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In message <[log in to unmask]>, Ira Lightman <[log in to unmask]> writes > >Hallo everyone > >I'm thinking of extending my current collage >practice (of using words from other texts in >new orders) and using whole sentences in collage. >Does anyone know if that means I now infringe >copyright? At what point does, say, a characteristic >two-word excerpt "swart ship", say, infringe >copyright, rather than "elbow of"? When you get >nicked for it, guvnor? > >Ira > > Bob Cobbing once told me that a case of alleged copyright infringement in collage had been taken to court & the learned judgment was that it's okay if used 'for artistic purposes'. Maybe somebody else knows more about this case than I do. I'm sure it's okay to sail a swart ship if you're that way inclined and we all know that poetry particularly in the 20th C is chock full of such borrowings which in some cases only dubiously fit the 'collage' category. But I do know of a quite lengthy sequence of fragmentary poems collaged from a Famous Romantic's notebooks which remains unpublished because the collagist used a 1950s/60s edition of those notebooks & the copyright holder refused permission. This seemed a bit severe to me since there was no question of concealing the origin of the material - indeed concealing it would have spoilt the whole idea of the project. I reckon anyway that collagists should live dangerously, don't you? Best, -- Alan Halsey %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%