A Plagiarized Defense Of Plagiarism...
from the well-done dept
I've been a big Jonathan Lethem fan for a while. A friend introduced me to his books a while back, and I've read them all at some point or another. He's an enjoyable and entertaining writer, and I was thrilled when I recently heard about his new Promiscuous Materials project, where he offered up a bunch of random stories he'd written for anyone to adapt, free of charge, however they wanted to do so. In announcing the project, he noted that he was inspired to do so as he was working on an article for Harper's about intellectual property and how it often leads to the opposite result of its intended purpose (to promote the progress of useful arts and science). However, at that time, the Harper's article wasn't yet online. Boing Boing today points us to the incredibly long, but absolutely worthwhile essay on the problems of intellectual property. It touches on everything from plagiarism to copyright to patents and trademarks, and it's wonderfully written and put together. It talks about how all creations are inspired by others and put together in new and different ways, and the idea that you should be able to then stop others from doing so makes almost no sense. It points out how the phrase "copyright" is loaded and not accurate, and how "usemonopoly" is a better term. Of course, despite its length, you need to read to the end of the article, in order to find the real nugget of beauty in the article, which itself was inspired from someone else's idea.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ecstasies of influence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not copyrightable
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Copyright on the Essay?
I was surprised not to see an "all rights reserved" notice somewhere -- I'd expect that and the resulting irony from a big magazine like Harper's.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Intellectual Property
Likewise, software-copyright laws protects it far longer than the possible sellable-period for the software (i.e. life of the author + 56 years), and thus discourages improvement by preventing it from entering the public domain after a few years: instead, it is protected just as if it were a book, rather than simply an unpatented design (which it is).
While IP laws can be helpful to smaller artists, the "realpolitik" (i.e. political reality) of modern society renders it simply a tool of monopoly at the corporate levels.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]