Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright

As many of you are aware, we strongly advocate a little thing called “knowing what you’re doing”. This does not contradict our position when it comes to Making Stuff Up. Quite the contrary. We believe, among other things, that people who sign contracts should know what the contracts say. We also believe that people who utilize Creative Commons licenses should understand what they are keeping…and what they’re giving away. Creative Commons licenses are not licenses to steal This thought arose, oh, last week, when marketing guru Seth Godin complained that someone was selling unauthorized physical copies of his free e-book.

We find our attention diverted by a rather interesting little pieces from BBC News where we are told the John Steinbeck’s children from a first marriage have been awarded rights to his novels and — apparently — two pictures produced by Paramount. Something about: US District Judge Richard Owen said US copyright laws now recognised young writers like Steinbeck could not “predict the high stature they would attain” when they signed early contracts. The law permits authors or their heirs to terminate contracts or renegotiate deals “allowing creators or their heirs appropriate rewards for their artistic gifts to our culture,”

Just before we headed off for our long weekend of fun, fun, fun, we paused over Sara Nelson’s comments about Kevin Kelly’s New York Times Magazine article “Scan This Book”. Nelson specifically takes issue with Kelly’s comments on copyright — even as she agrees that there are serious problems. Copyright in this country is a mess. Kelly noted that copyright was originally established to protect the artist, a sort of quid pro quo. The government would protect rights to an artist’s work for a certain period of time; in return, the artist would allow his or her work to enter

We don’t normally cover awards and such, what with so many being, well, awarded that it’s hard to keep up. But the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to Geraldine Brooks for her book March, and the very notion of this book highlights a favorite topic of ours: art building upon art. March tells the story of the father from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (official BS) hero). Alcott’s book focuses on the family at home during wartime — a domestic novel, if you will; Brooks writes about the war. Two sides of a story. Whether they create a

It is difficult to admit, but the Da Vinci trial has become one of our most-watched (or, in our case, read) events. Unlike all the other silliness in the world, this trial is exposing an important issue: who owns ideas? Or as the Los Angeles Times puts it: If it were a run-of-the-mill copyright claim, Leigh and Baigent would argue that Brown lifted passages of their work verbatim, or that his work as a whole was substantially similar to theirs. Instead, they maintain that Brown built his novel around the central assertion of their book… Artists constantly borrow from other

We know how hard it is to get worked up about copyright. All those funny ©’s and time frames and what is fair use, anyway? So it’s always nice to have a copyright primer handy. Plus they make great party favors! Bloggers and copyright mavens alike can always use a refresher on truths and myths. One we see quite often is full reproduction of an article from another source. These are generally attributed, but posted with the clear intent of keeping you, the reader, from going to the source. That, for what it’s worth, is bad. To quote Brad Thompson:

We have spoken at length on our thoughts on used book sales — not a bad thing, but, boy, it would be nice if the authors got themselves a piece of that pie. One thing each and every person who’s weighed in on this topic acknowledges is that the doctrine of first sale is alive and well. We’ve also noted that current copyright laws don’t really address the rapid changes in how we access and consume media. Congress needs to focus on this — and they need to understand the issue. We figure that’s going to take some time, if

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” -T.S. Eliot Hmm, in one of those funny coincidences, the song playing on the stereo is Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips’ (okay, it’s Luna without the rest of the band) Ginger Snaps. It blatantly cribs from the theme song from the Mary Tyler Moore show (“You’re gonna make it after all” becomes “We’re gonna make it after all”). This is a blatant, clear case of honoring the source. You know the reference being made by the song. You’re singing it your head right now. It’s homage, not ripping off. The idea of stealing versus