition of venerating authors so highly as we currently do in English-speaking countries (in particular). Go look at history (even in England prior to the last few centuries), and note that those who are valued creatively are generally 'bards'; that is, they are valued for their ability to _tell_ stories, not to _write_ them.

                Broaden your horizons a bit. Again, you're doing what Andrew is doing, and viewing everything through the 'ownership' blinkers. The guy who made the request didn't want to 'call it his own' because he wanted to pretend he was the amazing author who wrote it. He wanted to 'call it his own' to satisfy a rather quixotic demand of the newspaper in question.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          WTF?

          Wake up you Muppet!

          What planet are you on pal?

          FFS! I do a lot of photography, purely as a hobby, I make no money form it. Let me tell you, if some scumbag asked me "Oh dude, can I take one of your pictures and like put my name on the bottom and publish it where I like, maybe make a little cash, would that be OK?"

          NO! It fucking would not be!

          Here's one for you. How about you took some pictures of your family and those pictures then got taken and printed in say an guns magazine, a pro-hunting magazine or any publication against which you had strong feelings, would that be OK too?

          Really gets my goat! This "FaceBook generation" that sees all artist's work as being in the public domain, to be used and abused as the downloader sees fit.

          Yes, I want people to see my pictures, but when and where I choose to display them!

          Arrrgh! Where's my pills?!

      3. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: But why would I want to do ... anything?

        except write a snarky article and get paid off the back of someone being sort of polite instead of just ripping you off wholesale

        1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

          Re: Re: But why would I want to do ... anything?

          See that thing sailing 30,000 feet over your head? That's the point, that is.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dude, I hope you got permission to publish that request

    Because if you didn't there's a $150,000 bill coming your way!

    He was asking for permission. Did you?

    1. PirateSlayer
      WTF?

      Dude...

      ...he didn't pass it off as his own request...so no bill in the post.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Was this Ohio bloke a character from Idiocracy?

    Is this a real story or a review of Idiocracy?

    Mind you, I've had Register writers send unsolicited emails to me making as much sense in the past...

    I wonder if he'll submit 'his' story to the local rag anyway?

  14. Desk Jockey
    Happy

    Too stupid to write his own article?

    Despite being head of several single issue groups (they look a bit made up to me!) he doesn't already have his own material and can't just use your article as a source (with reference of course)? Plus talking about Spain in the US might not actually work with a local readership as they will probably think Spain is in Mexico or Louisiana or something!

    I think the reason why the local rag wants the authors to sign it is so that they can prove they actually know the subject matter and wont write complete rubbish. Unlike UK papers, US papers actually have standards!

    I think you would do the guy a favour by saying no because he would not be able to answer the questions on any technical or research aspects of the article, thus would look a bit of an idiot. Admittedly, a nice enough to ask at least sort of idiot!

  15. Chris Collins

    Free as a bird now

    The official position of this website seems to be that music piracy should be punished by the most meager of legal sanctions. And that the jury awards against pirates such as Jammie Thomas et al verge on being crimes against humanity. Shouldn't you also be campaigning for changes in copyright law that will essentially decriminalize the outright stealing of YOUR ARTICLES TOO? Or should it be only music and movies that are exempt from copyright protection? If there are reasons for the theft of music and movies to be penalty-free, but your articles protected by copyright, please explain them, as the situation as it stands now is not clear at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Chris Collins

      I hope you got permission from Turtle before submitting your comment.

    2. CD001

      heheh

      once again the downvotes show how people somehow manage to completely miss the irony here.

      1. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: heheh

        Quite!

  16. Mr Smin

    calm down

    Looks like the asker is asking (on behalf of a non-profit organisation) if you don't mind them circumventing their local newspaper's requirement that submissions must be signed over in person - he likes your article and thinks people in his area should read it and this was the best way he could think of to do that.

    Mis-conceived, poorly explained but not really worthy of your reaction.

  17. Warren 2
    Pint

    Junket

    Perhaps you should have hit him up for an all expenses trip to sample the finest that Bellefontaine, Ohio has to offer.

    This bustling metropolis of over 13,000 is famous the world over for having the first concrete street in America built in 1801, and the shortest street in America, McKinley Street, which is about 20 feet long.

    There could be a signing ceremony followed by beers at the Jug & Jazz Bar & Restaurant. (darts tournament from 9:00pm). http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/pint_32.png

    1. Apocalypse Later

      Figures

      "This bustling metropolis of over 13,000 is famous the world over for having the first concrete street in America built in 1801, and the shortest street in America, McKinley Street, which is about 20 feet long."

      So, 20 feet of concrete; that was quick. I expect that the famous street paved with gold is even shorter.

  18. John Tappin

    not even an acknoledgement to the great el reg?

    There is a sort of respect for things that are copied and good enough to be followed, but simply being ripped and re-badged is a bit mean

  19. Mark Flingstone

    Executive director

    Another instance of a Scarlett O'Hara approach to taxpayers' money ... gone with the wind ...

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