I went to a copyright workshop in Townsvile, at the Writers’ Festival, and learnt some valuable things from the Arts Law Centre. I want to share them with fellow writers. I have been writing and getting published and publishing others’ for long enough to have come across a few breaches of copyright.

The basic laws are:

Owners of copyright in works can:

• reproduce the work (including by photocopying, copying by hand, filming, recording and scanning);

• make the work public for the first time; and

• communicate the work to the public (for example, via fax, email, broadcasting, cable or the internet).

What is protected by copyright:

• textual material (“literary works”) such as journal articles, novels, screenplays, poems, song lyrics and reports;

• compilations (another sub-category of “literary works”) such as anthologies, directories and databases – the selection and arrangement of material may be protected separately from the individual items contained in the compilation;

• published editions: publishers have copyright in their typographical arrangements, which is separate from the

copyright in works reproduced in the edition (such as poems or illustrations or music).

Something that is a literary, for copyright purposes will be protected if it is original. In copyright terms, it’s not hard for something to be original: it really just means that the work isn’t a copy of something else.

What is not protected by copyright:

Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, styles, techniques or information.

To get copyright protection:

You do not apply for copyright in Australia. There is no system of registration here, forms to fill in or fees to be paid. You do not need to publish your work, put a copyright notice on it. It is automatic and free.

What to do if your copyright is violated?

I’d complain to the copyright violator. If that didn’t work I would contact others who might be affected and apply group pressure. If that didn’t work complain to the ISP, publisher or newspaper etc, some ovewrarching body.

How to protect yourself from copyright theft:

Find out exactly what is planned with the market you choose. Will your work be available on a public website or on a password protected site? Will it be turned into print.? Will it be on google book search? Will it be a free ebook on a public site or password protected area? Will it be emailed to others? How long will the market hold your work? Are you giving your rights away - and for how long? Who will have copies of your work for selection and editing? Is the market a subsidiary of something else? Do you have the rights to vet the ediytng or are you bound to accept it? What editions will your work be in? Etc… In other words, find out the full story before you submit - even to your local group anthology… things can go wrong amd having strict, known and adhered to rules will save troubl;e down the track. Find out what the contract will be - even if it is not to be signed till after the editing and before publication.

Some ways i have seen copyright violated:

TO COME

Of course, the bottom line is - at the end of the day - if you send your work out to be published it is immediately at risk of being stolen. However, you need to publish or perish (oh the cliches!) so in the process of getting published be sure you know ahead of time exactly what the market you chose to submit to has as exact guidelines  and FUTURE PLANS covering all the basic laws as above. There is more to the subject of copyright so google and find out the laws. I would suggest unless you are JK, stay away from the lawyers.

A late-blooming writer whose first novel is now available for purchase on line at www.bougainvilleblue.com BOUGAINVILLE BLUE. A book based on some of the events and the people who lived through them when one of the biggest open cut mines ever built was born, lived and died in a few violent, dramatic years on the South Pacific Island of Bougainville.

Life started to unravel very quickly. We finally realised that it really was time to go: that the New Guinea we had known and called home for over 25 years was fast vanishing, and we were no longer welcome.
Panguna, now one of the biggest open-cut mines in the world, was facing rapidly developing opposition from disgruntled Bougainville villagers, overwhelmed by the transformation of their island into an industrial maelstrom of men and machinery; something they had not asked for and did not understand.
Plantations, which continued to produce the Copra and Cocoa on which the new nation relied on to supplement Australian aid dollars were finding the cheap, reliable labour on which these enterprises depended harder to obtain: workers had become less and less amenable to the ordered monotony of plantation life which required the laborer to rise before dawn six days out of seven for two years before returning to the indolent stop-start pattern of village life.
The police force lost almost all its experienced expatriate officers. The force now followed the same pattern as other government departments; rapidly promoting junior officers to senior positions far above their level of experience or competancy. For the first time, bribery and corruption started to infiltrate commercial life. It has now become the norm, and very little can be accomplished without it in today’s PNG.

By the time the import of all this had sunk in, the possibility of finding a shadow local partner had come and gone. Banks and other lenders were now very reluctant to finance such arrangements, and the only thing left to do was to sell our physical assets; houses, buildings and vehicles etc.
This was still possible, but it was a buyer’s market and values were less than a third of what could have been obtained a few short years previously. The commercial buildings were bought by Hagermeyer, a Dutch trading firm far more experienced in dealing with new Third World governments than I was. Our house went to an Australian bank whose manager lost no time in moving into a far more comfortable home than that formerly provided by his employers. The fleet of vehicles was bought by a local dealer with the exception of my Volvo which was shipped to Australia together with furniture and personal effects including an extensive library of New Guinea and Solomon Islands books and papers. Our leased bulk store was returned to its owners and our aircraft was loaded for a last flight from Kieta to Cairns in North Queensland.

