madrobins | Signal Boost: "Not Enough Clue Sticks In The World"*

nihilistic_kid the jaw-dropping astonishment of this:

illadore writes a piece on apple pies of the medieval/renaissance era, for a reenactor's site. The pie recipes look lovely.

The article is picked up by Cook's Source, a give-away magazine. Well and good, except that the article was picked up without the author's knowledge, without permission, and without payment. And when the author contacted the editor, asking for a (very modest) fee, the editor basically told her that A) the entire internet is Public Domain. Anything you can access is up for grabs. Srsly. B) the author should be grateful because they improved it with editing, and now she has a nice piece for her portfolio. C) the editor knows all this because she has three decades in publishing and this is how the world has always worked, and anyway. And the editor had the nerve to scold the author for heated language in their email exchange.

Heated? I'd have gotten out the personal thermonuclear weapons round about now.

I don't know if the author is going to look for legal redress; I hope so only because this woman (the editor) is in sore, sore need of education. Meanwhile, it doesn't hurt to boost the signal and spread the word. After all, this is the internet and it's all public domain, right?

*line courtesy of Patrick Nielsen Hayden

eta: I was wrong; the article was attributed correctly. Just stolen, is all. Fixed here.