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Zinsmeistered
2006-06-01 11:48:55 Eastern

An E&P article tells of how Karl Zinsmeister took a 2004 profile of him that ran in the Syracuse New Times, changed quotes and text, and then posted it on the web site of the American Enterprise Institute magazine, which he edits. Now we have the new term Zinsmeistered and a concern for all writers: someone taking a work, materially changing it, and then passing it off as the writer's original work. The subject, though, could have been anyone in business, any citizen, or any other person or organization that wanted to co-opt the written word. Certainly it brings about that old suggestion to register your copyrights for a particularly large legal stick with which to bash the infringers. But there's an additional problem for freelance journalists. If you grant a publication the absolute right to edit your copy and the absolute right to resell it to any entity it wishes, then how long will it be before some corporate gnome decides that "tailored news" should be a grand new line of business. And even if the publishers don't go that route, if they can and do sublicense the right to edit, then it could be that the subjects will have legal protection for doing as they wish. Yes, folks, pay enough and you can have all the news that fits ... you.
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