“The response was great, some had received letters, some hadn’t - these people were glad they weren’t the only ones.” Nicole said. She then contacted those she found to alert them to her story. Knowing that this poem was very popular, Nicole took matters into her own hands by searching Australian websites to find others who had posted the poem. Given her work in the funeral industry and her desire to help people through bereavement, it’s no surprise Nicole found this information quite disturbing.

As her investigation got more detailed, she learned that not only businesses like her own were being targeted, but also private family blogs where the poem was published by those mourning the loss of a loved one. The practice is known as copyright trolling, whereby an attempt is made to enforce copyrights for purposes of making money through litigation and threats.Īs a result, Nicole removed the poem immediately from her website but refused to pay the settlement. Further investigation however also unveiled a whole range of posts and links on Google describing the Linda’s Lyrics letter as an extortion scam. First stop was the Linda Ellis website which does indeed state that her work is not to be reproduced anywhere without permission. Nonetheless, after much thought, she decided to investigate this letter and contents to ensure its legitimacy. After all, she was just recommending the poem on her site’s poem list, a seemingly harmless intention. Understandably, Nicole was quite concerned and troubled to receive such a letter. If this settlement fee was not paid, then there was a risk of litigation involving payment of a maximum of $150,000. The letter outlined that removal of the poem from the Emerald Creative website was not enough – there was also a demand for $7500 as ‘settlement fee’ for posting the poem. In June 2012, Nicole received a copyright infringement letter from Linda’s Lyrics, a company that manages and protects the work of Linda Ellis. It is often posted on the websites of schools, non profit organisations and religious groups, to name a few. It is a very popular poem recited at funerals, and also is regarded as an inspirational poem on living your life to the full, with the ‘dash’ described as the years between date of birth and death. The Dash can be found unauthorised and unlicensed on hundreds of thousands of websites worldwide. One of these poems was “The Dash”, by US poet Linda Ellis. Nicole posted on her website a suggestion list of poems that were ideal for reading at funerals.

Nicole Olson, owner operator of Emerald Creative, a funeral support service in Sydney, just knows exactly what happens when you innocently share something on a website. But one thing is for sure, check that what you are sharing does not come with a potential complex copyright infringement, otherwise you may find yourself in deep water. We all love to share things on the internet these days – a funny story, a beautiful photo, an interesting opinion.

The dash poem