gbulmash's Journal: Plagiarized by Newspaper - What Should I Ask For?

I recently discovered that The New York Daily News sports columnist, the Mighty Quinn, used one of my online humor columns from 1996 ("Dating Don'ts") as his February 13th, 2007 column, crediting it to some bartender in New Jersey. I didn't register it way back when, so six-figure statutory damages are out, but I can prove it's mine and that it's carried a copyright notice since I first published it, so I am entitled to something.

What would a reasonable something be?

How large is your bank account?

[HomelessInLaJolla]

You'll need an attorney (or team of attorneys) who cares. This is usually provided if you have an attorney who owes you a favor or is a member of the family with nothing more pressing on their schedule.

In the absence of a debt or a social connection you'll need to have the money to pay an attorney to care. The situation you've described indicates a retainer fee of around $5k though rates in New York may be higher. This initial fee can be mitigated if you manage to make your particular situation a topic o

Maybe he is right

[neutrino38]

Euh be careful.

Maybe one guy read your column and found is so good that he/she remembered it

Maybe this person talked about is to a New Jersay bar tender presumably after having a couple of beers.

May be Mr Quinn got your column from this bar tender who could not remind from where he got it from.

Re:

[MrHanky]

Not likely. It's copied verbatim, but it's copied verbatim all over the net [google.com]. It's not likely that the journalist knew the origin of the jokes, and the most you'll get is an apology. Still, that's PR, which is worth some.

Get a lawyer

[turg]

You get a good lawyer, they talk to the lawyer at the newspaper, you get some money. If you've caught them red-handed, they're going to offer something -- they won't fight it unless you're asking for something ridiculous or they think they can blow you off (e.g. if you don't have a lawyer).

Re:

[nocomment]

I'd call them on it, make them sweat a little, and then get like a free two years subscription for a friend or something on the promise that be good.

Re:

[turg]

I figure you can at least get whatever is the going rate for a freelance article of that length, plus the reimbursement for few hours of lawyering (which is all it should take to get that far).

The lawyer might have ideas on how easy it is to get more than that -- that is, s/he'll have a pretty good idea of how far up the scale the "not worth fighting" zone goes.