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Don Smith, Steve Saunders And John Hulme.


henderpump
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Hi,

Before this topic runs away with itself even further into the realms of the fantasy world - please can we have a few facts.

First and foremost - there are not fortunes at stake or at risk - the business of publishing books and magazines on minority interest topics - such as offroad motorcycle sport - is not a business path paved with top carat gold and diamond tea breaks - so all thought or talk of BIG money is literally, just a popular misconception.

That is not to say that it is impossible to make a reasonable living at it, but it does take a lot of work - and very often long hours, occasionally in very poor weather that really makes one wonder if there could be easier ways to make a living.

The only realistic income is from the advertising revenue of the popular magazines - and that can be much better money - but it can be fickle money and advertisers will fight very shy of any controversial aspect that may emerge............like criticism of a publisher, for example.

Well said

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My Work Here Is Done.

A satisfactory ending.

I just received a very nice email from John Hulme.

In it he acknowledges that he lifted material from Don Smith's book without crediting the original author.

He does say, however that he had a verbal agreement, allowing free use to replicate his words, with his good friend over many years.

So that's all right then... There were no credits and/or footnotes in the book, an aspect he regrets and says was merely a trivial oversight which does not warrant the torrent of abuse on various

media he claims he is receiving.

Unfortunately, wether or not there is a torrent, that's what can happen when people ask awkward questions that you avoid answering when you make a publishing gaffe of this type.

It matters not the amount of money perceived to be at stake, or the size of the entity involved, it is about the principal of the thing and the promptness and timeliness of efforts taken to rectify errors.

From the tone and content of his email to me, John Hulme seems to be on the road to doing the right thing, well done him.

Regards to all,

Joe Henderson.

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as a matter of interest a writer/publisher, to whom i was close, of car workshop manuals, held a letter from austin morris allowing him to reproduce exactly any and all printed material that bore thier name and or trademarks and all was fine and dandy until someone at said companys succesors saw the value in what he was doing and called time, unless large sums equal to many many times the value of the projects was forthcoming.

so such agreements as intimated by one party can/do exist although the reward for thier use does not actually have to reflect any reward the user may have gained from using them and could be considerably greater

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Joe, you did the right thing raising this issue. It seems to me there are numerous things about this saga that leave a bit to be desired, not the least being the 'ending' above (if that is the ending & there is no further action taken to rectify things). It reads like a bit of a pattern emerging that is less than satisfactory.

Mistakes will be made till the end of time, but to claim the omission of credits or acknowledgements was a "trivial oversight" (if those were his words or inference, not yours) sounds like the significance still hasn't been grasped. It's the difference between courtesy, honesty & integrity versus plagiarism. And that is huge as every writer from high school age should know. It's perceived as being just about the unforgivable sin of the 'writers guild'. Amazing how many who get caught out claim they forgot, & no doubt sometimes it's true, but it doesn't excuse it.

Where a genuine oversight has been made, the only satisfactory ending is not to trivialize it but to rectify it. eg with a follow-up public acknowledgement and apology published in the appropriate place. You'd like to think that might yet be forthcoming.

Edited by jc2
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  • 1 month later...

Just a little background on this issue -- sorry I'm late with this but have only just been made aware of it.

I ghost wrote the original book for Don Smith and received a fee for the work which included passing the copyright for my words to Don.

The book makes it clear that the copyright remained with Don after publication and this has now passed to his heir, Amanda.

I spoke with her today and she is understandably upset at the wholesale lifting of the text from her father's book and has a problem understanding how anyone would stoop to claiming authorship for something they had no hand in writing or commissioning.

Not owning the copyright, I guess we can't expect the original publisher, Haynes. to have any great interest in this intellectual property theft but I hope that the publisher and/or author of the new book will step up and make things right with Amanda.

I wrote a good number of books on motor cycling matters in the 1960s and '70s both in my own name and for others. I know that then, had I resorted to plagiarism, I would have been cast out from the publishing community and never allowed to work in that field again.

Graham Forsdyke

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Has any body asked Steve if he knew about this? I carnt believe he would allow his name to be used if he knew was stealing someone elses work. Hulme thinks he is the king of trials and beyond all laws. this is exactly the sort of thing hed do and its easy to say there was an agreement when the other man is not around to argue.

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Nowaday's information is so easy to get and even more to write it down and the easiness of copy and paste can - as we have read now - lead at least carelessness.

Anyway it should be noticed that it is allowed to quote not only a sentence even sections of text, this is the better and more efficient way to trace down information then trying to describe an already published information in other words and probably causing failures, misunderstandings or myth.

It also legal and free of any costs to quote already written text IF and that is important

"... the quotation is marked as one..." 001

001 and there is a footnote and a footnote register which gives the original source.

Then no problem everything is then OK, it's very common we just don't have to forget.

Anyone who had written articles and books or still writes them should now this.

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Nowaday's information is so easy to get and even more to write it down and the easiness of copy and paste can - as we have read now - lead at least carelessness.

Anyway it should be noticed that it is allowed to quote not only a sentence even sections of text, this is the better and more efficient way to trace down information then trying to describe an already published information in other words and probably causing failures, misunderstandings or myth.

It also legal and free of any costs to quote already written text IF and that is important

"... the quotation is marked as one..." 001

001 and there is a footnote and a footnote register which gives the original source.

Then no problem everything is then OK, it's very common we just don't have to forget.

Anyone who had written articles and books or still writes them should now this.

That would be fine if you sold the book as steve saunders life story and riding tips from Don Smiths earlier work in the 1970s ?? How many people who bought it new they were buying earlier work ?

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Just for the record, today would have been Don's 77th birthday. This year, in October, saw the 10th anniversary of his passing away also. I am sure he is watching with interest. Happy Birthday Dad. Love from your children Amanda, Karen and Paul and partners plus your 5 grandsons..x x

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Yes, of course, it's often useful when writing an article to quote from a previous authoritative source but there's a vast difference between quoting a few lines with an attribution to the original author and the apparent wholesale plagiarism of this case.

Apart from collaborating with him on the original book, I was a close friend of Don and, knowing him that well, am surprised at the suggestion that he would have given permission for his work to be copied in this fashion with no mention of the original book or author........

gra

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