OT: Jim Kjelgaard's "Fire Hunter" Plagiarized

[Scott Pearson]

Did anyone else read Kjelgaard's prehistoric story Fire Hunter when they were a kid? Kjelgaard's best known for the book Big Red, which was made into a Disney movie in 1962.

Anyway, I just came across an iUniverse book (a publish-on-demand company that B&N has invested in) called Fire Hunter by "author" Frank X. Harris. Harris has taken advantage of Kjelgaard being long dead and the novel being long out of print and has reprinted it under his own name!

I haven't seen the book, so I don't know if it's a word-for-word copy, but the synopsis makes it clear that Harris has at the very least shamelessly lifted the title, characters, plot, and setting directly from Kjelgaard. The plagiarized version has been selling for three years!

I have emailed iUniverse, B&N, Random House (which currently prints a number of Kjelgaard titles), Baen Publishing (which last printed The Hunter Returns, an authorized expansion of the original work by David Drake), and David Drake. I'm hoping that if I contact enough people even peripherally related to the original work that eventually the message will get through to the right person and iUniverse will have to pull the title.

If anyone here has any connections or additional information that could aid me in exposing this blatant theft, please let me know. This just ain't right.

Scott

 

[The Nth Doctor]

What is Fire Hunter about? I don't recall it, but that's probably because I'm the wrong generation.

 

[OmahaStar]

While I wish you good luck, iUniverse doesn't have anything to do with it. They are a print-on-demand company. They will take whatever you send them. You pay them to print it, they send you the books and you sell them. Sometimes they'll sell it for you. They keep no copyright or anything of the sort, that's all on the "author."

Of course, this leads to a large number of really bad books being printed, since they don't edit anything, they just print what's sent in.

The most iUniverse - or any other pay-to-print company - will do is stop printing the title.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I did some digging around at Amazon. I found both versions of the book with reviews. All 20 reviews for Kjelgaard's book give it five stars and full of praise, while Harris' has four out of seven reviews calling it complete crap (with one of them mentioning Kjelgaard and the plagiarism). The other three reviews give Harris high praise, although two of them are from the same person on two separate days, which is awfully fishy.

I hope the best in your endeavors in righting this wrong, Scott.

 

[Scott Pearson]

OmahaStar said:
The most iUniverse - or any other pay-to-print company - will do is stop printing the title.

That's exactly what I'm hoping for. iUniverse, especially since B&N bought into it, is trying to appear legitimate and distance themselves from the standard image of a vanity press. The last thing they want is to get tangled up in plagiary.

Fire Hunter was first published in 1951, and was probably an inspiration to Jean Auel. It's about a guy who gets banished from his tribe for breaking some taboos by inventing a spear thrower. He has to make it on his own. He eventually meets a woman who has also been banished from her tribe. Numerous prehistoric adventures ensue, and eventually the remaining members of his tribe rejoin him after seeing the light of his hunting innovations. I haven't read it in over thirty years, since I was in grade school, and actually remember very little of it. I got the synopsis online.

But I do remember eagerly reading every Kjelgaard title my elementary school library had. I loved his books, and now my daughter does too, although only a handful remain in print.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Update: I have received an email from the president and CEO of iUniverse assuring me that she is personally looking into the matter. She has ordered a copy of the Kjelgaard book and will compare the two and contact her attorney as soon as the Kjelgaard book arrives. For now, at least, they have already taken the book off their website.

I also got an email from David Drake, who said a bookseller had told him about this a year or so ago, and he had forwarded the information to the Kjelgaard estate at the time. Not sure why the estate wouldn't have been able to quash the thing right then and there.

Smash the plagiarizers! :thumbsup:

 

[JD]

WOw, I can't believe somebody actually had the guts to do this, and ACTUALLY GET AWAY WITH IT. I really hope they are able take some sort of action against this guy, because that is total bull****.

 

[Scott Pearson]

JD said:
WOw, I can't believe somebody actually had the guts to do this, and ACTUALLY GET AWAY WITH IT. I really hope they are able take some sort of action against this guy, because that is total bull****.

