A simple poem that we’ve used at many funerals, an innocent blog and then an eye-opener to some very bad behaviour.

In a recent blog (now withdrawn) we used a bit of a poem called ‘The Dash’ by US author Linda Ellis (with full credit given to the author). That simple act of sharing resulted in several extremely threatening and concerning emails from Linda Ellis.

In these emails the author accused us of theft, plagiarism and copyright infringement.  Instead of asking us to remove the poem or sending us a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter, Ellis threatened to sue Fuze in a USA court for $150,000 in damages plus legal fees. She then offered to settle for a $7,500 payoff if we wanted to avoid litigation, the heavier fine and criminal penalties.
It was awful and you can imagine we were concerned.

More threatening emails were to follow.  We withdrew the blog immediately and apologised to her and are happy to do so again in this blog.  No offence was meant and we did not think sharing a little of the poem was going to be such an issue.

“The Dash” has inspired millions, but DON’T SHARE IT WITH ANYONE!
If you have already shared it in a newsletter, blog you would be advised to take it down now.

When you receive ‘The Dash’ emails demanding money from author Linda Ellis or some-one saying they are representing her we strongly suggest you look do some research first and a good place to start is April Brown’s blog and her advice is good:  http://www.getpoeticjustice.com/