The Thieves at Health Connection

Posted on May 20, 2012 by annecwoodlen

Health Connection, which is a for-profit medical equipment supply company, has stolen from me.  They have stolen my words. 

My blog, “Today’s Reason for Occupying Something,” posted here on January 26, (https://annecwoodlen.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/todays-reason-for-occupying-something/) has been reposted by them on their WordPress blog site (http://www.anactivelife.com/wordpress/2012/05/todays-reason-for-occupying-something/).

It says “Today’s Reason for Occupying Something/Written on May 20, 2012 by admin in Medical Supplies News.”

The administration at Medical Supplies News did not write it.  I, ANNE C WOODLEN, did.  I am the person who lived it and wrote it, and I am the person who is outraged by this theft.  These words emanated from me as a private person, and a corporation has stolen them to boost their image and profits.  Likewise, they are doing it to other people, including a father writing about his infant son’s medical equipment needs. 

I am a writer and words are my product, and Health Connection has claimed them as their own.  Writing is an act of creativity from the self, like the potter making pots, the soloist singing “Amazing Grace,” or the mother birthing a child, and it is a violation of one’s essential self to see that someone else has claimed your created product as their own.

At the very bottom of the article, Health Connection does post the link to my blog site but that is not acceptable.  The true author’s name is posted right below the title of the article.  Not, God help me, “Written by . . . administration . . .”

I am an individual, a person, a patient, and Health Connection has no respect for me.  It is likely that as a customer they wouldn’t respect you, either.  They are using my words to con you into buying their products.

I never have used Health Connection products.  I have no affiliation with the company.  I did not give them permission to use my words.

—————–

N.B.  This blog was posted around eight o’clock Sunday morning.  As of three o’clock Sunday afternoon, Health Connection has deleted my essay and replaced it with an “under construction” notice.  The blogs that have been stolen from other authors are still posted.

I have never charged for what I write.  Even my book sale price is real and actual costs for printing and shipping.  I make no profit from my words.  My writings are my gift to the community in the hope of making people’s lives better.  All I ask in exchange is that my name be properly posted, and the link to my blog.  As long as reproduction is true and accurate, as in the manner of photocopying a newspaper story, I am pleased to give permission for sharing.

But please don’t rip me off.

About annecwoodlen

I am a tenth generation American, descended from a family that has been working a farm that was deeded to us by William Penn. The country has changed around us but we have held true. I stand in my grandmother’s kitchen, look down the valley to her brother’s farm and see my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother Hannah standing on the porch. She is holding the baby, surrounded by four other children, and saying goodbye to her husband and oldest son who are going off to fight in the Revolutionary War. The war is twenty miles away and her husband will die fighting. We are not the Daughters of the American Revolution; we were its mothers. My father, Milton C. Woodlen, got his doctorate from Temple University in the 1940’s when—in his words—“a doctorate still meant something.” He became an education professor at West Chester State Teachers College, where my mother, Elizabeth Hope Copeland, had graduated. My mother raised four girls and one boy, of which I am the middle child. My parents are deceased and my siblings are estranged. My fiancé, Robert H. Dobrow, was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. In 1974, his plane crashed, his parachute did not open, and we buried him in a cemetery on Long Island. I could say a great deal about him, or nothing; there is no middle ground. I have loved other men; Bob was my soul mate. The single greatest determinate of who I am and what my life has been is that I inherited my father’s gene for bipolar disorder, type II. Associated with all bipolar disorders is executive dysfunction, a learning disability that interferes with the ability to sort and organize. Despite an I.Q. of 139, I failed twelve subjects and got expelled from high school and prep school. I attended Syracuse University and Onondaga Community College and got an associate’s degree after twenty-five years. I am nothing if not tenacious. Gifted with intelligence, constrained by disability, and compromised by depression, my employment was limited to entry level jobs. Being female in the 1960’s meant that I did office work—billing at the university library, calling out telegrams at Western Union, and filing papers at a law firm. During one decade, I worked at about a hundred different places as a temporary secretary. I worked for hospitals, banks, manufacturers and others, including the county government. I quit the District Attorney’s Office to manage a gas station; it was more honest work. After Bob’s death, I started taking antidepressants. Following doctor’s orders, I took them every day for twenty-six years. During that time, I attempted%2
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15 Responses to The Thieves at Health Connection

  1. Stephen Wechsler says:
    May 20, 2012 at 8:15 am

    Go Girl, you are your words.

    Reply
  2. Cathi Carol says:
    May 20, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    Appears to have been taken down. Yay, if so.

    Reply
    • annecwoodlen says:
      May 20, 2012 at 2:22 pm

      It does appear that they’ve pulled the plug. Now, if they would just apologize to all the writers they ripped off . . .

