[E. Shaun Russell]

I suppose the fear of some journals is that they'll wind up publishing something that has been published elsewhere...and that the holder of the original publication rights will take legal action. I'm guessing that concern is at the very core of it. Either that, or they take the need to be the "first" to have published a particular poem very seriously.

I don't submit much these days, but I can guarantee that it wouldn't deter me from sending something workshopped on Eratosphere to a publication with statements similar to Poetry's above. And the idea of one po-mag taking legal action against another po-mag over publication of one of my poems makes me want to bust out laughing. It's just not a big enough industry to be worth such a hassle.

[Allen Tice]

An ill wind.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Here is an anecdote. I recently requested the estate of a poet to give me permission to seek publication for a poem I had translated.

They referred me to the watchdog organization that guards against misuse of copyrights and supports poets and writers. Basically it is a good thing that some entity oversees use of intellectual property, and I approve of the intent. I suspect the estateholders joined after receiving my request, since it took quite some time for them to reply and when they did they said they had just signed a contract with the watchdogs.

I wrote to the watchdogs and the upshot was that they wanted money to allow me to translate calling it "use". They also wanted a share of the (huge) monies they expected me to get when I published it. I laughed as delicately as I could in their collective faces.

Although a translation is a new work and NOT a "use" of the original work, I like to work closely with the source and know that I'm on safe ground. In this particular case, the estate had no kinship claim, but were grown children of the (childless) poet's second wife and had inherited the rights through their mother.

My attitude is: why take a chance? Whether the disgruntled party has a real case or not is immaterial if they have a strong organization to pursue what they perceive as their best interests. It costs money to defend a lawsuit brought against one.

There are plenty of other fish in the sea and I have neither time nor money to mess with deluded souls who think there might be money in suing. Of course, the legalities in Europe and America may be different but I will translate elsewhere.