Several years ago I wrote an article called Confessions of a Fat Dietitian. It appeared in Today's Dietitian magazine. After the article was published, we started a private list serve for fat dietitians. Private because we wanted to be able to express ourselves freely. Then I started this blog. Today I found out that someone else has a blog called Fat Dietitian aka Confessions of a Fat Dietitian. The owner of the blog is NOT even a dietitian. She's a student. It takes a college degree, a one year internship and passing a national exam to call yourself a dietitian so if you're still in school, you're not a dietitian. I'm kind of bummed that she "stole" my title (Confessions of a Fat Dietitian) although I didn't do anything to make it mine. I didn't trademark it and just because it was published in a magazine doesn't mean it belongs to me or to the magazine. I feel "violated". It's enough to make me eat. Not really. I don't do that. I'm not an emotional eater. I'm a pleasure eater. Food that tastes good calls out to be eaten.
That's all. By tomorrow I probably won't care but today I do care that someone has usurped my title.
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2 comments:
You wrote the article several years ago and you expect that everyone in America would have read it and determined that the title belonged to you?
Bitterness is awfully unprofessional.
Well, no, not everyone in America. The article was published in magazine written for dietitians so many dietitians would have read the article. It is easily found online by googling the title or my name. And although I know that nothing happens in a vacuum and many people may indeed have the same great ideas at the same time, I do think that it probably is not a coincidence I wrote an article entitled Confessions of a Fat Dietitian and then started a listserv called fat dietitian and now this young woman has entitled her blog Confessions of a Fat Dietitian/fat dietitian. AND there is nothing unprofessional about my feelings. I am, I believe, entitled to MY feelings. All I have requested is that she put a disclaimer on her site that she is not me since people googling "Confessions...." might find her blog and think that I am the author. I don't believe that is asking too much. And the title does not "belong" to me. In fact, you will find that many books have the same title. Titles can be used over and over by different people without permission. In fact, she is the unprofessional one. Not I. Even if she did not know about the "transgression" before I wrote to her, she does now. The professional thing to do is to say that it was purely accidental, a coincidence and that she will indeed put a disclaimer on her site. Simple remedy. Then we can all move on.
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