WB/JKR vs. RDR/SVA Part XII |
 May 14 2008, 12:04 PM
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#491
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Being Eaten by the Pea Soup Posts: 18 Joined: 2:09pm April 4, 2008 Location: Ontario, Canada  |
QUOTE(davidenglish @ May 14 2008, 11:07 AM)  Ah, yes, and there it is, social Darwinism. The survival of the fittest, dog eat dog, winner take all, modem is might. I know a poet who is really into cyborg culture. He calls himself a transhumanist. He looks down on our mundane human existence and revels in a future that is virtual. Frankly, I see no difference between that and Voldemort's quest for eternal life and absolute power. It is anti-life. I don't have much respect for those who denigrate intellectual property. I might be an amateur at writing or painting, but have immense respect for those who dedicate their lives to those professions. One can put enormous work into a fan fic, but the hardest job of creating the alternative world and populating it has already been done. It takes hard work to create characters with backstories, complex plots, and fictional landscapes. That's why we see the story of JKR's creation of HP as part of the trial testimony. She spent several years developing the Potterverse. And SVA began copying down her inventions the moment he began reading her books. His effort is about as new and original as putting a song by Gloria Gaynor on a soundtrack. It may entertain, but it's not transformational and it's not fair use. It seems to me that you have narrowed the issue down to its real nub, David. Seventeen years of creating, writing, editing, living with, an entire universe, vs. copy-paste and arrange others' material and input into a different format. To be sure, that work takes effort, but it has been amply made clear that the effort REQUIRED is not necessarily indicative of the time actually SPENT. It may very well be that SVA spent scads of time reorganizing and reading and reorganizing again, but the effort spent is not reflected in either the result, or the effort actually REQUIRED to do that. Indeed, one might have expected better of the final output considering the time spent in arranging it and so on. Now, with respect to your statement regarding fanfic and so on relative the creation of the univerrse in the first place, I would, I think, make a further distinction. The type of thing done by fanfic authors and others of that ilk, while dependant certainly on the original material, is almost equally arduous (and creative) because it is truly transformative. i.e. original, in nature. And I think this FURTHER separates Ms. Rowling from the SVAs, because there is another layer of effort and thought between the original and most "difficult" creation, and the mere cataloguing of that information, namely those who take the original and make something new of it. The original effort is the most complex and difficult. Making something new based on it is difficult, but one at least has the starting material and context. Cataloguing is essentially grunt work (I say this without intent to denigrate, but rather as a description of the efforts in creativity involved, because the WHOLE Lexicon site is more than just grunt work.) As such, the lexibook is neither transformative, nor fair use. At least in my opinion. M. This post has been edited by mortonk: May 14 2008, 12:07 PM |
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May 14 2008, 12:30 PM
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#492
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Rat Spleen Restocker at the Apothecary Posts: 498 Joined: 3:02pm March 30, 2005 |
Ok, it's time for a decision, so we can start a new thread.
-------------------- The Et Al |
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May 14 2008, 01:04 PM
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#493
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Cauldron Bottom Measurer Posts: 129 Joined: 10:27am May 2, 2008 |
What is the procedure for issuing judgments in civil cases? The judge tells the clerk who contacts the attorneys of record and then they convene in the courtroom to hear the ruling (and this will be recorded in a transcript)? I assume the media will be tipped by somebody so it should hit the wires rather quickly. I hope the ruling is posted online quickly because I want to read it for myself rather than depend on media reports. The reporting on the trial was so bad and I doubt it will be much better with the ruling. Call me cynical but I think a number of media outlets will spend more time on inventing bad Potter-themed headlines than studying the ruling.
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May 14 2008, 01:06 PM
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#494
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Cauldron Bottom Measurer Posts: 135 Joined: 12:39pm December 30, 2006 Location: County Wicklow, Ireland |
QUOTE(Hinoema @ May 14 2008, 08:15 AM) That's quite interesting; however it brings up a distinction I've never understood. Why is the creative inspiration and effort that goes into painting, music, writing and similar seen as so different than the same creative inspiration and effort that goes into, say, fashion design, hairstyling or being a chef? Sometimes I think this is because it's easier to show people how you cut hair or design a dress or cook an omelette. Unfortunately, when you try to show people what being a writer looks like, it winds up most closely resembling somebody sitting in a chair and either (a) staring vaguely out the window or (b) typing. It doesn't help when you then go on to tell the person interested in finding out more about the creation you're involved in that the really hard work was happening while you were staring out the window: the typing was secondary. Certainly for writers (and also I'd suspect for painters and sculptors and so on) the fact that we cannot clearly explain to people how we do what we do -- and when we try, we usually find ourselves making it up -- introduces too damn much mystery into the business. This then fuels weird speculation about Muses and other similar concepts that all factor down to "Sorry, I don't understand it either, and I don't have the time to sit around figuring it out: I have this deadline...". But there is an unfortunate flip side to the problem. There are writers (I'm one of this school) for whom writing is such an everyday business that it's more like carpentry than anything else, more a craft than an art. And inspiration isn't something you wait for: it's something the presence of which you command by starting work. (Which flies in the face of much "common knowledge" about inspiration, getting you in trouble right out of the box.) It'd be a poor kind of carpenter, for example, who couldn't build a bookshelf unless he was inspired. If you know enough about the wood, your tools, and the local gravitational field, you start work at the beginning of the day and you have a bookshelf at the end of it, and there's no big deal about it. It's what you're used to doing. And yes, of course art is part of what's happening: but normally it happens when you're not looking. (When you try to inject it, or slap it on like a coat of paint, normally it falls off. At least that's been my experience. The real thing arises from the core of the work when it's properly done, and can't be dislodged.) But try to tell people that you perceive or experience your writing this way -- as a piece of the day's work, like hewing wood or drawing water -- and they walk away shaking their heads, feeling somehow strangely cheated that there isn't some deep heartrending mystery about it. Then later you catch them applying the mystery themselves, in forms and theories that are completely whacko and have nothing whatsoever to do with what was actually going on in your head while you were creating. (You might not know how to explain what was happening, but you sure as heck can recognize what wasn't.) It's so often a lose-lose proposition, trying to explain how we do what we do. (Which is why it takes me weeks to get ready to teach a writing workshop, and days to recover from teaching one.)  --DD --------------------  Diane Duane | The Owl Springs Partnership | County Wicklow, Ireland |
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May 14 2008, 01:28 PM
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#495
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Waiting for Wednesdays  Posts: 9,229 Joined: 7:57am January 28, 2005 Location: Hiding from Hurricanes   |
QUOTE(Hinoema @ May 14 2008, 12:30 PM) Ok, it's time for a decision, so we can start a new thread. It is time for a new thread! Thanks everyone for the fascinating discussion. Part 13 of this topic is here. Let's hope we hear something from the Judge soon. Thanks, Doris --------------------  My Avon Breast Cancer Walk Page and Blog! I'm In It to End It! |
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