Copyrights, Privacy, and other seemingly little issues... not quite
Well, hello world. I'm back again. I feel so badly about being absent for so long but, my father's continuing health problems have caused some backlog in my life. Not that I'm complaining. I've realized in this life that everything comes full circle and since he took care of me when I was young, now I have to take care of him. I owe him that... and in some ways I have to admit, what we've gone through lately has allowed us to become closer than we have been in years. It's been very rewarding.
But... here I am again. I feel like I haven't written in so long that I hardly know what to say but, I did have some thoughts over the past few days that I'd like to share.
When I first began writing Lines, I originally wanted to include emails from my ex-wife. I felt that it would enhance what I was going through, give a reader a better understanding of what was happening, perhaps deepen the drama, the intensity of the experience. I also wanted to include anecdotes from people I had known while overseas, little tales I felt were amusing because that might provide a temporary pause in the drama of the main story, a little diversion for the reader.
Looking back on it, I feel slightly amused at myself. I feel that I should've known better and I'm astonished at how naïve I was.
What I've found out is that I can't. I know, I know, I should've known. But I honestly didn't think about it all that much. I think I was just having fun writing and creating.
I couldn't because after doing some research, as a good writer should do, I discovered much to my dismay that anything "written in a tangible medium" is subject to copyright laws and in today's world that includes emails. Further, I found out that by including not only the emails but, the anecdotes that they could be considered an invasion of privacy and could be the subject of a lawsuit.
I guess, me being who I am, these details of our very complicated world don't occur to me. My mind doesn't work in that way and it was a valuable lesson to me.
I learned that as a writer, you should always be checking yourself, making sure you are well versed in the laws and what you can and can't do. It also made me more sensitive to others privacy. I can't say with any certainty that I wouldn't be angry if someone published material about me that might be sensitive.
I think this is important for all writer's to be aware of. And it was yet another important lesson for me as a budding writer, another class in the crash course that I went through as I was beginning to evolve into a professional.
Well, goodnight world... and as the Terminator once said, "I'll be back."
But... here I am again. I feel like I haven't written in so long that I hardly know what to say but, I did have some thoughts over the past few days that I'd like to share.
When I first began writing Lines, I originally wanted to include emails from my ex-wife. I felt that it would enhance what I was going through, give a reader a better understanding of what was happening, perhaps deepen the drama, the intensity of the experience. I also wanted to include anecdotes from people I had known while overseas, little tales I felt were amusing because that might provide a temporary pause in the drama of the main story, a little diversion for the reader.
Looking back on it, I feel slightly amused at myself. I feel that I should've known better and I'm astonished at how naïve I was.
What I've found out is that I can't. I know, I know, I should've known. But I honestly didn't think about it all that much. I think I was just having fun writing and creating.
I couldn't because after doing some research, as a good writer should do, I discovered much to my dismay that anything "written in a tangible medium" is subject to copyright laws and in today's world that includes emails. Further, I found out that by including not only the emails but, the anecdotes that they could be considered an invasion of privacy and could be the subject of a lawsuit.
I guess, me being who I am, these details of our very complicated world don't occur to me. My mind doesn't work in that way and it was a valuable lesson to me.
I learned that as a writer, you should always be checking yourself, making sure you are well versed in the laws and what you can and can't do. It also made me more sensitive to others privacy. I can't say with any certainty that I wouldn't be angry if someone published material about me that might be sensitive.
I think this is important for all writer's to be aware of. And it was yet another important lesson for me as a budding writer, another class in the crash course that I went through as I was beginning to evolve into a professional.
Well, goodnight world... and as the Terminator once said, "I'll be back."
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