Sincerely,
Joel*
*I posted this review at WND, but since I HIGHLY doubt I was the first to do so and the product is showing no reviews, I just thought I'd reprint it here. That's a pretty low thing for them to do, but maybe they figure since they're the good guys the rules don't apply. Trouble is, when it comes to the left-right faux-fight the "good guys" are so bad that the "bad guys" don't seem much worse by comparison.
They should work on that, if they really care. The world could use some good guys, and WND used to be a place where even Claire felt comfortable writing. Not so much now.
Here's the original, BTW. Available here.
UPDATE: Seems WND did the right thing. Good for them.
8 comments:
I see WND has removed the shirt from the online sale page,
F42
The right thing? Only because they got caught.
I have yet to see an apology to Sean. But it's his work; it's his call if he's satisfied.
Frankly, this just reinforces the low opinion I've had of WND for a long time.
By complete coincidence, Carl, Sunday July 10 happens to be my day to be diplomatic. :^)
Too bad it isn't Farah's Diplomacy Day: He just told me that apologizing to Sorrentino would be "disgusting".
I could see his lawyers telling him, "premature", "under advisement", or such. But... "disgusting"?
Thanks for the link. I did get an apology from Mr. Farah. I am sure that whoever thought that this stunt was a good idea will suffer for it. I can understand that others have had issues with WND, but I think that Mr. Farah has handled this well enough. And it costs me nothing to be polite about the whole thing.
Sorry. I don't believe in "intellectual property." One cannot own an idea. One cannot own words Their producing hard goods with your idea does not rob you of anything, any more than a taxi driver opening a competing taxi service is robbing you, "because he's doing the same thing you were doing first, depriving you of money you would have made." It's an illogical argument in both cases.
As long as they're not marketing it as though they came up with the idea (which is fraud, and apparently they were being fraudulent by not giving credit) I have no problem with it. Do you think all those shirts with quotes from movies are paying royalties? They're not.
Carl Bussjaeger owns any number of ideas, and I'm never going to get to read them because he can't find a way to make a buck with them without somebody else ripping him off. He got sick of that, I don't blame him, and I'm the loser.
IP can certainly be overdone. But throw the whole concept away and you get a lot of creative people sitting on their hands because they see no reason to exercise their creativity if somebody with a bigger, more ready market can just come and take it. This is a classic example. This guy came up with a clever little saying, somebody else offered him a shirt graphic so he could make a modest buck off it, and before he'd even stood up from the keyboard after announcing the product WND had the same thing on their "superstore." Sorry - we can disagree on any number of things, but I just can't see how that's anything but low. Farrah (belatedly) did the right thing when he pulled it.
Joel, I've decided Brass is correct. I don't own all those words. Why, keeping them to myself is theft.
So I've decided to make everything I've ever written available for free, unlimited download.
Feel free to check it out.
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