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Message from discussion Filk, puns, and other time wasting.
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Kent M Pitman  
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 More options Oct 20 1998, 3:00 am
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
From: Kent M Pitman <pit...@world.std.com>
Date: 1998/10/20
Subject: Re: Filk, puns, and other time wasting.
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Barry Margolin <bar...@bbnplanet.com> writes:
> Kent, there's a limit to how far you have to take stuff like this.  

The limits are created by the law and the content creator, not by
the would-be users.

> The context under which the material was created, and the likely
> expectations of the author, have to be taken into account.

I believe this to be misinformation.  The context in which the material
was created is not legally relevant to copyright coverage.  The "likely"
expectations of the author are also not legally relevant.  The actual
expressed expectations of the author are, as I undrestand it, the only
relevant thing.  Moreover, copyright does not pass verbally, only written,
exactly to make sure that rights are spelled out in proper detail.

> If you were to transcribe Jay Leno's monologue onto your web page every
> day, that would clearly be wrong.  But if you have a web page, and included
> on it were "My favorite joke by Jay Leno is ...." no one (not even Leno's
> people, I suspect) would consider it a serious offense.

The likelihood of being sued is orthogonal to the issue of whether
something is permitted.  You may indeed be engaging in a low-risk activity,
though I know specific examples of situations very similar to what you're
talking about where legal action has been threatened.

> Furthermore, Leno is a professional comedian, so his jokes are his
> livelihood.

And I don't expect to stay a programmer my whole life either.  I
expect one day to graduate to being a writer.  Who are you--who is
anyone but the person themselves--to say who is and is not a
professional writer?  Most professional writers, in fact, have a day
job because being a writer for money is tough to break into and tough
to support a regular living at.  Perhaps by professional, you meant
"highly paid".  But in my book, professional is an attitude, not a
measure of checkbook.  Not all professionals break even.  Not all
professionals are well-known.  And not all professionals were always
professionals.

- - - - -

I had a more extended reply to this, going through the rest of your
message in equal detail, but I am going to decline to post it.  I
just don't have the energy or will...

I'll just end with one more remark and then killfile this conversation
so I don't have to watch it any more as it just aggravates me and makes
me not want to participate here at all.

Copyright law exists for the purpose of protecting the little guy.
The world is increasingly populated by AOL and Microsoft and other
giants who would gladly, if we let them, troll the net for fun things
and assemble them for their public with no fee to the content creator.
This is a BAD THING.  Copyright protection is often misunderstood to
be a thing which protects big business, but it isn't.  It protects the
little guy.  It means that each person who makes a piece of creative
stuff, from a haiku to a novel, has a little piece of turf in the
intellectual property space which is the new frontier.  Right now, if
any megacorporation wants to use my stuff, they must ask.  Not because
they are megacorporations, but because they are not me.  Only I can
give permission to use my stuff.  If I/we give even an inch, that
right will be gone.  And then there will be no way for the little guy
ever to win again.  So don't be too quick to dismiss what I'm saying
as silly.

End of my participation in this thread.


 
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