Month: October 2020

First, let me state that I am not an attorney, although throughout my career I worked closely with them, fought with them, learned from them, and taught them.  With that, what follows is not an exhaustive legal brief, it is opinion based on recollection.  But with that, I suspect I’m not far off the mark.

Once an idea passes from the inner world of the mind of the creator to the outer world surrounding, in virtually any physical form. It becomes the intellectual property of the creator. 

From a legal perspective, intellectual property is protected from unauthorized use by others via the mechanics of copywrite, patent, trademark, and trade secrets.  Note that none of these prevent the unlawful use of intellectual property.  They, do however, provide the legal avenue to attempt to recover damages from unauthorized use.  They are important in that regard.

For my own purposes, copywrite protection is of little financial value – I don’t expect to realize financial gain from my “art.”  If I do, I do.  But the well-being of my family is not dependent on the income derived from the effort.  Copywriting does, however, provide some protection against misrepresentation and/or fraud resulting from the theft my work.

For the purposes of my fellow classmates, however, those who expect to earn a living from their art, it is arguably a crucial step in their creative processes.  The income derived from their artistic efforts will not just support their art, it will help to support themselves, and their families.  For them, I believe it to be essential.

What are my responsibilities to the creators of media?  To me, it lies in my upbringing:  Give credit where credit is due.  Don’t just take it, ask first if you may use it.  If you borrow it, return it in as good of condition, or better, than when you took it.  And fill it up with gas.

Why?  In my thinking, an artist’s work is first an expression of self, an extension of self.  To make use another’s work for one’s own benefit without first seeking, and receiving, her permission, is not only robbing her, potentially, of her livelihood, it is to rob her of a bit of her soul, herself, as well.  To do so unknowingly and unwittingly is perhaps forgivable.  To do so with intent is callous disregard, disrespect, of another.  And a true lack of honour and integrity.

How do I protect myself?  By copywriting my work.  That way I can exercise my rights to my property in court.  (Also, I think that the © symbol serves as a deterrent, much like “Protected by…” decals and Ring doorbell cameras.)

And now for something completely different . . . 

Chapter 8 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opens with:

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy … has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years.  It contains contributions from countless numbers of travelers and research. 

After a while the style settles down a bit and it begins to tell you things you really need to know…”

Not unlike the genesis of Wikipedia, and the “management” of its content. 

Much as the BBC series did, Hyperland struck me initially as a Pythonesque romp through the frontiers at the time of interactive media.  No surprise, given that the author, Douglas Adams, wrote for Monty Python’s flying circus (which was my first surprise).  As I watched, what captured my interest the most was that degree to which the ideas on the frontiers of interactive communication, and the supporting platforms, had advanced in not that many years, but a portion of my lifetime.

It reminded me of a talk my Dad and I had, a year or so before he died; I was probably twenty.  We often visited – in retrospect not enough – and when we did, about many things.  This day we talked about what had come to pass in his lifetime, specifically about how technology had so remarkably advanced, and that much of what was taken for granted did not exist when he was born in 1898 – no cars, nor airplanes, no NASA, and in the realm of communications, no radio, no television.

(A little context would probably help here:  I was the product of a second marriage; Dad started his second family when he was well into his fifties.)

Dad enjoyed reading Dick Tracy, a comic strip about a detective that Chester Gould penned from the early thirties well into the seventies.  The Two-Way Wrist Radio arrived on the scene in January 1946, and was later upgraded to a Two-Way Wrist TV in the early sixties.  Dad was certain that someday the fantasy wrist radio would become a reality.  In fact it did, inspiring Martin Cooper’s invention of the cell phone, and arguably was the predecessor of later smartwatches; the Apple Watch comes to mind.

In my lifetime has come The Hitchhiker’s Guide, and from it, perhaps, technology.  Inspired by a stolen copy of Ken Welsh’s Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe, it became, as Suze Kundu describes in Forbes, “…the go-to reference material for any universal traveller…described in [H2G2] as being ‘a small, thin, flexible lap computer,’” from which, “with the tap of a few buttons, information on any topic appears on the screen.”

