the rights and wrongs of copyright & left

'Never worry about someone stealing your idea...
If it's original you're going to have to ram it down the world's throat!'
Howard H. Aiken, IBM Computer Pioneer.

While much of DMC leaves me feeling like a backward 5 year old suddenly asked to do calculus... (especially sitting next to Tech Uberlord Gav) copyright is something that I think I have some understanding of. Or I thought I did - then along comes copyleft.

'There is nothing new under the sun'... [Ecclesiastes 1 v 9]
'If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants' [Sir Isaac Newton] (no pygmy himself)


There are countless examples of creativity being 'inspired' by other creativity. In 'Teach Yourself Screenwriting', Raymond G. Frensham talks about 8 basic stories that all other stories are based on, then updated, given a new twist etc:

Achilles - the fatal flaw
Candide - the innocent abroad
Cinderella - the dream come true
Circe - the chase
Faust - the debt that must be repaid
Orpheus - the gift taken away
Romeo & Juliet - boy meets girl, (it goes pear shaped and they kill themselves)
Tristan & Isolde - the eternal triangle, (one boy or girl too many)

(Interestingly enough when you look up Frensham in imdb.com he doesn't actually have any screenwriting credits)

In music there have been countless examples of shameless rip-offs. The Beach Boys 'Surfin' USA' was so close to Chuck Berry's much older 'Sweet Little Sixteen' that they eventually had to give him a co-writing credit. Even those considered to be true originators like Ray Charles acknowledged predecessors like Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole and Charles Brown (Ray's early years were spent as virtually a Nat King Cole impersonator) And ever since 'sampling' became standard operating procedure, originality seems as rare as rocking horse crap.


So is there really anything new under the sun and why should people 'own' ideas?

I've tended to side with the 'creatives' in the past... It is hard, lonely work to stare at an empty page and find something new to say. (Saying this I also acknowledge that bands generally waste have ridiculous amounts of time and money on producing music - getting an advance from a record company used to be considered a license for partying with the label's money. And it is also true that record and film companies own the best accountants this side of the Mafia ).


I have often wondered how relaxed the 'Napster generation' of 'rip it/burn it/we're just stealing from the obscenely wealthy record/film companies who can afford it' would feel about something they've sweated bullets over being taken out of their hands and distributed without them having any control or reward. Then again this just may date me as part of the pre 'gift economy' generation.