Divested of all its assets, our now unsaleable business was placed in voluntary liquidation and life in New Guinea ended in a mixture of sadness to be leaving and relief at escaping the increasingly hostile and insecure atmosphere which now prevailed.
Was it all worth it ?… yes it was. We should have faced reality and got away sooner, but for all but the last few years, New Guinea gave us a safe, satisfying and adventurous lifestyle with an income far greater than we would probably have achieved in Australia. We had more than enough money to start again in Australia, which begged the question, what now?

Here are the details of poetry events in Cairns. I will occasionally post a calendar on this page. Some events are casual and may just happen in some cafe somewhere. I want to meet with poets once a week at the cafe in the Pier on the waterfront. It’s called Piccolino. I think it can turn into a performance space, but for a start it has bench tables where a group can sit and couchs around a table - If a large number turn up - so a casual meet could go well. Email dianepithie @ gmail.com if you are interested. Otherwise structured performance events are available - email sheehanpip @ gmail.com for the next date and venue. These will be fabulous events with fantastic poets who are highly polished.

ADVENTURE YARNS (company previously owned by Russ Swan)

‘Lowana Comes To Darwin’ by Russ Swan

‘A Tanimbar Experience’ by Russ Swan

‘How To Survive A Terrorist Attack In Australia’ by Tony Haigh

‘The Easy Guide To Self Defence For Women’ by Tony Haigh

‘The Longest Voyage (Or How I learned To Hate Yachts)’ by James Anderson

‘A Walk On the Wild Side’ by Rowhan Marshall

‘Little Ship - Big Trip’ by Diane Andrews - pdf download

‘Dirtbikes And Dreams’ by Rod Brown

Buy these books here: http://stores.lulu.com/adventureyarns

DIANE ANDREWS PUBLISHING

‘Northern Territory Coast Cruising Guide’ by John Knigh

Bougainville Blue by Brian Darcey

Bamuhata: Leaving Papua by Philip Fitzpatrick - new release coming soon

MY OWN WORK - PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED - NOT SELF- PUBLISHED at lulu

Most of my world is visible on this website and orthers so, this is for my publishing credits. What have I had published by others? I think it shows I know a thing or two about writing.

1996 - ABC Far North radio poetry competition Voices of the Heartland - The Daintree Flood shortlisted and read out

Australian Rhyming Poetry anthology included Charles in Charge bush poem

1997 - Central Queensland University published poem In Intensive Care in Issue 1 Idiom 23

Banksnotes published poems Monsoon, The Day, King Tide, Bamboo Souls in monthly booklet

Anthology Breath of the Eucalypt published at Queensland Universtty, invited to read at launch, poem A Poem To The Port Arthur Father, Poem - Floria was also included

Australian Wrters Journal published poems On Watch and Monsoon in November

1998 - Nightvoices poets interveiwed on 4CCR. Coordinated Nightvoices open mic poets and musicians for five years

Henry Kendall comp Myriad anthology published Bamboo Souls poem

Centoria 3 commended Five Act Play poem

Book Launch Myriad, Councillor Margaret McGowan chose to read Bamboo Souls poem

Cairns Navy Wives published Lady Scientists poem

1999 - Peace and Freedom Press published and runner up in competition Diane’s Desiderata poem

Wymondham Writers published What Milennium poem

Woodford Folk Festival anthology published Just Don’t Call Me Fat poem

Lambing Flats FAW shortlist, highly commended My Brothers Wife poem

2000 - First Prize $UK50 Quantum Leap competition Death in a Foreign Land poem

Novel When Merlin Woke spec-fic, highly commended in Queensland Arts Council Regional Writers Award

Article in January Cairns Post about Qld Arts Council and Quantum Leap awards

Ran Poets breakfast and walk up competition as part of Reef Festival

Ouse Valley poets top 120 out of 7000 Lady Zephyr poem

Peace and Freedom Press anthology Leave the Past poem

Runner up Quantum Leap 5×5 July - poetry

Read on ABC far North by Jason Hagen Egg poem

Cairns Peace Week - In subsequent years since 2000 I’ve run a poetry competition, a musician/poet night attended by over 100 hundred people, an exhibition of photographs and poetry of Australian soldier/peacekeepers helping East Timorese to rebuild their country - opened by Xanana Gusmao, and a one off volume of peace poetry called Bamboo Souls

