henderpump

Yes, too. And he's a gentleman and a gentle man.

Hi Everybody, and in particular, John Hulme and Steve Saunders. Can you imagine my delight on opening my copy of issue 14 of Classic Trial the other month to see, on page 6, an apology by John Hulme for breaching copyright whilst publishing unattributed photographs? It is a simple insertion and shows just how easy it can be to admit your wrongdoings and strive to do as much as possible to put things right, well after the fact, as all these matter usually are. John Hulme's rather puling explanation that he knew nothing about the photos and it was someone else's fault does somewhat devalue the apology, but I suppose we must take what comfort we can from his slow realisation that he can go some way towards putting things right after all. I also note that John Hulme's attribution lists at the beginning of his articles have grown in length and seem to be a genuine attempt on his part to rightly credit all the original copyright holders of the material he includes in said articles. Jolly good effort and well done, at last. Following on from this, I saw a copy of what seems to be a new edition or reprint of the Youmee's Steve Saunders book on trials. On opening the volume, I discovered, somewhat to my dismay,that the chapters on machine control and hazard riding still contain he pilfered tracts from Don Smith and Graham Forsdyke's original work. There are still lines and collections of words from Don and Graham's book that appear in the text of Saunder's book. I would have thought that a simple erratum leaf inserted in the front of the reprint, if indeed that is what it is, would have gone some way towards sorting this mess. It is a pity that after my preliminary enquiries John felt that he could ignore me, sweep the whole thing under the carpet and that I would just go away, and it is also a pity that Steve Saunders got carried along in the whole mess, he seems an affable sort of chap and I imagine he was pretty much ignorant of the ramifications. It is also a pity that subsequent to my further enquiries John Hulme chose to adopt the position of feeling intimidated and threatened by my quite legitimate questions about what was going on and felt the need to, in turn, threaten me with legal action if I did not desist from discussing his actions and the subsequent reactions on the open forum of Trials Central, and, in a quite staggering example of the pot calling the kettle black, cite a fairly nebulous copyright clause included at the bottom of his email missives and admonish me for making a mistake! I suppose, of course, that I can expect another snotty email as soon as this is read! I stick to my guns on raising the matter on an open forum, after other avenues of enquiry turned into cul-de-sacs, because my postings helped to initiate a discussion about the deception. All in all, despite the unpleasantness and noses put out of joint, and disgruntled emails, I have quite enjoyed raising the ugly subject.......I will keep my two copies of the offending Saunders book, my copy of issue 14 of Classic Trial and my copy of Graham Forsdyke and Don Smiths earlier work, "The Complete Book Of Motorcycle Trials"( the original source of the stolen text)side by side on my bookshelf as a reminder to strive to do the right thing Regards to all, Joe Henderson.

Hi team dr, I have been labouring under a misapprehension. My apologies to Deryk & Graham. I got the name of the original writer wrong, finger trouble or just an honest mistake, who knows? My unreserved apologies, again, to all concerned. Regards, joe.

Hi everybody, again, I have been away for a while, and have just read the last few comments on this thread. It is gratifying to hear from the man who actually wrote the words that have been plagiarised, welcome Deryk Wylde, and to get some background on the true situation regarding who retains the copyright to Don and Deryk's work. It is also heartening to know that Don Smith's heirs are aware of the outrageous carryings- on surrounding the wholesale lifting of text from Don and Deryk's book. Welcome team DR. it remains to be seen if John Hulme takes the right course of action. To reply to Kickit - I contacted Steve Saunders about this whole sorry affair right at the beginning. he rather shrugged the whole thing off and I have heard nothing since. To reply to P.Scrauber - it is not just a sentence or two, it is whole paragraphs, verbatim, with no attribution, footnotes or quotation marks, and no mention of Don Smith or Deryk Wylde in the thank- you section. I must say, I too would have been happy to have bought a book "by Steve Saunders, ghosted by John Hulme, with expert riding tips from Don Smith's earlier work " but the book in question is not presented, or advertised like that. In defence of the book, the chapter on Steve Saunders' career is worth the purchase price alone, he remains, in my estimation, one of the greatest of British trials riders, but to have this type of cynical and cheap pilfering and credit taking foisted on oneself with a stonewall of silence in reply to my original, quite legitimate queries as to how the text in question appeared with no credit to the original author, got my back up. I am in danger of coming across as a disgruntled punter, I know, but really the money has nothing to do with it, as I have said before, it is the principal of the thing and, as Deryk says, the speed with which the wrong is righted that count more than silence and a hope that it will all go away. It seems, from reading the replies, that there are several people who care about Don Smith and his work. More power to them. Regards, Joe Henderson.

