Lat week I found (by chance) something I had posted on nettime a while back had
been taken almost word for word
by Bruce Sterling and placed on his blog for Wired Magazine without either
informing me, asking permission or crediting
me- though he did add a link to my blog saying that another version was
available there- Thanks for that Bruce-
We know there is the legal framework which is the CC lisence but in the end if
a well known author chooses to
take the words of someone less known and leave the provenance of the actual
labour ‘ambiguous’ by adding a few lines
of his own here and there. There is not much one can do about it, without
wasting a lot of time and energy. He has the
larger platform and the reputation.
Oscar Wilde once said to the painter Whistler who had made a witty remark “I
wish I had
said that” to which Whistler replied “you will oscar..you will”. Picasso is
also known to have said to a friend who
wouldn’t let him in his studio for fear of seeing his own ideas popping up in
Picasso’s next show “don’t worry I never
borrow. I steal!”
Bob Dylan was recently accused of appropriating chunks of his Nobel Prize
acceptance speech
His likely defense was highlighted by an article in Rolling Stone
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan responded to the accusations of
plagiarism pertaining to Love and Theft.
“I’m working within my art form,” he said. “It’s that simple. I work within the
rules and limitations of it. There are authoritarian
figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It’s
called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm,
and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it.”
So clearly a pithier response might be “what’s your problem dude.. it was just
a cover version”
Maybe this ‘squib’ will also appear on Bruce’s blog.
David Garcia
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