Ehow replaced my article with a crappy piece in order to deny me royalties
It's true. They did this thing. I read a host of articles written to the tune of the evils of Demand Media who own Ehow. So I went to the site and eventually, once my hot head had cooled down I read that whilst I own the rights to the work I created, I gave them the right to created a "derivative piece" and to link my name to that work. Here are the actual words:
OWNERSHIP OF RIGHTS FOR USER GENERATED CONTENT; LICENSE RIGHTS You retain ownership of your copyrights and other intellectual property and proprietary rights in any User Generated Content you post to the Site, subject to the non-exclusive rights that you grant to us as described in these Terms. These Terms do not prevent you from granting similar rights to others.
Subject to your right to terminate your license to us as described below in this Section 5, you hereby grant eHow a worldwide, royalty-free, freely transferable, freely sublicensable (through unlimited levels of sublicense), non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, transmit, distribute, publicly perform and display (including in each case by means of a digital audio transmission), and create derivative works of the User Generated Content, in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You also hereby waive any moral rights you may have in such User Generated Content under the laws of any jurisdiction. You hereby appoint us as your agent with full power to enter into and execute any document and/or do any act we may consider appropriate to confirm the grant of rights, consents, agreements, assignments and waivers set forth in these Terms. You agree that we may (but are not obligated to) display your User Generated Content, and your user name or your actual name (according to the preferences you select at the time that you register) along with your User Generated Content.
Read more:
Terms of Use | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/terms-of-use.html#ixzz1ITRFXeQx
And so dear reader, I have just learned a valuable lesson, Writer Beware. It's a sad thing, but I will now scour the web for new places to sell my writing for royalties.
Labels: derivative version, plagiarism
EHOW STOLE MY ARTICLE
In 2007 I started writing for EHOW. Over the past summer in order to promote my article I pitched in on youtube and advertised, "How To Marry A Millionaire." Well long story short, now my article is missing, not in any records that they have NOT EVEN on the royalties pages. They rewrote the article and deleted mine and all record of it. Now when you go to any link that supposedly goes to my article you get one of theirs.
They ripped off my article and that's copyright infringement!!! Or something like it and I am mad as blazes!!!!!
If you're a writer steer clear of EHOW because they steal. OH Mark Zuckerberg, founder of FACEBOOK and also EHOW how could you do this to me.
And their article sucks.
Happpy Freaking birthday to me! I think my half a million readers should go elsewhere!!!!
Mad as blazes,
RICHARD SMIRALDI
Just another ordinary day 
Okay World, I've gone ahead and written the great american novel, now what?
Hello there world!
Well I have done it! Yes, finally I've done it. I have written literature. I didn't start out that way. In the beginning I was just going to write a simple little mystery for the world to enjoy and then discard and move along on to the next one. But something happened along the way. My characters became deep and memorable.
So I have done it. And I have sent a few queries out to some literary agents. But what happens now? The waiting.
If I said to you that my book, "Seven Murders in Sussex" would change you completely, would you read it? If I told you that by the end of the book you would totally lose your breath and find it difficult to breathe, would you read the book?
It's written very simply, which is the absolute genius it. You may become bored with it in the first or second chapter, but by the end, I'm sure my reading audience will absolutely hate me for what I do to them.
The reader will be moved. The reader will be changed. And I do believe that this book could be a best seller, not because it is written in the most brilliant prose that you've ever seen, but because, there is a deeper message in the multiple layers. There are things about my characters that even I do not know. They have taken on a life of their own.
The basic premise is this, a retired Playboy bunny who owns a hotel in a small farming town, attempts to stop its "depopulation" from the government by contacting a pal of hers from the early days who has become a music television celebrity. Her friend comes to the town to help and is murdered. Then her estranged polo player husband is murdered and then his publicist.
Seven Murders in Sussex is brilliant. It will take your breath away. But how do I get it to you if I can't get a publisher interested.
I read yesterday a website by an embittered writer who discusses how hard it is to actually get a book published and how our chances are few to zip.
She discourages future writers.
If this is the case, how do we get our books out? How do we get our messages across?
She's an idiot.
I've written literature. It needs some tweaking by a good editorial team. I have just flung it out into the world. I don't dare self publish. I'm too poor to begin with. I'm not looking to get rich. I just need to get the word out. My living characters need to meet you.
You won't easily forget them and will probably be quoting them for years to come.
Where is the answer? Does anyone have the answer?
Thanks.
