Rewriting (for pay): beware
There's a fascinating story at Ars Technica, "Is permission needed to retweet hot news?" about the copyright law protecting hot news:
think about our third question above, the one involving rewrites. These don't implicate copyright law, since nothing is being copied excepts the facts from the original article—and copyright law famously does not extend to facts and ideas.
Read the entire story. You should be aware of what's involved when you rewrite anything.
For example, you'll often find projects on the outsourcing sites which ask for bids on "rewriting" articles, or books. This is theft, pure and simple. The project consists of rewording someone else's work. In essence, translating it. There's no originality involved.
I suggest to my writing students that they steer well clear of all these dubious projects. Sooner or later someone whose work has been "rewritten" in this way is going to take it badly, and it will result in a lawsuit. Since the writer who took the job is the person doing the "rewriting", the writer will be involved in the legal wrangle, like it or not.