2001 - Peace and Freedom Press runner up, Leave The Past poem

2002 - Ouse Valley Poets published Death In A Foreign land poem

2003 - Novel Excerpt The Speed Of Darke commended in Qld Arts Council Awards

2004 - Edited anthology of Peace Week poetry Bamboo Souls for Artists For A Better World

Poem Respect Differences included in Bamboo Souls

Little Ship-Big trip logbook of a sailing trip from Sydney to Cairns published by Adventure Yarns as an ebook

2006 - Logbook Little Ship - Big Trip published as a paperback by Adventure Yarns

Poem Food of Love included in Mareeba Coffee Works’ Queensland, Australia, antholgy and displayed on parchment on wall

Poem Death in a Foreign Land read at Belfast Poets, Tanks - Festival Cairns

2006 - Designed and typeset Between the Leaves anthology by Tropical Writers, - one short story Waitng For Ross and two poems Haiku and Egg - included

Invited to be part of the self-publishing forum at Rainforest Writers’ Festival in Yungaburra, Queensland, Australia - 21st Oct

2007 - Dirt Diet - a diet used to survive cancer which also cleared up asthma published by Healthy Options

Poem Death In A Foreign Land chosen and translated for Patralekha, Kolkata, to Bengali

Story Powerlines published in Celapene Press Short and Twisted anthology

Three Lights gallery accepted one Haiku for their online gallery

Tragedy selected and published in Tropical Writers monthly newsletter

Story Woden The Wolf Spider published by Peccary Magazine

Article Nomadic Writing published by Queensland Writers Centre

Novella Speed Of Darke published by Silverage Books in Theakers Quarterly #17

Poem Subterranean Soul published by Ken*Again literary magazine

Story Coma published by Ken*Again literary magazine

Story Freida Loved Wedding Anniversaries published by Long Short Story

Poem Blue Moon published by Events Quarterly

Story Playing Around published by Burst

Forward Press anthology Crossing Paths accepted Secateurs

Black Box anthology shortlisted Tragedy short story

Poems Blue Moon and The Blue Lady published by Arabesques Review

Preliminary formatting and cover design of Enriched Voice - Enriched Life for Hazel Menehira

Wrote copy for website Cairns Flying Adventures

Story Freida Loved Wedding Anniversaries and poem Before The Monsoon published in Mangoes On Fire anthology

Formatted Mangoes On Fire anthology for Tropical Writers

Poems Red, Violette Szabo Read Poetry, Working Late in Adagio Verse Quarterly

James Cook University book launch Mangoes On Fire - poem Before The Monsoon chosen to be read by Steven Torre, professor

Hecale published Road To Nowhere and Five Act Play

Healing The Sea With Words published excerpt of Little Ship - Big Trip

2008 - Read Freida Loved Wedding Anniversaries on ABC radio Far North Queensland

Fresh Literary Magazine accepted Coonangelbah

All Rights Reserved accepted Dog One – Man Zero

Photo Essay Purple Decorations published in Lucrezia

Leaping Bones accepted by Eden Waters

Mahina Pearl accepted for Tropical Writers - Raining On The Sun anthology

Published Bougainville Blue and Northern Territory Coast Cruising Guide

Winning Tips published in Gold Dust Magazine

Billy Who Walked Backwards published in Crossing Rivers Into Twilight Journal

Poem I Have Eaten is in print at Hecale

On The Waterfront accepted by Ultimate North Magazine

One of my greatest regrets is that I started writing so late in life, I never realised I was capable of expressing myself with writing and it has come as quite a surprise to me that the reviews I have received have been so positive. Now at 57 I have found this new passion in my life and I’m afraid it has taken root….(smile).My first book ‘An Amorous Aussie’ is selling online and I’m happy to say I have sold quite a few copies world wide.
The inspiration for all my writing is my beautiful wife Michelle. A talented and creative artist, she has encouraged me in every path I have taken regarding writing and it is her love of which I mainly write.
While Michelle is my inspiration, the beauty and grace of the women I have met and been associated with over the past 15-20 years, have also played a large part in this newly found ability to express myself.
Love, sensuality, sexuality and erotic desires are the backbone of most of my (I feel) better works. At the moment I am writing song lyrics and as with writing poetry, lyric writing has also become a passion. My music writers (based in the States) will be presenting 5 of my works at ‘The Bluebird Cafe’ in Nashville come October, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed the ‘right’ people are in the audience…(smile)

Over the past 25 years, Pip has been active in community writing and poetry events, coordinating and running workshops and readings, as well as publishing and performing her own poetry, both in Australia and New Zealand.  She has three collections published, Colourheat 1992 SA, Indigo Thistles 1999 NZ, and FeetFirst 2005 NZ.

