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The trouble is in these days of copyright mania and Digital Rights Management (DRM), it's a hot topic, with a lot of money behind it from the music and film industries; the extensions of copyright and the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act were driven by Disney[1] and the music industry (with parallels in most Western countries, driven in part by trade agreements with the USA, in part by home-turf companies), but they directly affect everyone else. If we're not careful, "Intellectual Property Rights" and DRM will lock away our culture and lock-down the creative engine of borrowing completely. I don't think it's too strong to say that future artists will be *completely* at the mercy of corporations if this is allowed to happen; and we will be a lot poorer for it. Most of the above is done in the name of the artist - and that's you and me, I'm afraid even if, in reality, the publisher owns the copyright. Yes, I know people get very little out of royalties, and the contract is something which usually isn't negotiated in detail, and poets don't operate from a position of power in this relationship, and we tend to think that, as poetry doesn't make money, poetry comes under the radar. But times are changing, and I don't think that poetry publishing will be immune from the pressures of other publishing industries. To avert this, I'm advocating that poets try and retain the moral right to assert copyright over their own work, in a manner of their choosing: http://creativecommons.org/ is one way. OK, so I'm now off my hobby horse ... Roger [1] Disney are the classic robber-barons, sourcing their stories from the public domain, then locking it away, probably for a very, very, very long time. The Bono amendment to the US copyright act extended the copyright period to 90 years. WTF? On 3/23/07, MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > And what relevance does that bear? In fact it is well known that he > swiped a lot of stuff - he admits it in his memoirs. Brecht stole from > everyone without ever acknowledging anything, Kipling included, other > people's translations of Villon, you name it. And what about Willie > Shakespeare? Did he say "I got this from Bandello or Cinthio"? Of > course, US lawyer types would have been all over him & there would have > been an end of the Bard. Intellectual or artistic property rights are > nonsense if they are to be used to stop people finding inspiration, all > art is translation/-mission from one work to another - I was watching > *Philadelphia Story* again tonight & it struck me how many quotations > the film contains - were they acknowledged in footnotes at the end of > the film? No. If you recognise them, it's amusing - if you don't they've > been integrated in the new work. > I rest my case, m'lud. > mj > > MC Ward wrote: > > >What do you mean, so what? Why shouldn't Bob be held > >accountable for his "inappropriate" use of sources? > >Imagine what HE'D be like with the shoe on the other > >foot if "Nettie Moore" had been swiped from him. > > > >Candice > > > > > > > >--- MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > > > > > >>I can't argue with that list, whatever Bob lifted > >>from civil war poets > >>(so what? as others have remarked) - and I haven't > >>even heard the new > >>Lucinda Williams yet (still reeling from WWT), > >>though I might choose > >>Elvis Costello or Gillian Welch instead of Joni > >>Mitchell. > >>mj > >>Joseph Duemer wrote: > >> > >> > >> > >>>The only recent Cohen album I haven't liked is > >>> > >>> > >>Dear Heather. I think > >> > >> > >>>Ten New > >>>Songs, The Future & this new Blue Alert are all > >>> > >>> > >>fine. There's only one > >> > >> > >>>clunker on Blue Alert, but I leave it to you to > >>> > >>> > >>find it. Anjani's voice > >> > >> > >>>seems the perfect vehicle. > >>> > >>>Neil Young's lyrics are often appalling, I think: > >>> > >>> > >>Portentous claptrap, > >> > >> > >>>romantic sap, bad & I mean really bad rhymes. But > >>> > >>> > >>when he sings them with > >> > >> > >>>Crazyhorse, it all makes perfect sense to me. > >>> > >>>In the spirit of Hornby's novel, which is full of > >>> > >>> > >>Top Five Lists, here > >> > >> > >>>are > >>>my top five contemporary pop lyricists: > >>> > >>>1. Bob Dylan > >>>2. Tom Waits > >>>3. Joni Mitchell > >>>4. Leonard Cohen > >>>5. Lucinda Williams > >>> > >>>jd > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>-- > >> > >>The art of being civilized is the art of learning to > >>read between the lies. - Kenneth Rexroth > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________ > >Be a PS3 game guru. > >Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. > >http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121 > > > > > > > > -- > > The art of being civilized is the art of learning to read between the lies. - Kenneth Rexroth > -- My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/ "Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious." Oscar Wilde