|
I have just gone through a rotten experience.
As you may know, some of the articles
and features which appear here on Fly Anglers OnLine
are written by and for other websites, or print magazines. We
do that in order to provide a wide variety of articles and to
introduce our readers to other websites or print sources
which we think readers will enjoy.
When using others peoples material it is
necessary to get use permission. Occasionally we have
used small excerpts, giving full credit to the source, without asking
permission. But use of an entire article, such as three in the
recent past from Warmwater Flyfishing does
require use permission.
Frankly I was delighted when the Advertising
Sales Manager for Abenaki agreed to provide five subscriptions for
the FAOL January Contest. And even more delighted when, after
explaining I felt we were not providing enough good information to
our Panfish readers especially since our main writer was having
heath problems, he gave me permission to use anything in
Warmwater Flyfishing written by their staff writers. I happen to
think Warmwater Flyfishing is an excellent magazine, and
have recommended it to many of our readers. As did Randy Fratzke,
(our main writer for Panfish,) in another article in our Panfish section.
And we used two articles, both of which have now been removed.
I did made a mistake, and used one which was not
written by one of the staff writers, my fault, and it has also been removed.
So no big deal, we all make mistakes. Right?
Well, no. The rotten part is the person who gave
me permission denied doing so. Because using someone else's work
without permission (even though we do give full credit) really is
serious and wrong, I keep track.
Written permission from publishing houses, (usually
to excerpt from specific books) is kept in a file. Emailed permission is
printed out and goes in the same file. Verbal, (phone) permission
is logged in my phone journal, tagged so I know who said what and when.
It doesn't do a lot of good to be able to prove
something, or to know you did the right thing when the folks on the
other end KNOW they have been ripped off and are convinced I am lying.
It also leaves a terrible impression of what FAOL is. Which I guess
what disturbs me most. And let's face it, I've been lied to before.
Maybe that's a condition for living in the USA
these days.
No excuses, we will continue to work with
folks who will/can give use permission, publish articles from known
and unknown writers who specifically write for this website, and work
hard at providing the best in information available for our readers.
Just don't yell at me too much if you come across
an article that is no longer there. If someone has asked to have it
removed, it will say so. And now you know why.
~ Deanna Birkholm
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
|
