Ingratitude and loathing in South Gloucestershire

[unixronin]

Imagine this.  You're writing a book — no, make it a series of books.  All in all, they sell 375 million copies over a ten-year period, plus several feature films, and get translated into 64 languages.  During the course of writing them, you discover that someone has gone to the trouble of collating a whole bunch of reference information for readers of your books, and made it available online for free.  In fact, he's done such a good job of it that you find it useful as a reference yourself, and make extensive use of it while you finish your books.  You even give him an award for the site.

Later, after your books are finished, he decides to publish his reference to your work.

[Poll #1181122]

Well, it sort of depends on whether you're J. K. Rowling, doesn't it?

Personally, while I'm as likely to disagree with Orson Scott Card's positions on various things as agree with them, I think he has Rowling dead to rights here.  Most people would be quite satisfied with having become the 13th richest woman in Britain (and that's including the royal family) and the highest-earning novelist in history.  But it seems becoming rich has made Rowling greedy.

Comments

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

I voted for the "thank him" route, but that's because my personal choice would one that's not on the list. It would be a combination of the "Thank him" and a friendly version of the "asking for royalties" one. Well, not asking, but "lets discuss the business part of this, to be sure we're both protected and properly compensated for the all relevant parts".

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that covers all the bases. I didn't want to make it too verbose.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Yes, that. I would certainly want to protect my copyright. But in a friendly manner.