Pip cut her poetry performing teeth in Byron Bay in the ’80s & ’90s, doing live gigs at North Coast venues such as cafes, pubs, halls and schools as part of a growing presence of writers and performers leading up to the Byron Writers Festival.  She was invited guest reader at the NSW Poets Sydney venue twice, and performed at NSW Regional Poets festivals at Wollongong, New England and Griffith University campuses.

Moving to New Zealand in 1995, Pip continued passionately promoting the spoken word, including performing live at poetry venues in Auckland and Dunedin.

Hazel Menehira FTCL. ANZDA. RTSCA.

Fellow of Trinity College, London. Qualified speech and drama tutor and adjudicator.

Hazel was born London 1933, educated at Letchworth Grammar School in Hertfordshire. She emigrated to Wanganui in New Zealand in 1956.

She is an internationally recognized speech and drama teacher, examiner and adjudicator with 50 years experience.

As a theatre practitioner Hazel has directed and /or performed in more than 150 shows. She also founded and directed Wanganui Rainbow Theatre for youth which performed Peace Child productions in London and New Zealand.

Her writing background includes 45 years in journalism, sub-editing, and freelancing, award winning plays, two staged musicals, a series of Fingertips oral resource texts, and a radio play Green Stone Guardians in 2005 that was selected by Radio N.Z. from 500 submissions in the First Open Short Story Season. An anthology of stories and poems Snowbird Collectables was released in 2006.

Her latest text book Vocal Enrichment-Enlightenment Through Voice published by Interactive Publications, Brisbane was launched at the Tropical Writer’s Festival in Cairns, August 30, 2009.

She has recently completed an historic novel The Seer Stone after gaining a Creative NZ Mentorship Programme grant with the NZ Society of Authors.

Her current work is completing Three Dramatic Decades –Four Seasons Professional Theatre, following five years research. It will be launched in Wanganui, February 2009.

Hazel had the opportunity to study at Krotona School of Theosophy in California, and has also attended courses at Adyar, Chennai, India, at Tauhara, New Zealand and Springbrook, in Australia.

A member of Tropical Writers Cairns and Queensland Writers Centre she and partner David have a large whanau of four children. 14 grand children and 9 great grand children. They enjoy a quiet lifestyle in a tropical villa and leisure park.

MY WRITING SPACE

By Hazel Menehira.©

Every time I consider describing my writing space I come to the simple answer

anywhere…and….Everywhere.

I constantly return to a piece by Mahatma Gandhi-

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to blow about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

I love that text because it bears parallels to the writing I am drawn to undertake across the genres, to the thousand and one places I have written in past years and to the small cottage David and I share here in the tropics.

Most of my writing is done in my head (mostly in bed upon waking) and scribbled instantly into a pocket-sized notebook which travels with me. That’s the Everywhere.

Notebook pages are filled in cars, trains, planes, cafés, shopping malls, waiting rooms, libraries, other people’s homes and offices, at beaches, on picnics and dare I say it concerts, meetings, lectures, empty churches and workshops. I also scribble in my rocking chair. I keep the notebooks in a chronological order after use.

The writing workbench where notebook stuff becomes hard or soft copy is the Anywhere. Depending on the needs of submission deadlines or my own physical location. It still varies from a laptop in a campervan to a borrowed p.c. space in any friend’s home, a library or if desperate MacDonald’s.

Now in a retirement lifestyle my luxury is a p.c., printer, scanner, phone, fan. and C.D. player all within reach and the fridge three paces away. To my right is a small foldable table for everything else and also floor to ceiling wall shelving. Yes, my workbench is also the largest part of our kitchen area so I can rescue burning pots immediately. On the wall left are a large Maori poster of the Whanganui River and a comical watercolour of five ducks with funny legs. (it makes me laugh when I need to)

Ah, this all sounds a very basic description but refer to my Gandhi text again.

Today my windows are coloured with palms and a china blue sky. Above one is a stained-glass fairy and a prism, on another a sea-green foam mermaid. The only sounds in this secluded caravan park are the breezes and the birds and David rustling the newspaper outside as we are watched over by my contemplative Buddha. How blessed we are.

