My email to sent today:
Dear Mr. Wright,
You don't know me, but your articles
brought my Viet Nam era veteran husband to tears.
I am one of those many people who so enthusiastically LINKED (not violated fair use) to your posts in as many places as I could. I'm sorry that this led to your material being stolen. I hope you receive proper compensation (call out the badgers!) and that you return to us soon.
Hoping to be your friend,
Midge Baker
Sat Jun 21, 2014 at 10:17 AM PT: Dear Mr. Wright.
May I call you Jim?
I just read your article "Thieving Bastards."
I want you to know that I am totally in agreement with you.
Intellectual property is intellectual property.
I like to think that I am also a "writer." I am a strictly amateur one in that I have never received actual cash money for my work.
How "amateur"? My "major" work is a series of Star Trek fan fiction from the '80's. It was a for a Star Trek fanzine -- published and edited by fans, written by fans, artwork by fans. For granting my permission for that work to be published in the fanzine I received a copy of the fanzine.
In other words, I was COMPENSATED.
I also had the incredible good luck to have my stories posted online by a large writer-owned website called SimeGen, owned and founded by professional writers Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah.
I had to to provide permission forms for their use of my work, and my "payment" was to be published online. [http://www.simegen.com/...]
Again, I was COMPENSATED.
I would like to post a link to "Thieving Bastards"on my diary at Daily Kos. I am just one of many adherents you have there.
What can we do to help?
His Reply:
Midge,
Sure. No problem. A link is just fine. And I thank you for it.
As to the compensation, yeah, you know, as long as you're good with it, as a writer, that's your call. That's what I can't get through some of these people's heads. Your property is your property, if you "sell it" so long as what you get in return is valuable to YOU, then that's ok. If you're good with "exposure" or you're good with a copy of the fanzine or you're good with a couple of grubby bucks, that's up to you. In my case, the compensation offered to me was valueless. To me, it wasn't a fair trade. I don't need or want Mike Malloy's attention. That's what he just doesn't understand.
Anyway, thanks for writing. Thanks for your interest. Thanks for sharing. And, hey, the world needs writers, and last time I checked, there was a hell of a market for Star Trek universe stuff. Just saying // Jim