Silicon Chip magazine

Sorry to hear that Julian. I for one enjoyed many of your articles. Good luck for the future.

Don...

Thanks for letting us know Julian, sorry to hear your association has ended. You have made an excellent contribution over the years, and I'm sure many readers that don't lurk here would like to express their thanks as well. Thanks, and best of luck for your future endevours.

Regards Dave :)

Sorry to hear it. Best wishes.

Sorry to hear that Julian, I always read your articles and projects with interest. Will we still have access to your articles via Everyday Practical Electronics, or were reprints of SC articles in that mag out of your control?

Ross H

My articles were reprinted in Everyday Practical Electronics, were they? First thing I have heard of that...

When they republished or re-sold material, magazine publishers I have previously worked for notified contributors of the extra sales and paid a fee (normally half of the original) for the re-use.

But not Leo...

Julian Edgar

I've had some of my EA articles "republished" in other publications. One was in a Hong Kong magazine but I got no payment for it, nor told about it, but at least they kept my name on the article :-/ Someone emailed me and told me of another one too, but I don't have a copy of it nor remember the mag. Another one was in (I think) Test Gear Vol.3, again I wasn't told about that one either, but a cheque did duly arrive in the mail, maybe because it was an actual EA publication?

Dave :)

"Julian Edgar"

This meant the magazine could publish the material in their usual way - ie initially in the magazine itself and possibly again later in another publication produced by the same magazine like a compilation book of projects.

However, since the magazine does not hold copyright ownership, they cannot supply the material to another publisher.

Other magazines may operate in a different way, where the author signs an agreement that assigns copyright ownership to the magazine. This allows the magazine to trade in the material as they wish.

One thing a publisher must not do is to omit the author's name or attribute the material to another.

True story:

On one occasion, I contributed an item for the "Circuit & Design Ideas " pages of EA magazine and received their standard acknowledgement letter and that it would be considered for such use in due course.

The item then appeared in the magazine's " Information Centre " pages ( run by Peter Phillips) about two months later.

Now, authors of items in the CDI pages were paid a fee and could even win a nice prize - but no fee applied to material published the "Information Centre" pages.

Took quite a bit of haggling by phone and letter to get Jim Rowe to agree that accepting the item for the CDI pages meant he owed me a fee for publishing it.

....... Phil

I have signed no copyright dispensation allowing the resale of my work to other magazines.

Julian Edgar

"Julian Edgar"

You speaking only about local or foreign magazines ?

....... Phil

Your Quick Brake is mentioned here:

Many thanks for the great reading over the years and good luck in you other activities. Your 'salvage it' column made many think twice about the value of common throwaway 'junk'*

Peter

(*) I'm typing this sitting on a chair and using a monitor both found on the kerbside!

"Peter Parker"

Very likely SC consider copyright belongs to them.

......... Phil

Wow, I lost count at around 2 dozen SC projects in the last 10 months or so! All the familiar names are there, Leo Simpson, Jim Rowe, Peter Smith, John Clark...

Julian's (sole attributed) "Human-powered LED Torches" is there.

Dave :)

Yep, they are - eg. Quick Brake in EPE Nov 2006 and Human Powered LED Torches in Sept 2006 just to name a couple - along with articles by John Clarke and Peter Smith.

Buying Silicon Chip mag certainly won't seem such a bargain without your "Salvage It" column. Always enjoyed your contributions, they got me hacking more rather than just building from scratch.

Regards, John.

Care to eloborate on the 'ethical' thing ?

geoff

The general tone and implications of your posts may dissuade others from contributing articles to SC or having dealings with Leo etc.

You are practically forcing SC to take action against you to silence you.

....... Phil

Leo Simpson remains a man of tremendous capability in many areas. I seriously encourage others to write freelance material for Silicon Chip

- especially when contributing just an occasional article here and there, I found the relationship to be very fruitful. If you do the articles as a hobby, it can pay quite well too.

In the main, Silicon Chip magazine is extremely good - I think in the presence of John Clarke they have an electronics engineer who performs brilliantly in the niche of designing for a hobbyist electronics magazine.

But I think that anyone who writes for the magazine long-term and in bulk should insist on being appointed to a staff position, if only so that ideas like ownership of intellectual property and suchlike are clearly resolved.

Leo Simpson is the driving force behind the magazine, in addition to being (with his wife) the owner. He has achieved a great deal in starting the magazine from scratch and knocking out the competition. However, in a way he is a victim of his own success - a very big fish in a very small pond.

I am glad to be out of that pond.

Julian Edgar

Julian continues to dig his hole deeper.

...... Phil