After looking up the definition of plagiarism in the dictionary, I don’t think this is it, but I didn’t know what else to call it. Here’s the sitch:
Several years ago I went into a psychiatric unit of a hospital due to major depressive episode that would have ended in suicide if I hadn’t done something about it (I’m much better now, thanks for asking). While I was there, the staff told me about a guy who was interviewing patients about their hospital experiences, because he was writing a book. They said he was interested in talking to me. (We’ll call him Dr. Assclown) Wanting to be helpful, I agreed. I met with Dr. Assclown a couple of times, we talked, and he asked if he could see the journal that I was keeping. I remember showing him my journal, and I believe that he may have copied some of my writing down. After a while, he went away and I never thought about him again.
Fast forward a few years. I’m in the local bookstore, perusing the “Mental Health” section. I pull out a book because the author’s name looks familiar, and I start flipping through it. Lo and behold, I’M IN THE BOOK. He changed my name, and a couple of details, but he left some things the same, so that someone who knew me, and knew that I was in the hospital at that time, could have recognised me. And furthermore, THERE ARE WHOLE SECTIONS OF MY JOURNAL in this book. Chopped up and taken out of context to suit his needs, but there just the same. The book turned out to be a “sensationalized” account of a psych ward. I was shocked, and stunned. I felt violated in a way.
Here’s the thing: I don’t remember ever signing any paper that gave him the right to use me in his book. Or that gave him the right to publish my journal. Don’t people have to sign some kind of consent form if their writing is going to be used in a book? Was what he did legal? I was under the impression that a person had to sign some sort of document in a situation like this. Am I wrong? Could I take some sort of legal action against him? Not that I’d want to, don’t have the money for a lawyer, and it would probably be a waste of time.
Thank you in advance- I have pondered this situation many times and I have no idea where I’d begin looking. So I figured I’d come here, and someone would know or could point me in the right direction.
Short answer: you may have a case, but it’d probably cost too much money to pursue.
You can claim the sections of your journal were taken in violation of copyright (J.D. Salinger won a ruling on this issue of unpublished material). However, since you never registered your copyright, all you could get would be a ruling that the book could no longer be distributed – no money, and the court costs are yours.
The author will claim “fair use,” which means the judge will have to go through your journal and determine how much of it was used. It’s possible she will side with the author and claim not enough was taken. So the answer to the question of whether this was legal depends entirely on whether the judge thinks it’s legal.
There’s no consent form required, but if the doctor was publishing your journal in its entirety, then he’d have to pay you for the privilege. But not if he’s using excerpts.
You’d have a hard time suing for defamation of character or the lot, since you aren’t named. However, if you’re serious, find a good lawyer and see what he thinks. There may be a way to force the author to pay you a settlement. I wouldn’t count on it, though.
If the doctor was on staff at the hospital or had privs, you might be able to complain to the hospital that your identity was not sufficiently protected, since (as a doctor with a professional relationship w/ the institution) the doc had a duty to protect your identity. You might call the patient advocate at the hospital, or the privacy officer.
If he was just a visitor, he had no special responsibilities in this area, just as if he were any aspiring author interviewing you.
You could request your chart from the hospital and see if the staff noted any promises made to you re: confidentiality etc, and you could ask if the doc made any such assurances to the hospital itself.
Otherwise, since the staff told you the guy’s purpose and you talked to him and shared your journal, I don’t think you have any recourse.
Without your copyright being registered, your claim is limited to solely the actual damages you incurred. You can’t sue for punitive damages. Most likely, you aren’t out a lot of money.
First, you most likely had copyright on your journal. Pretty much everything everyone writes is copyrighted. Which is why you when submit something to a publisher, he can’t turn around and say “YOU FOOL! HA HA HA!” and publish it himself.
Second, there are a few ways to get around copyright. As RealityChuck said, fair use is one of them. Another is educational use. It’s a stretch, but hey, in this wacky mixed up world anything’s possible.
Third, I’m going to disagree with jdc. He was a doctor and he was introduced to you as a doctor. Whether he was a visitor, an employee, or the janitor with a white coat on, doctor/patient privilege should apply. As IANAL and I am defintely not a doctor, I don’t know the extent of doctor/patient privilege, it might be worth looking into because…
Fourth, I think this could be cost beneficial to pursue. Your rights have been violated, IMO. This deserves legal remedy. You could get a nice settlement out of it to begin with, or the judge/jury could award you a goodly sum or a % of his book profits.
Thanks for the advice guys. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a medical doctor, I believe he had a Ph.D. in English or Philosophy or something. So I don’t think the whole doctor-patient priviledge thing could be used. Also, he only used a couple pages of my journal. It was just a shock to see my innermost thoughts, verbatim from my journal, in a book. If I could bring a lawsuit against him, I don’t think I would want his money. I would want an apology for misrepresenting himself, and for using me in his book for his own stupid ends, and I would want all remaining copies of the book destroyed. I don’t think I would even try, though. I wouldn’t want a judge, or anyone else, going through my journal, and it would be painful to witness that time in my life being picked over by strangers.
