I'm a little puzzled by Jane McGrary's stance vis a vis Judy Glattstein using material from Jane's published writings and postings to the PBS list. As far as I know, anything published on the web (in a venue accessible to the public) becomes part of the public domain, and can be freely quoted (which is different from being presented a sone's own work - that would still be plagiarism); and certainly other published writings may always be quoted without the writer's permission, as long as the source is acknowledged. I do understand that in academic writing these quotes would need to be formally footnoted - I was an academic myself for 13 years - but in journalism, if that's the correct description of Judy's books, footnotes are certainly not the norm. The parallel I would use is that when someone speaks at a public gathering, their words are commonly reproduced in the press with attribution, but not with express permission -that would only be needed if the talk were "off the record", which PBS and published writings clearly are not. Thus, while I would agree that under the circumstances a bibliography citing sources used, even if such sources are not cited individually in the text, would have been a good thing, I really don't see where the express permission of the source would in any of the cases mentioned have been required, unless the source gave the information to Judy in an unpublished format (private correspondence or unpublished letters, documents or scholarship). Ellen Hornig Seneca Hill Perennials Oswego NY USA USDA zone 5 Original Message: ----------------- From: Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 09:50:23 -0800 To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [pbs] Bulbs for Garden Habitats I have received a review copy of Judy Glattstein's new book, "Bulbs for Garden Habitats" (Timber Press, 2005). The author is a garden journalist rather than bulb specialist (her particular interest is Hosta) and contacted me, and no doubt others, early in the writing of the book for information. Since I write under other people's names only when I'm paid to do so, I didn't respond in much detail, citing lack of time. Nonetheless, I find that the book contains numerous statements and even direct quotes, attributed to me by name, taken from my postings on this PBS forum and from my published writing, without my express permission. The book has no bibliography and the Acknowledgments don't mention PBS. The PBS is, however, among the organizations listed in the Sources section in the back matter -- with the now outdated website address. Other active members of this forum are also quoted at length. I recognize some of the statements from the PBS forum archive. I would be interested to know the extent to which the author obtained permission to quote the archive and other material from our correspondents. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA Editor, North American Rock Garden Society _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .