Could i be sued for this?Poetry related?

Question

Okay i was working on a poem this summer that I was going to submit in an poetry contest. So to make sure everything sounded okay I decided to post it on the web(yahoo answers in order to get feed back on MY poem and see if anyone notices a mistake to make corrections. Anyhow someone did make corrections to my poem keeping the same idea by moving,adding and shortening some words around. I liked the new corrected version the person fixed for me better and would like to send it into the contest. I forgot to delete the original question with my poem in it. So i was wondering If I were to submit the newly corrected poem can I get sued for it even though it was my own original idea that i made. It's not published yet(hopefully).

Answer 1

Usually when someone makes the corrections for you they intent for you to use them how you see fit.  At least, that's my intention when I make corrections.   You can use all or none and there is no way you can get in trouble for adopting their suggestions.  I've accepted and adopted suggestions from two of my contacts because they were, in all honesty, quite good and made my poems better.  There is nothing wrong with accepting this kind of help as long as they did not completely rewrite it for you which would have been rude to begin with.  A few word changes or line adjustments are okay and you are safe.

Addition:  If you are referring to Poe's edit then I don't think you need to worry.  She's darling.  However, if you are still uncomfortable the you can always e-mail her and ask permission.  I'm sure she'll gladly give it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt...

Answer 2

The only poetry contests that promise publication that I know of are the vanity ones like poetry guild, poets guild, society of poets, and poetry.com, and they are all scams anyways, so don't worry about it.

Answer 3

There's all kinds in this world, so the possibility of getting sued is there...

The checking with the person is a nice courtesy, and should you be published and have a number of works in a book, the acknowledgements section is a great place to include people who have provided editorial services to you, paid or unpaid.

Answer 4

And what do editors do?  It is still your poem, just edited.  It is your's.

Answer 5

If the facts are as you said, no, you could not be successfully sued for this.  (A person can always get sued for anything, but the question is does the person suing have a chance to win.)

You posted asking for advice.  The person who provided advice was providing free ediorial services, and has no real claim to be co-author, and no real claim to be due compensation.

Answer 6

it's your poem! hope you're not talking about poetry.com it's a scam. research any site before posting.

Answer 7

As an amateur, I use other's edits myself a lot of times. I get a lot of great edits and suggestions from some of my contacts, and usually work them in. That is mainly the intention when someone edits, it is still your work...they are just helping you tighten it up or rearrange lines, etc. It should be no problem at all.

Answer 8

You wouldn't be sued, but just to be safe, you should try to change the version they sent you, so it's more your work than theirs.

Answer 9

Why don't you ask the person who corrected it? you must have some record of it.

Answer 10

Well I believe its yours. The answer was for you to use and you could maybe give credit for it to the person who made it although it doesn't matter. And you can't be sued. The plaintiff would have nothing to sue you on.