OK gentle readers, what should we do about this… given it makes no reference to this…
14 thoughts on “Advice Please”
“The thought-provoking Grains of Truth event is the brainchild of David North, education manager for Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and is unique to the county.”
Ouch.
Perhaps a gentle email to David and add a comment at the bottom of the article?
There is nothing to suggest that David North would have seen or been part of the original production. I suggest you drop him a polite email, draw his attention to the original program and ask if you can have credit if the show is repeated again.
Have em. Hope it went well in Cologne last night
Ouch. Have ’em indeed. BTW I think Craig always had a hankering to do Of All The Animals In All The World.
tricky…
Send a polite email asking if they were aware of your work and, if so, to credit you in their materials.
Of course, some people do sometimes have the same idea independently. However, if they claim not to, ask what they mean by the project being the first of its kind in that county.
I’m not sure you’ve got any particular legal recourse here – perhaps passing off, but that’s tricky to prove and would cost a fortune to take to court. The idea itself can’t be protected by IP laws, but is there any particular aspect which infringes something you have copyright in? Say, the descriptions, imagery or the ‘performance’ itself. My knowledge of copyright is a bit sketchy these days.
depends on how much fuss you want to make, how heavy you want to get, or how generous you wish to appear. you have been doing the rice show for ages and ages, you did do the rice show in Norwich in 2006 as part of NNF06, and it would be very difficult for Norfolk Wildlife Trust to acknowledge that they had not heard of it, although that could be second or third hand. IP is such a minefield. I would certainly write to them pointing out that you are aware of their exhibition. You could probably get some help from NNF as well…
Even if Richard North didn’t see the Norwich & Norfolk Rice Show, I cannot imagine he would’ve got this far without others bringing it to his attention – and in any event, in the course of his exhibition there’ll be plenty of visitors who will have also seen the Rice.
I’m inclined to blame a local sub-editor for bigging up the unique nature of his idea.
Don’t worry. Nothing good has ever come from Norfolk…
I think you should pursue it. I’m not sure how polite you should be either, as there’s no way this can be a coincidence. Interestingly, someone in Salisbury asked me if she could use the idea to create an exhibition at her own church. I said she should drop you a line, but wasn’t sure how/if I could say no.
Nelson …… ?
Just three days ago someone visiting Of All The People in All the World in Salisbury was asking me just that? What could we do if someone wanted to copy the idea? My answer was that it is pretty difficult for us to prevent this but we hoped that people would at least credit the source of the inspiration…
It seems to me that it is clearly an appropriation of OATP. Can the difference (using a different material to represent something else on black paper) be enough to be allowed? I think not.
Can it be allowed if they make reference to OATP and Stan’s Cafe? Why should it?
Adrian says that the first thing to do is to speak directly to the director of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (Brendon Joyce) to inform him ‘that Grains of Truth is an appropriation of an already well know, well toured and important work for the company and although the aims of Grains of Truth are laudable, you would like to think that it would not be repeated.’
Alternatively, he says : call the sheep…’
Thank you all for these thoughts. I’ll knock out polite letter as most of you suggest and keep you up to date with how it all shapes up.
Mmm…
Note it says unique to the county and not country….(but then it evidently not if youve done you show there before)
And what inspired OATPIATW?… is it a case of no new stories?
Annoying though it is! it maybe that your recourse is probably only to make sure yours is better
“The thought-provoking Grains of Truth event is the brainchild of David North, education manager for Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and is unique to the county.”
Ouch.
Perhaps a gentle email to David and add a comment at the bottom of the article?
There is nothing to suggest that David North would have seen or been part of the original production. I suggest you drop him a polite email, draw his attention to the original program and ask if you can have credit if the show is repeated again.
Have em. Hope it went well in Cologne last night
Ouch. Have ’em indeed. BTW I think Craig always had a hankering to do Of All The Animals In All The World.
tricky…
Send a polite email asking if they were aware of your work and, if so, to credit you in their materials.
Of course, some people do sometimes have the same idea independently. However, if they claim not to, ask what they mean by the project being the first of its kind in that county.
I’m not sure you’ve got any particular legal recourse here – perhaps passing off, but that’s tricky to prove and would cost a fortune to take to court. The idea itself can’t be protected by IP laws, but is there any particular aspect which infringes something you have copyright in? Say, the descriptions, imagery or the ‘performance’ itself. My knowledge of copyright is a bit sketchy these days.
depends on how much fuss you want to make, how heavy you want to get, or how generous you wish to appear. you have been doing the rice show for ages and ages, you did do the rice show in Norwich in 2006 as part of NNF06, and it would be very difficult for Norfolk Wildlife Trust to acknowledge that they had not heard of it, although that could be second or third hand. IP is such a minefield. I would certainly write to them pointing out that you are aware of their exhibition. You could probably get some help from NNF as well…
Even if Richard North didn’t see the Norwich & Norfolk Rice Show, I cannot imagine he would’ve got this far without others bringing it to his attention – and in any event, in the course of his exhibition there’ll be plenty of visitors who will have also seen the Rice.
I’m inclined to blame a local sub-editor for bigging up the unique nature of his idea.
Don’t worry. Nothing good has ever come from Norfolk…
I think you should pursue it. I’m not sure how polite you should be either, as there’s no way this can be a coincidence. Interestingly, someone in Salisbury asked me if she could use the idea to create an exhibition at her own church. I said she should drop you a line, but wasn’t sure how/if I could say no.
Nelson …… ?
Just three days ago someone visiting Of All The People in All the World in Salisbury was asking me just that? What could we do if someone wanted to copy the idea? My answer was that it is pretty difficult for us to prevent this but we hoped that people would at least credit the source of the inspiration…
It seems to me that it is clearly an appropriation of OATP. Can the difference (using a different material to represent something else on black paper) be enough to be allowed? I think not.
Can it be allowed if they make reference to OATP and Stan’s Cafe? Why should it?
Adrian says that the first thing to do is to speak directly to the director of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (Brendon Joyce) to inform him ‘that Grains of Truth is an appropriation of an already well know, well toured and important work for the company and although the aims of Grains of Truth are laudable, you would like to think that it would not be repeated.’
Alternatively, he says : call the sheep…’
Thank you all for these thoughts. I’ll knock out polite letter as most of you suggest and keep you up to date with how it all shapes up.
Mmm…
Note it says unique to the county and not country….(but then it evidently not if youve done you show there before)
And what inspired OATPIATW?… is it a case of no new stories?
Annoying though it is! it maybe that your recourse is probably only to make sure yours is better