Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

[ley74]

Re: Ripped Off

Kev:

Resorting to plagerism is very telling.

All I ask is that you not take it out on us poor yanks this weekend.

[GA_Tarheel]

Re: Ripped Off

Mr. O'Beirne, this act of plagiarism is both outrageous and startling. I am amazed that anyone would pull such a blatant act in this day and age. I always enjoy reading your work and hope that the matter is promptly resolved in your favor.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Ripped Off

Thanks to those who have replied--I appreciate your sentiments.

This whole thing is even more amazing with the revelation on the "Need Info" thread that CCG is paying for feature articles. I suppose it's possible that whoever submitted my work as their own collected money for doing so.

And Ley: We Confederates of the "45th Virginia" this weekend will be running away from you Rebs for six or more miles. As much as I'd like to take out my frustrations of late on some bluebellies, I doubt it'll be on you guys this weekend. :) (There's something odd about guys from Virginia coming to an event in New York State as Yanks, while New York State residents like me are attending as Confederates... :p ).

[1st Maine Trooper]

Re: Ripped Off

Kev:

Resorting to plagerism is very telling.

All I ask is that you not take it out on us poor yanks this weekend.

Let him try to take it out us Yanks this weekend. I just hope he brings his running brogans.

Kevin,
To hear this about CCG, a commercially published work is no doubt very disconcerting. It does not however surprise me. I seem to recall an article relating to purchasing prospective cavalry mounts and the author recommened saddling the horse and then firing a few pistol shots to evealuate the horse's response. Not necessarily a bad idea as long you are not still IN the barn when you do it as the article suggested.

Dave Myrick

[ley74]

Re: Ripped Off

Kevin:

We stopped for breakfast in Newfane, on our way to Winter of '64 and during the meal asked our waitress where we could pick up some good New York accents for the weekend. She laughed and said we should spend the rest of the day in Canada, working it out.

Ain't these three man reenactments great? You betcha! (Brian taught me that one.)

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Ripped Off

Hallo!

:(

Doesn't CWH copyright articles to CWH for one year and then the rights revert back to the author?
(Having written for several magazines over the years, the policy/operation
varies from mag to mag.)

This does not sound shameful to me, it sounds illegal.

Curt
Not a Lawyer Mess

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Ripped Off

Heinrich,

Hello there! Like CCG (at least when I used to submit articles to them), CWH does not use formal publisher/author agreements, so legally speaking the author retains sole ownership of the intellectual property and all rights to it, because the author never "signed away" any of their rights to print or reproduce it.

In most other magazines (that pay for articles and use formal publisher/writer agreements), the "standard" that I've seen from several rags is that the writer asserts in the agreement that they 1) Are the author of the article, 2) They have the right to publish it, 3) That they have not published it elsewhere before, 4) That they agree to turn over to the publisher exclusive rights to use the article for usually two years, after which the writer is free to do with it as he or she wills. Often the magazine also reserves the right to reprint the article themselves; so far, some popular history magazines I've written for have reprinted my work on their website or in special collector edition issues centered around a certain "theme".

What CWH has copyrighted relative to my (or any other writer's) article is what they contributed to it: namely, the layout artwork. In this case, CCG stole the words but not CWH's layout, although they did take the title that CWH gave to the article (my original title for it was something else, and CWH shortened it before printing it).

As for the illegality of it, it's quite obvious that this type of word-for-word rip off is easy to prove and is totally against copyright and "fair use" laws. As i mentioned in my original post, CCG's reprinting this without permission with someone else's name on the byline is either brazen, stupid, or both.

[Spinster]

Re: Ripped Off

In addition to my less publishable reaction, and best wishes for equitable remedy for you over on the OTB, I for one will be VERY interested to see if the publishers make any effort to pull that particular issue of the CCG prior to the upcoming Perryville event----or will it be on 'newstands everywhere' including the battlefields of Kentucky?

Which reminds me, I think I'll toddle over to my local Books a Million and make note of the issue cover, and the thief's byline..........

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Ripped Off

Hallo!

Thanks Herr Kevin for the particulars!

Curt

[Pvt_6thnhvi]

Re: Ripped Off

Kevin,

Sorry to hear about this. Funny thing is that when I asked you for permission to use your work on campaigning for a school of the soldier this past spring you were very accommadating and gracious. Ask and ye shall recieve so to speak...

I am sure that others have used your material for years. Keep up the good work. I hope it does not dampen your enthusiasm for sharing your research.

YHS
R.C.Tarbox

Enough rumors are going around that they are even arriving on my doorstep every day or two about a recent case of plagarism. Yes, the rumors are true: I've been ripped off more brazenly and blatently than I've ever seen anyone plagarized.

No, it wasn't one reenactor "borrowing" some research by someone else, or quoting a paragraph or two from someone else's work without "permission". What I'm talking about is stealing my work, word for word, and printing it in a magazine under someone else's name, without ever asking permission. For a commercial, for-profit business to do this is shameful.

The January/February 2006 issue of Civil War Historian (CWH) carried my article, "Taking Hits: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle", and of course properly credited it to me and published it with my permission. This article will also be a chapter in the forthcoming book, The Columbia Rifles Reseach Compendium 2nd Edition, which CWH noted alongside the article when they published it.

