Is this Me or I?

They say that if you want to know about someone you should do a google. But beware, how do you know that the information is actually about the particular person you are interested in and not one of their namesakes?

Checking the first ten pages of a google-search on my name brought a few surprises, some pleasant, some not so.

First hit is my website www.geraldengland.co.uk/.

In at #3 is my page on the Famous Poets website.

Fourth is this blog and sixth is my Geograph profile.

At #7 is a link to Gerald England's Facebook profile. Now I do have a facebook profile but this one is NOT ME.

The eighth entry is for someone who was at Illinois State University 1973 — 1977; it ain't me.

At #13 is something about the Gerald England Track & Field Invitational. References to this crop up quite frequently. My father was an athlete but I'm not. I don't know who the GE was who gave his name to this regular event but it sounds to be well supported.

Another namesake appears to have a patent for "Measuring energy contamination using time-of-flight techniques".

Note the org.uk domain which bears my name has no longer any connection with yours truly.

At #43 is the first to cause me concern. The Zoom Info page lists four sources of information, three of which are about me and which quote me as the publisher of New Hope International, but it associates me with a different New Hope International which is a charitable organisation in Colorado with which I have no connection whatsoever.

I am not the GE on classmates who was in the class of 1952 at East Prairie High School, MO., nor am I a personal trainer specialising in boxing, weight management, muscle building and conditioning. I do not work for Blue Shield Of California nor am I the ex-reverend who visited Pinelands in 2008.

At #58 is another namesake's Facebook profile.

At #79 I discover (hope the link works as it is a long URL) translations into Romanian by Florentin Smarandach of some of my poems.

I also find a poem of mine in Processed World #31, Fall 1993. It isn't listed in my bibliography but I can't remember all the magazines I submitted to around then, so the original must have gone astray in the post.

At #99 I find a 123people page which has two photos of my son Craig and others which I suspect are of his namesakes. These are not public domain photos and have not been posted there with my permission. On investigation, however, I find the site is little more than an indiscriminate search engine and the photos no more than thumbnails. I don't care for the way it imbeds links within its own frames, but ...

enough searching for one day.

I must send good wishes to all my namesakes.

Poem of the Day

I've just discovered that my poem Mid-December was pod-broadcast recently by Poem of the Day.

You can listen to it at http://podcast.sonibyte.com/audio/8861.mp3

Now I didn't give my permission for this so technically their publication is a breach of my copyright. It is a good reading (albeit in an American accent) and I am not complaining about the broadcast as such. I just wish I had been informed beforehand.

The poem was found either on the Famous Poets site, or another whose URL I won't quote.

Recently the poem was published on Mrs. Nesbitt's Place but she correctly first sought my permission.

I discovered that another website had also published my poem. On complaining to them they apologised and inserted a link back to the Famous Poets website.

I then discovered it on a certain blog and left a comment thereon pointing out the error (of not requesting permission before reprinting copyright material) although I did not request its removal. The webmistress concerned apologised by email (she had, it seems, discovered my poem neither at Mrs. Nesbitt's Place nor on the Famous Poets website but on the other aforementioned website), but to cover her embarrassment deleted my comment from her blog and replaced my poem with one from a long-dead author.

I rarely refuse any requests to reuse my work (be it poems or photographs) but I do always insist on proper copyright acknowledgement.

Netiquette

Someone has just published one of poems on their blog.

My Last Poem about Snow has appeared at Ink Stained Fingers.

Now don't get me wrong: the poem is correctly credited to me, and the source is quoted. It isn't a case of plagiarism. I'm very happy for Anna to use my poem. But why did she not seek my permission first? I could understand if there was no contact reference given or an out-of-date link, but the site where she saw my poem has a visible link to my contact page.

It is only by chance that I discovered her use of the poem. I just wish she'd told me herself and sooner.

Update: February 20th: It appears that rather than contact me and apologise for the oversight, the blogger has pulled the page from her blog. I wasn't asking her not to use the poem, but...

Anyhow the poem can be viewed on the Unlikely Stories website.