Author Karl (CK) Stead has
apologised for quoting without permission from Janet Frame's
work in his just-released memoir, even though he believes he
was well within his rights to publish what he did.
Contacted yesterday, the author of South West of Eden
said he apologised to avoid a protracted legal battle with
the Janet Frame Literary Trust, which he believed used
"copyright as an instrument against a book they don't
necessarily like".
"And although I have always treated Janet Frame with the
utmost respect, it seems to me that does not seem to be
enough for the trust, which seems to want something near
reverence," Auckland-based Stead told the Otago Daily Times.
Trust chairwoman Pamela Gordon, Frame's niece, last night
said she did not want to respond to Stead's comments. The
trust turned to the law, received an apology and was pleased
with the outcome.
She hoped the out-of-court agreement would show it was not
acceptable for anyone to publish unpublished manuscripts, or
to quote from the unpublished correspondence of other
authors, without asking permission from the copyright holder.
"And the trust has also said that it will not give permission
for Janet Frame's work to be used when it is used in the
context of biographical misinformation. In this instance,
permission was not sought," she said.
Earlier, Ms Gordon confirmed the trust took legal action
against Stead and publisher Auckland University Press,
alleging copyright infringements where Stead's memoir,
released in March, referred to three examples of what it
considered was Frame's copyright work.
The trust said Stead needed permission to use a poem from the
first chapter of Frame's novel Owls Do Cry, which
Frame and friend Frank Sargeson tried unsuccessfully to have
published under the name of a fictitious part-Samoan author,
Santie Cross.
It maintained the poem was quoted out of context and without
permission to unfairly represent and criticise all Frame's
poetry. Stead said in an interview yesterday he believed his
use of the extract was covered by what is known as "fair
dealing", where work can be used as evidence or for the
purpose of criticism or review.
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