My Work Here Is Done. A satisfactory ending. I just received a very nice email from John Hulme. In it he acknowledges that he lifted material from Don Smith's book without crediting the original author. He does say, however that he had a verbal agreement, allowing free use to replicate his words, with his good friend over many years. So that's all right then... There were no credits and/or footnotes in the book, an aspect he regrets and says was merely a trivial oversight which does not warrant the torrent of abuse on various media he claims he is receiving. Unfortunately, wether or not there is a torrent, that's what can happen when people ask awkward questions that you avoid answering when you make a publishing gaffe of this type. It matters not the amount of money perceived to be at stake, or the size of the entity involved, it is about the principal of the thing and the promptness and timeliness of efforts taken to rectify errors. From the tone and content of his email to me, John Hulme seems to be on the road to doing the right thing, well done him. Regards to all, Joe Henderson.

Hi, pro sport, I did not realize that Don had left a daughter, maybe she should be contacted about this topic. She may find that she is owed some money. Hulme has not actually imitated anyone here, he has lifted material from another publication. Can you imagine the fuss and bother he would be in if he had done the same to Sammy Miller? His feet would not have touched the ground on the way to court. Regards, Joe Henderson.

Hello everybody, again, The power of the Young Person's Interweb is truly staggering. Last night, ( your morning in the other hemisphere ) I had a call from John Hulme. a surprise I must say, but gratifying that he bothered to make contact. I don't know quite what I was expecting from the call, but I did not expect him to ask ME what it was I was after and how could we make the problem go away. He asked me if I wanted him to print an apology, by this I assumed that he was admitting that he had stolen material verbatim from Don Smith's book and that he was guilty of plagiarism and copyright infringement. With a staggering mis-understanding of what he had actually done, his offer to apologise in print, ( made to me, not to the copyright owner ) missed the mark with me completely. I have nothing whatever to do with the publishing world or Don Smith, it is not me that he has made money from ( other than whatever he makes from the purchase price of Steve Saunders' book ) but Don Smith's estate, relatives, agent or whatever is in place, as I said I know nothing about Don Smith's affairs. I thought it a shabby and sly attempt to shut me up. I got fairly short with him, told him that I wanted nothing from him, and said that he should send any and all proceeds from the book straight to Don Smith's estate. That did not go down well, some people really like to hang on to money, and we started to argue and it ended with me hanging up on him. I am not proud of that, it was very rude of me, but he did catch me on a diverted mobile phone out at sea off Sydney Heads in 30 knots of Southerly Buster, so I have some reason...it's not an excuse though! As Laird says above, John Hulme does not seem to know the difference between respect and pinch. An offer of a printed apology in a small circulation, specialist magazine would do nothing to repair the damage done to Steve Saunders, Don Smith and John Hulme, Very, very shabby I thought. Regards, Joe Henderson.

Hi everybody, You must forgive me for bringing this subject up but I think it is a valid query, so I ask you all to bear with me. A while ago I bought a copy of Steve Saunders' book 'A complete guide to motorcycle trials On trial, my life in motorcycle trials'. For one reason and another I did not have a good look at it until quite recently. On reading chapter 7 "how to ride' I had a feeling of de ja vu. On delving further into the text a lot of the content seemed familiar and I got out my copy of the publication entitled "Ride it! the complete book of motorcycle trials by Don Smith". I was surprised and puzzled to find that whole swaths of chapter 9 "Riding the hazards" had been reproduced verbatim in Steve's book. I was expecting there to be an acknowledgement of the original author somewhere within the pages or in the "Finally, thank you' afterword at the end of Saunder's book but I could find no mention of the original author and, on further investigation I found that the publishers claim copyright for the Saunders book with no acknowledgement of Don Smith's material or the original publishers of the material. I contacted Steve Saunders about my concerns and, apart from saying that he was going to contact his publishers and that he did not know anything about material being taken from Don Smith's book and that he had never set eyes on a copy, he dismissed my rather tongue in cheek enquiry about a refund if I returned the book as " I do not feel this to be appropriate" ( That was me told then, ) and I have heard nothing more from him. I also contacted Don Smith's publishers and had an acknowledgement of my email and not much further. I then contacted John Hulme and got a short note back saying he noted my comments and that he now considered communication closed on the subject! I emailed him back saying that wasnt going to work and asking him directly how it was that whole passages had been lifted from Don Smith's book to appear under his publishing company's copyright in Steve Saunder's book. Nothing heard! Don Smiths book is out of copyright so they are probably clear on that score. There remains the concern about an author and publisher claiming someone else's work as their own. Anyone else find this sort of thing distasteful? Regards, Joe Henderson.