If all you wanted was an apology, then you might try complaining to the publisher. They might be interested to hear that Dr. Assclown did not obtain your written consent. On the other hand, I can’t see them (voluntarily) yanking the book.
As far as legal remedies go, I’m not sure what they are, but consider this:
If you obtained an “injunction,” ordering the publisher to stop distributing the book, the publisher may very well come to the bargaining table, rather than let 10,000 copies of the book rot in their warehouse.
In any event, from what you’ve said, you might be happy with a court order rather than money.
With respect to the issue of “fair use,” I believe that courts give more protection to unpublished materials, such as your journal.
Bottom line: I would consider seeing a lawyer pronto.
Even if you don’t feel like pursuing this matter now, you may change your mind down the road. Better to find out your rights now than to later be accused of sitting on your rights and doing nothing while the publisher printed another million copies. Oh, and by the way, don’t be surprised if your lawyer advises you not to discuss your case further in public forums.
When an interesting thread like this pops up, it often disappears after a few days never to be seen again. If you reach some sort of satisfactory conclusion, please let us know, moggy.
Just so happens I’m in the process of obtaining written permission to quote a few lines from someone’s personal letter in my upcoming book. I thought it was unnecessary since it’s just a few snippets of the guy’s letter and he enthusiasticallly provided it to me for use in the book.
But my publisher insisted that I get written permission.
So if you really think you’ve been done wrong here, I advise contacting his publisher and complaining. Regardless of what legal recourse you may or may not have, the publisher won’t be happy to hear this and it will cause some strife for the author. Seems fair to ruin his day the way he ruined yours.
Plus, I’d call the risk manager at the hospital and complain that the staff lets people take advantage of patients who may not be in the best condition to look out for their own interests. Again, you may not have much legal recourse at the hospital, but the risk manager won’t like hearing that this happened and probably will knock a few heads.
– Greg, Atlanta
GregAtlanta and lucwarm, thanks for the advice. Do you think that if I complained to the publisher it might help, even though the book was written several years ago? They might say, “Why are you complaining about it NOW?”
I actually considered writing a letter to the author, telling him how I felt about his misrepresentation and all, but I never did. Maybe I should.
At any rate, I’m curious to find out about “fair use”. I think I’ll try to find some info on soem legal websites first.
evilhanz, I’m flattered that you think my thread is interesting! I was a little worried that people would think that I was making a mountain out of a molehill or that something was wrong with me because I spent time on a psych ward. I will keep you posted as to what I find out.
I’d go ahead and write the letters. Trust me, the publisher will put it in his file and it will be an issue the next time he tries to sell them a book. Publishers don’t like anything that even hints of legal troubles.
I’m an author, and I think you were used. I wouldn’t ever use your personal journal entries without your explicit permission, and I think that guy just thought he could get away with it because of your circumstances. Pretty sleazy, if you ask me.
I wouldn’t focus too much on the legal angle, because I doubt you’d get anything worth your trouble. I doubt he’s making much money on the book (just because so few books many any real money), so there probably isn’t much to fight over.
But if the guy was a jerk about stealing your journal entries, call him on it. If nothing else, you’ll feel better. And he deserves to feel bad.
– Greg
Another thing you could do, if you realy feel like it, is take your story to some syndicated columnist who likes to write about sleazy journalism/writers/shrinks. It is a compelling story–some liberal arts major, desperate to publish a sensational book, takes advantage of a kid who is not in any condition to look out for his own interests. He pumps you for material, and then mangles that material to say what he wants it to say, and never even sends a comp copy to the kid in question. The more blatant his mischarecterization (for example, if he quoted one ambigious line that MAY have been mysogynstic, and ignored heaps and heaps of things that were not mysogynistic, and then based his evaluation on the fact that you were a raving mysogynist) the better the story. I really have no idea if anyone would consider writting a column about this, but it might be worth sending off a few more copies of hte letter you really ought to write the publisher. They want to know that thier author did this.
In your research, you’ll find that it is an often bandied about phrase on the internet. What it is, is a wee bit different. Fair Use gets a few people out of trouble for infringing copyrights. These people tend to be public school teachers. Unless things have changed much recently, just about everyone else how has infringed a copyright has find no relief through crying fair use.
You’ll notice some factors in your favor. The infringer’s purpose was commercial and the copies are from an unpublished work. But, I digress. The thing to keep in mind as you research fair use, is that fair use only applies to works that infringe a copyright.
He should have gotten permissions from everybody he quoted. His editor should have made sure that all materials quoted were done so with full permission. I would write to the publisher and ask them why that wasn’t done.