Not much different from what I’m using to write this.

Much as the BBC series did, Hyperland struck me initially as a Pythonesque romp through the frontiers at the time of interactive media.  No surprise, given that the author, Douglas Adams, wrote for Monty Python’s flying circus (which was my first surprise).

Other surprises . . .

First, for those of us who might seemed pressed by the due dates for this class, I found it humorous that Douglas Adams was deadline-challenged.  As Erik Van Rheenen notes in “16 Fun Facts About The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” published in Mental Floss:

“Adams was a notorious deadline-buster. He was famously quoted as saying, ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.’ As he was polishing The Hitchhiker’s Guide, his publishers called Adams and demanded he finish the page he was writing. To ensure he didn’t hear the deadline’s whoosh, the publishing house immediately sent a bicycle courier to pick up the manuscript.

When writing the fourth book in the Hitchhiker “trilogy,” So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, Adams was locked in a hotel suite for three weeks with his editor (and girlfriend) to ensure the book got written in a timely fashion.”

I did give the H2G2 game a go.  I did manage to turn on the light and bash about the room, but succumbed to a bulldozer crashing through the wall.  The game appears to be merciless.   (Not surprisingly.)  It reminded me of Zork, one of the earliest text-based interactive computer games, and certainly the first that I played.  Amazing where technology has gone since then.

Oh, but this is interesting stuff . . . some much to dig in to and digest!  The four bite-sized paragraphs that follow were excerpted from the Getty Museum website: https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/bauhaus/new_artist/#content  

They in some fashion resonated with me, my history, my philosophy.  Read on and find out how.

“Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For there is no such thing as ‘art by profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. Merciful heaven, in rare moments of illumination beyond man’s will, may allow art to unconsciously blossom from the work of his hand, but the foundations of craft are indispensable to every artist. This is the original source of creative design.”

From a previous post of mine:  “Be genuine and show your passion!  Boots don’t make the cowboy.  The genuine article always stands apart from the knock-offs.  (And, from a business perspective, commands a higher price.)  Why?  Head and hands together produce a product.  Add the heart, the passion, and art that product becomes.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re framing houses, framing pictures, or framing thoughts, the art shows through.” 

“The first students who arrived at the Bauhaus were confronted by a peculiar provision outlined in the school’s program. One of its key principles dictated that students participate in extracurricular activities such as “theater, lectures, poetry, music, [and] costume parties,” at which they were expected to contribute to a “light-hearted” or “cheerful” atmosphere.”

A long time ago, during orientation before I began my first term of college, my advisor, whom I’d just met, sat down and outlined the next two years of my academic life.  In that plan, one of his goals was to “get that H&SS (Humanities & Social Science) crap out of the way early.”  And, regrettably, I did – but for a Photography course my junior year, the balance of my undergraduate and graduate experience was all math and science, basically STEM.  Nor did I take advantage of all the opportunities I had all over campus to experience to broad spectrum of possibilities that is art – for free!  I didn’t realize until much, much later what an incredible loss of opportunity for that was, and thus when my kids – every one a science or engineering major –  started university, I strongly encouraged them to enroll in one class in the arts, literature, or history.  For the most part they did; I’ve learned a lot from them since.

“The singularity of the circle suggests the holistic nature of a Bauhaus education, in which individual students representing diverse disciplinary backgrounds were to come together in pursuit of a shared mission to reform art, design, and society.”

This time short and sweet:  In my experience, teams comprised of individuals of diverse talents and disciplinary backgrounds in general had better ideas, built better stuff, and got it done sooner . . . and had a helluva lot more fun doing so.  Try putting four lawyers and a wannabe (me) in a room to write a simple four-sentence paragraph.  Thank stars they had an engineer (me) along.

“The founding faculty at the Bauhaus were united in their conviction that the project of building the new artist should be driven by artistic experimentation and spiritual striving. Only a holistic education that considered mind, body, and spirit could prepare students to create the total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk).”

Arguably, not an original thought (but a good one nonetheless.  Consider:

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, although there is no hard evidence to support that claim.  Nonetheless, I do wholeheartedly agree.