I am a former Brisbane boy but now currently live and work in Cairns with my very patient, and darling wife, I sometimes wonder where I get the time to write but always seem to manage to pen something also I am a member Tropical writers group Cairns, Arts nexus Cairns & Australian Bush Poets Association

Having had no formal education in writing and now into my 50’s, I wanted to show that someone like myself without higher schooling could write and enjoy it. For me school, Rocklea State School, (when I was there) was a place to ‘hang out’ with my mates and I actually only completed 3 months of high school (Salisbury) before leaving at the age of 15.

After numerous jobs throughout my youth I eventually moved into Furniture Removals where I stayed for approximately 25 years. For 17 of these, my wife and I operated our own removal business, and was able to travel extensively throughout N.S.W and Queensland.

Since leaving the removal industry several years ago and having some ‘thinking’ time, my experiences, memories of driving the highways and tracks, the vast and beautiful outback, my wife, daughters, grand children and family, stories from mates, work colleagues and close war veterans have given me the inspiration for my writings.

The release of my 1st book “My small book of poems” in May 2007 has been one incredible step for me. The size of my book was purposely done to gauge the reaction of the public. The response was both humbling and amazing, with comments from the likes of John Williamson, Mel from Sunrise, Steve Ahmet from Easylistening 846, Pat Morrish of Far North ABC Radio and many others & including sales to the U.S, U.K, Ireland, Japan & more. This has inspired me to keep writing and I now have released my 2nd volume “Rhymes of Times”

Both my books are available through Angus & Robertson, selected shops or, directly through me please contact me for details info at davidjdelaney dot com

. . . . . . . . . .
My Small book of Poems $8.00 . . . . . Rhymes of Times $16.00

Below is some of the feedback I have received.

Quotes:
Steven Lawrence Hill Sr. - President & CEO ASA Publishing co. Michigan, U.S.A.
“Dave, our pleasure to have your wonderful poetry stocked on our shelves, looking forward to many more volumes.”

John Williamson
?It was great to read your stories and to hear, like me, that are enjoying putting your pictures into words?

Mel. From the Sunrise team wrote “Wonderful, you should be proud”

Pat Morrish, ABC radio far north Queensland, from my live interview.
“Wonderful book, makes you laugh & also brings a tear to your eye”

Steve Ahmet, Easy listening 846, from my live interview. “Fantastic book from a local Cairns poet”

Claudia from ebookreviews
“His poetry comes from his heart, and touches a wide range of emotions that all can relate to - from his restless contemplations on war, to his loving poem to his wife, to the beauty of his homeland, Australia.”

Reviewer David Anthony from Spectator news magazine Yeppoon & North Rockhampton.
“The burial of the pet dog brings a Lawson-like tear to your eye”.

Paul Oliveri. Freelance journalist/writer.
“A stunning collection of poems inspired by one blokes life experiences both growing up & working in the country he loves”

Featured in:
Full page Feature in the Cairns post weekender
Full page feature in the North Queensland Register magazine

Two of my poems were submitted and accepted for print in the magazine The Curious Record Edition 21, June 2008. This is a NSW magazine and distributed world wide.

ASA Publishing Co. Michigan. U.S.A. poetry competition 2007

2 poems awarded judges top 10 choice awards and published in their anthology

“Life is a journey well expressed”

ASA Publishing Co. Michigan. U.S.A. poetry competition 2008

2nd place for “I was there” plus 2 poems “Heroes amongst us” & “Drought” awarded judges top 10 selections, all 3 poems to be published in their anthology

“Spectrum visions of a changing moment”

My poem “Storm” accepted for Tropical writers group Anthology 2008 “Raining on the Sun”

“A Farmer’s Plight” has been awarded a Commended place in the 2008

Scribbli Gums/Gumblossoms competition.

Also:
Successful book signing day at Angus & Robertson Stockland shopping centre Cairns.
Successful book signing day from Pt. Douglas markets north Queensland.
Book sales to Undara lava tubes & Outback farm stay Mt Mulligan for nightime ‘Camp fire readings’

Live performance reciting 3 poems at the Australia day celebrations Yorkeys knob, 2008
Co chaired TAFE bush poetry workshop, a prelude for the ABC far north radio & Cairns show 2008 bush poetry competition.

I don’t think there was a prouder Aussie around than myself the moment I received word that the last 4 stanzas of my poem “Villers-Bretonneux” would be recited at the post dawn service breakfast by Lt. Col. Paul Murphy, ANZAC day 2008 from the small town of Villers-Bretonneux north France.