>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/06/03 3:28 PM >>> >Saying "nobody created it but you" is wrong. The whole point of >copyright is that we all live in a society, not a vacuum.. Every creator >has benefited from countless others, whether they realize it or not.
While I agree that we all benefit from other creators' works, I must respectfully disagree that it means a creator should ever lose complete control of their work (unless it is by their choice). I would be surprised to find that anybody other than Harper Lee wrote a chapter in "To Kill a Mockingbird." I also think you would be hard pressed to find any passages in her book that were lifted from other works. She, alone, created it. Was she ever inspired by other authors or works? Probably. Did other authors' works directly inspire her in the creation of "To Kill a Mockingbird"? Possibly. Did she reuse any themes or ideas in her book? Absolutely -- but that's already legal under existing law (you can't copyright an idea). More importantly, _I_ was inspired by _her_ work. And it happened while the work was/is still copyrighted. Nothing about her (or even her publisher) owning the rights to the book has prevented me from benefitting from it. What claim, then, do I have to take her copyright from her? What benefit will I have that I do not already have? Do any of us know what kind of effort it took for her to create the work? It's not possible. How then, can we say that she should be robbed of her creation? The only right I have in relation to someone else's work is to determine that it has value to me. If their asking price is at or lower than the value I have assigned their work, then we can make a deal. This is freedom in action. /me steps down off of soap box Dave ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