I receive complementary copies of Camp Chase Gazette (CCG) magazine because of the large number of articles I published in their periodical from 1998 to 2003 or so. When the September 2006 issue of CCG arrived at my house a few weeks ago, I was astonished to find my article "Taking Hits" from CWH printed in CCG, word for word... except that CCG had no permission to publish it, and credited the article to another person.

I've seen folks cry foul when their work is photocopied and incorporated with their name still on it into someone else's work, and cry foul when "their" research is used by others, but the type of plagarism that's been recently perpetrated on me is the most blatent I've ever seen: they (or someone) stole a 7,000-word essay already commercially published elsewhere, word for word, and made no attempt to disguise it except for changing the author's name.

The reenactor periodical market is limited to only a few publications, and there's only two magazines--CCG and CWH--that feature articles largely catering to Civil War-era military impressionists. The editor of CWH has informed me that he knows what's published in each issue of CCG even today, so it's kind of hard to believe that the editor of CCG didn't know what his chief competition published just six months earlier.

This matter is being pursued through proper channels. Legal counsel has advised me that, as long as we stick to the facts, there's no reason why it can't be discussed in public. Given that I'm receiving e-mails and AC Forum PMs about it from folks I don't even know, I figured it was time to confirm what many folks already suspect.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Ripped Off

Rich,

Thanks for your note here. Basically, the reason I write "reenactor articles" is the same as many others: 1) to learn about the subject myself and 2) to help others in the reenacting community improve their portrayal or increase their knowledge so that, in some way, they can be a "better" reenactor. When one reenactor wants to re-use something I wrote--and this also goes for pretty much all the CRs I know who have written reenactor "how-tos", while we certainly appreciate folks asking first, we pretty much never refuse someone's request to use the work for the purpose of improving their group or themselves.

However, it kinda burns a bit when one for-profit commercial enterprise like CCG rips off another one (like CWH). When it gets into business practices, it's a bit different than one hobbyist helping another to become more knowledgable.

[Hargis, G. 5 A-1]

Re: Ripped Off

What a Bummer, Kevin (and I don’t mean that silly bag/hat we wear)

The idea of Intellectual Property has been kicking around since as far back as 1845 (Mass C.C. ruling in Davoll et al. v. Brown) So this ain’t exactly a new concept.
Clearly you are the victim in this affair, but is the Gazette a victimizer or another victim? (If they’d know you were robbed, surely they would not be so thick as to send you evidence if their misdeed.)
It seems to me (always thin ice, that) that they unwittingly paid good money for good copy — unfortunately purloined copy.
Had I been a publisher duped in such a fashion, I would fess up in the very next issue, telling my readers that the article appearing in the such and such issue of my mag. seems to have been lifted virtually verbatim from Civil War Historian’s "Taking Hits: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle" by Kevin O'Beirne. I would pay you whatever I had paid the (alleged) thief. I would then go after that fellow for a return of my payment and perhaps more for sullying my reputation. I would give you free advertising for the upcoming book or whatever else you wanted plugged.
Under the heading: What should they have know and when should they have known it? —
Should they have known that this was "hot"?
Is the first ‘graph yours? Google it and see if it leads back to you.
If it’s not a match, how deep must you go before you get a hit?
Google you own text a chunk at a time and see where THAT leads you.
Calculate how much checking you could do of all the text in a publication before you miss your production deadlines.
Publishing is a hard road to travel, one where you are dependent on the kindness [and honesty] of strangers*
Considering how publisher's cash flow runs, pulling an issue with the resulting loss of advertising revenue can mean the death of a magazine. This form of suicide is not the response of choice in the trade.
Nowhere in my remarks do I touch on CWH's interest in this affair. As an injured party themselves, I kinda think they will make their feelings known to CCG.


*Credit for this line goes largely to Tennessee Williams’ "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Glen E. Hargis
Rackensacker Mess
Co. A, First U.S. Inf. (faux)
and an editor in the so called real world

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Ripped Off

is the Gazette a victimizer or another victim? (If they’d know you were robbed, surely they would not be so thick as to send you evidence if their misdeed

I view it that it's only a matter of the degree to which they're guilty. If they're "a victim" I don't feel that much sympathy because this article was published in CWH only six months or less before it was sent to CCG. In a market that has only two competitors, one would think that each would be aware of what they other publishes, particularly within the past year. If you drive over the speed limit without knowing it, you still get a ticket when caught. Publishers cannot use ignorance of ripping off their only competitor in a six month time span as an excuse.

[TKlas]

Re: Ripped Off

Hi Kevin,

I just hit the AC and noticed your post here. That is a pretty low blow for another publication to steal your work and then use a false author. I wish you the best in this endeavor. I do not get the CCG anymore after Mr. Hughes left, but I will never, ever recommend anyone get this publication under the current ownership. Honesty rates pretty high in my book and they just blew it.

It is examples like this that make gents whom enjoy writing articles and researching topics to keep the information within their unit which is a shame for all detailed oriented living historians. I commend you for the CCR's Compendium and your works knowing that it has helped many over the years since its publication. Looking forward to the 2nd Edition as well.

All the best Kevin and hope to see you in 2007.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Ripped Off

"There's something odd about guys from Virginia coming to an event in New York State as Yanks, while New York State residents like me are attending as Confederates...."

It's a pretty good sign some folks realize the war is over. ;)