      Reply
      • annecwoodlen says:
        May 20, 2012 at 2:37 pm

        Actually, upon further noodling around, it turns out that Health Connection only has taken down my essay. The other blogs they have ripped off are still posted. I have absolutely no problem with people passing my work around as long as they identify me as the author and link to my blog. It’s like photocopying a newspaper articled. I don’t ask for any money. I always have freely shared what I write because I want the information to be shared. All I ask is that I be credited for my work. That’s all.

      • Cathi Carol says:
        May 20, 2012 at 2:54 pm

        Good going. Yes, they should apologize and fix this big problem. Not cool.

        Reminds me of that douché (patent pending) article thief Judith Griggs and the debacle of her false claim that the internet is “public domain” so it was ok that she stole articles that were posted online and published them in her magazine without permission, notification, or compensation – and since she edited the articles she stole, the articles’ authors should have been paying *her*.

        http://www.pcworld.com/article/209838/magazine_lifts_bloggers_article_tells_her_to_be_grateful_for_the_edit.html

  3. Pingback: The Psychology of Copyright Violation « Cathi Carol

    • annecwoodlen says:
      May 21, 2012 at 5:26 am

      See my previous reply to Eric, who also had his blog stolen by Health Connection, which blames WordPress, which I don’t accept.

      Reply
      • Cathi Carol says:
        May 21, 2012 at 5:58 pm

        Right. As you probably have learned, “Press This” give one a new post with the same title filled in and a link to the original. I doubt if WordPress can do much more, technically or morally.

        It’s the reposter’s responsibility to fill in the post, the author’s name and other relevant information, and to make the origin clear – as you so beautifully do.

      • annecwoodlen says:
        May 22, 2012 at 4:38 pm

        As you say, “It’s the reposter’s responsibility . . .” and Health Connections did not perform responsible.

  4. Eric Olson says:
    May 20, 2012 at 11:22 pm

    Anne, thank you so much for alerting me to this site and their theft of my work! Not only my words but also the photos of my son as well. Thank god that I watermarked them but still, there is absolutely no credit given for the words or the photos other than a link as the last line of the post and like yours it is there under the post title that it was written by “admin”. Nope. It was written by me. Like you have said so well in your post here. If they wanted to excerpt my work and send a link over that’s great but to copy and paste my entire essay along with two different photos of my wife and son without asking my permission or giving me credit is unfathomable.

    The more I type the more upset I am getting about this. Also there is no way to contact them directly on their site that I have seen. No email link, and when I try to comment (to my own post no less) I am brought to a sign in screen that I don’t trust.

    I’ll just post on my blog about there behavior and hope they take it down like they have yours.

    Again thank you so much for alerting me to this. I’m glad that they seemed to have responded to your post by taking the essay down.

    Reply
    • annecwoodlen says:
      May 21, 2012 at 5:25 am

      Eric, here is the reply I have gotten:

      From: “Ed Phillips”
      To: “Anne C Woodlen”

      Dear Anne C Woodlen,

      Your article “Today’s Reason for Occupying Something,” was posted due to RSS feed for public articles that are shared as information for seniors who want to be informed of Medicare and other issues.

      We have permanently deleted your post from our blog site and apologize if we have caused you any harm.

      Word press is not perfect and sometimes they share articles they shouldn’t.

      Again our sincere apologies, the article has been removed.

      Healthconnection

      In short, Health Connection is blaming someone else, which I don’t accept. It is their web site, and their responsibility to know what’s going on. I imagine you’ll want to be in touch with old Ed. And, yes, I too found it hard to reach them. I think I finally went to their business “contact us” page.

      Reply
  5. Kate says:
    May 21, 2012 at 9:41 am

    “….come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.”-Lucille Clifton, great American poet, -whose beautiful words were never more apt.

    Reply
    • annecwoodlen says:
      May 21, 2012 at 12:28 pm

      Hm-m-m, gotta think about that. Thanks. P.S. Adam Sorkin, at S.U. graduation, said, “The first one through the wall always get’s hurt.” I keep thinking about that one, too.

      Reply
      • Kate says:
        May 21, 2012 at 12:55 pm

        I think about her poem everytime someone (like you) shakes the ‘establishment tree’ for the good of all. It’s called “Won’t You Celebrate with Me”, full poem (and her recitation) @ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181377
        Worth the read…

      • annecwoodlen says:
        May 22, 2012 at 10:58 pm

        won’t you celebrate with me
        By Lucille Clifton 1936–2010

        won’t you celebrate with me
        what i have shaped into
        a kind of life? i had no model.
        born in babylon
        both nonwhite and woman
        what did i see to be except myself?
        i made it up
        here on this bridge between
        starshine and clay,
        my one hand holding tight
        my other hand; come celebrate
        with me that everyday
        something has tried to kill me
        and has failed.

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