Public Service Announcement

[malsperanza]

There's a lot of general discussion of copyright and plagiarism on my flist this week. Some of it is useful; a lot of it is riddled with misconceptions and opinion masquerading as fact (e.g., John Scalzi's position that most fanfic is probably illegal).

If I have time this weekend I will dig up and post a set of very simplified legal definitions of some of the terms that have been tossed about lately (Public Domain, Fair Use, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Plagiarism, etc.) that were written by a team of expert intellectual property lawyers for the general public to use.

Meanwhile, I strongly urge my flist to look at the following website and bookmark it before trying to untangle copyright law too much more. This is the best website out there on the topic for general use:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Especially the section on fair use:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

Comments

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

p.s. is this icon plagiarism, copyright infringement, or allusion? I'm so confused!

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

My icon?

Heh.

The quote is from a pome called "The Sphinx" by Oscar Wilde, who is in the public domain (died more than 70 years ago), so it's not copyright infringement. The sculptures of Antinoos are from around 130 CE so they are also in the public domain, although it is possible that I am infringing the copyright of the several (anonymous) photographers who made the *photos* of the sculptures. Not to mention whoever photographed the sunset. That's what's called an "orphan copyright"--rightsholder untraceable. (You don't want to know how complicated *that* can get.)

Since I did not include Wilde's name or the title of the pome in the icon, I am not meeting best ethical standards for crediting sources, which is not exactly plagiarism, since I am also not claiming that I wrote the lines or made the sculptures; so: not plagiarism, just poor citation practice.

However, somewhere in the depths of my LJ archive is the info that the lines are from an Oscar Wilde pome, together with the (to me very important) info that the icon (which I adore) was made for me by Chresimos, whose real name I do not know. So the citation exists for those who care to work hard to find it.

If I werea a worthy person, I could add the info to my Profile page. But having spammed the hell out of yards of your LJ this week to assert (belligerently) that there are sometimes legitimate artistic reasons to suppress or fail to credit, I will say that I love the mysteriousness and obliquity of my icon; I love the matching of the exquisite Antinoos with the elusive (and allusive) lines written about him by one of the world's great tragic lovers of transgressive beauty; and that I think the voyeuristic pleasure of the viewer in reading my icon is enhanced by curiosity about the quote and the images, by mystery, and by the burden of seeking the source for him- or herself.

Or, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I would pay cash money to hear you rant about intellectual property. Rant in the good sense of the verb "to rant," that is. Plus I agree. So I am fairly sure that what you did does not count as ranting, and plus also, please, do it some more.

[twistingflame.livejournal.com]

Tis indeed an excellent resource. Thanks!