I've probably accomplished all I can, if iUniverse keeps the thing off their site. It would be up to the Kjelgaard estate to initiate legal action against Harris.

From the pub agreement authors sign with iUniverse:

"[Paragraph 19:] AUTHOR represents and warrants the following to the PUBLISHER: (i) the AUTHOR is the sole author of THE WORK and the sole owner of the copyright in THE WORK" and "[Paragraph 20:] AUTHOR agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the PUBLISHER, its AFFILIATES and any seller of the WORK from and against any losses, lost profits, damages, liabilities, judgments, awards, decrees, settlements, or expenses (including without limitation, reasonable attorney's fees and court costs) arising from, connected with, or by reason of any breach or alleged breach of any of the representations and warranties set forth in Paragraph 19 above"

So it's all on Harris if the estate chose to go after him. Which I hope they do.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Scott Pearson said:
Update: I have received an email from the president and CEO of iUniverse assuring me that she is personally looking into the matter. She has ordered a copy of the Kjelgaard book and will compare the two and contact her attorney as soon as the Kjelgaard book arrives. For now, at least, they have already taken the book off their website.

Good job, Scott!

Scott Pearson said:
I also got an email from David Drake, who said a bookseller had told him about this a year or so ago, and he had forwarded the information to the Kjelgaard estate at the time. Not sure why the estate wouldn't have been able to quash the thing right then and there.

That is a bit odd.

 

[JWolf]

If the original book is no longer under copyright and in the public domain, it's legal to print it and sell it. But it is not legal to change the name of the author. In the US Copyright is released life + 70.

 

[Scott Pearson]

JWolf said:
If the original book is no longer under copyright and in the public domain, it's legal to print it and sell it. But it is not legal to change the name of the author. In the US Copyright is released life + 70.

The book was originally published in 1951, so it should still be under copyright protection. And this Harris inserted his name as the author. He did a bad, bad thing.

 

[captcalhoun]

scott pearson: "you're totally my hero"

 

[Scott Pearson]

captcalhoun said:
scott pearson: "you're totally my hero"

I have smote the evil plagiarist with my mighty email!

 

[captcalhoun]

that was a Heroes quote, but seriously, nice one.

 

[Scott Pearson]

captcalhoun said:


that was a Heroes quote, but seriously, nice one.

If only I had the Kensai sword . . .

 

[ATimson]

JWolf said:
If the original book is no longer under copyright and in the public domain, it's legal to print it and sell it. But it is not legal to change the name of the author.

Uh... once it's in the public domain, it's legal to do anything with the text (including releasing it unattributed or with a different attribution). That's the definition of public domain.

 

[JWolf]

ATimson said:

JWolf said:
If the original book is no longer under copyright and in the public domain, it's legal to print it and sell it. But it is not legal to change the name of the author.

Uh... once it's in the public domain, it's legal to do anything with the text (including releasing it unattributed or with a different attribution). That's the definition of public domain.

How is it legal for someone to take a book in the public domain and reprint it claiming to be the author?

 

[ATimson]

JWolf said:
How is it legal for someone to take a book in the public domain and reprint it claiming to be the author?

It's legal because the material is in the public domain.

They shouldn't be able to claim copyright on it, because it's not sufficiently original. But the definition of public domain is that the work is there for anybody to do what they'd like with it.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Scott Pearson said:That's exactly what I'm hoping for. iUniverse, especially since B&N bought into it, is trying to appear legitimate and distance themselves from the standard image of a vanity press.

B&N has sold their part of iUniverse which itself was recently bought by Authorhouse.

 

[William Leisner]

Scott Pearson said:
I also got an email from David Drake, who said a bookseller had told him about this a year or so ago, and he had forwarded the information to the Kjelgaard estate at the time. Not sure why the estate wouldn't have been able to quash the thing right then and there.

Perhaps Kjelgaard has no surviving family, and "the estate" is just a dusty old file in some law firm's basement?