Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Ecstasy of Influence - A Plagiarism

Here is a very well written and researched detailed essay on copyright, '"open source" culture', borrowing, stealing, love and theft, Jefferson, Disney, Girl Guides, RIAA litigation against twelve year old children and much more in the current Harper's by Jonathan Lethem.

HK

3 comments:

  1. I thought Lethem's article rather tedious and derivative (I know, I know, that was the point, but still...). However, I recommend another article in the same issue, "On the Rights of the Molotov Man," a dialogue between Joy Garnett, a painter, and Susan Meiselas, a photographer whose image Garnett appropriated. Meiselas in particular makes some really interesting comments about the downside of random recirculation that I haven't heard before.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm 1/2 way through Lethem's essay, and loving it. Okay, It flatters my own perspective, but...it does make the points very well.
    and I, too, was looking for a rebuttal from the painter to the photographer in the Garnett/Meiselas piece...and I'd initially thought there was something missing in the article as it seemed one sentence by Garnett ran right into Meiselas's piece...

    interesting all-around, though

    ReplyDelete