Today a prison program at Taft Camp disrupted my progress. I had a productive morning catching up on correspondence, then I ran 10 miles. But at 8:00 I had to attend a program that the camp’s chaplain sponsored, and that program required me to abandon my plans for strength training. Besides the interference with my exercise, the program upset me because I considered it a knockoff of my work.

The program to which I refer was called the “Survival Quadrant” and it was ostensibly designed by Scott Evans. I write “ostensibly designed” because it is really a knockoff of a lengthy, detailed curriculum I wrote in 2008 that I called my “Quadrant Theory.”

I included my Quadrant Theory curriculum when I was facilitating a class that Scott offered here at Taft Camp. When he saw my presentation of the Quadrant Theory he asked for a copy of my work, saying how helpful it would be to his program and assuring me that he would provide me with credit. With that assurance in mind, I didn’t hesitate to give Scott a copy of all I had written.

That’s why I was bothered today when I sat through Scott’s presentation. Rather than giving credit to my work, as he assured me he would do, Scott told the group how ruminating on his own led to his creation of this new program that he called Survival Quadrant. The program featured a “copyright 2010 by Scott Evans” and “all rights reserved” in the lower left corner.

I do not feel threatened by Scott’s Survival Quadrant, but I feel an element of trust betrayed. The lifting of my work will not interfere with my progress or my continuing efforts to prepare for success upon release. I am clear on what I must accomplish, and the record is clear that I wrote the Quadrant Theory in 2008, long before Scott changed the name and printed worksheets with the misleading copyright notations. Besides, I don’t think anyone can claim ownership of the concepts, as I’ve seen quadrants used in lesson plans for economics, financial analysis, politics, and other social theories. What troubles me is that Scott asked me to provide him with a copy of my work, said he would give me credit for my work, then published it under his name, with the copyright seal and proceeded to market Survival Quadrant as a tool he designed in a creative burst. I considered the action disingenuous because some might misconstrue events as my lifting the concept from him—even though my Quadrant Theory article appeared on my Web site two years before he affixed his copyright seal and supposedly reserved rights.

When I confronted Scott with my sense of being betrayed he said that he had not even looked at the article on Quadrant Theory that he specifically requested from me in 2008. Since his presentation seemed modeled on what I wrote, I suggested he review it. The concept was incorporated in a new manuscript that will be published upon my release, and I will not be recognizing Scott’s claim of “all rights reserved.” My friend Justin Paperny was here when I gave Scott my Quadrant Theory curriculum, and he suggested that I should not provide Scott with my work.

Justin was right. I shouldn’t have given Scott a copy of my work. But in the end, the record I built is clear. Scott Evans cannot take credit for my work, even with his claim of copyright.

Today I ran 10 miles.

[consecutive running log: 4,217 miles over 475 days]

Thursday, 1 April 2010

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