Dear Will,
You have several of my articles such as Not Your Childhood Cheddar on your web site. These articles are under my copyright and belong to me. Please remove them at once or I will contact my attorney regarding legal action.
Sincerely,
Sam Gugino
Dear Sam,
Indeed, you must be feeling a great honor to have your name associated with my website. The list of people who have thrown themselves upon barbed wire just to grab at the chance of being mentioned in one of my reviews is long. In fact, I am giving you fourteen days to reconsider your opinion. After which time I may be forced to remove all mention of you from the site. In fact, I feel as though I should probably like to bring this matter to the attention of my rabbi. It may well be too late. Even as we now speak, you could already be in hideous trouble. I will do my best for you . But I cannot make any promises. Your chances will be much higher if you send me a voluntary donation right now. Web space is certainly not free I can assure you. Your gracious deposit can be made to the 'community chest' on my EZ forum. Again, for your sake , as well as that of your three happy children, I beg you to reconsider the consequences of your current momentum.
Respectfully Yours,
Will
Dear Will,
I am not "honored" by people like you stealing my work anymore than you would be honored if someone stole what you produce for a living.
Freelance writers like myself own their own work, unlike staff writers who work for magazines or newspapers which own the work produced by their writers. Since freelancers don't get the same kind of money or the benefits (like health insurance) that staff writers get, we must resell our work elsewhere to make up the difference. When people such as yourself use our work without paying us compensation, it is the same as taking money out of our pocket.
A system that requires payment for reuse of work has been in place in the music industry for years. But it hasn't yet been established for writers like myself. The internet has made things much more difficult because people think anything and everything in cyber space is free. That is not the case when it comes to my stories, which you have on your web site. What you are doing is akin to selling pirated video tapes or CDs. Or reprinting my stories for another magazine or press kit without permission. (In fact, when a New York Times story I wrote was used in a company's press kit, I was compensated.)
There is also an erroneous assumption that people in my situation are getting free publicity. That is another red herring that is used to justify stealing. I don't need to publicize my Tastes columns in Wine Spectator or my wine columns in Specialty Food Magazine (both of which are on your site). And if I did, I know how to do it.
So I must insist once again that you immediately remove my articles from your web site or pay me for the right to use them.
Sincerely,
Sam Gugino
Dear Sam,
Okay. How much for just the cheddar cheese article then? I think I would like that one. Please let me know who I can make the check out to and where I should mail it.
Respectfully Yours,
Will