I’m probably borderline cuckoo sometimes when it comes to issues concerning VO. I’ve made some statements in the past - some of them quite recent - that would lead a few people to believe so.

I think the main reason for this is, I don’t know of a person that works harder to try to spread the good word and shed some light on this secretive world of professional VO. Sometimes I get caught up - particularly when I feel I’ve been wronged in some way. My fingers get the better of me and I tend to fire stuff over the bow at people who didn’t even know they were off my starboard side.

To those that may get caught up in it every now and then - I’m sorry. I just get a little nutty when I think that someone stole one of my articles or copied one of my concepts. I know all this might be a little vague - but those who this is for know what I’m talking about.

I know there isn’t a lot of originality left in the world - and voice over is one of those areas where if it weren’t for people copying one another all the time, there would be very little to listen to. People copy styles, demos, music, copy, branding, keywords, titles, and images every day in this business. Most of it is accepted and most people look the other way as long as nothing of perceived value gets infringed.

If we all wanted to jump around and claim rights to everything in the world - we’d end up in a pretty screwy place. I think the creative possibilities on the internet are a good thing. I think our ability to share ideas with lightning quickness is good for overall creativity and development. But at what point do we draw the line? At what point do we try to rain things in and keep them for our own?

I published an interview with a very well loved and highly regarded voice over hero a while back, and I put it up on the net for everyone to see. I never charged for it. I never asked for donations or made people pay a price for it. I just put it there for people to read, when ever they wanted, as often as they wanted. Because of this persons celebrity status, and because so many people knew this person - the article took off like wildfire and people came from far and wide to read it. So far this was all great. It was exactly what I had wanted them to do.

A while after the article had been up - I discovered it on another site, which isn’t all that uncommon in this blog heavy world. I went and took a look - and sure enough it had my name on it as the author - so far, so good. Then I clicked the link to the article and found that it said I had submitted it to the site - which I had never done. Then I read a little further and found that the article had been edited, so it wasn’t even in it’s entirety. Then I read to the bottom and found that there wasn’t even a link to my site.

Does this go beyond the normal? Should I get upset? Well I did - and I fired one over the bow of the site owner and got no response. Then I fired another over the bow, and got no response. And then I got ugly, and I probably shouldn’t have. Maybe my emails were being eaten by a spam filter. Maybe the owners were on vacation. Maybe they had no idea I was sitting here fuming. I took their lack of response as an affront - and they didn’t even know I was upset.

If you wanted to boil it down to right and wrong - I was right to be upset - I was wrong to get ugly. I was right to try to correct the mistakes I saw - I was wrong to attempt to retaliate. I was right to want my article and my efforts protected - I was wrong to jump to the conclusion that someone was trying to do me some sort of injustice.

The simple fact is, it was my article and I was trying to protect it. The methods I turned to so quickly in an attempt to protect it were inappropriate.
Was it inappropriate for someone to re-print my stuff without asking? Yes. But unfortunately in these situations, the person who feels wronged has to sit quietly while the situation gets remedied. Sitting quietly is not something I was ever very good at. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me.

It would appear from what is going on now that the owner is trying to make the article right, or is at least willing to talk about it. All I ever really wanted was for someone to hear me out, and the lack of response is what got me so mad. Now - they are at least responding, and have told me that they didn’t even know it was an issue.

I’ll take them at face value for now, and say that I am sorry for turning things ugly and taking a misunderstanding to such a low level, when I really should have stuck to higher ground.