RE: "Against Intellectual Property"

From: Friedman, Barbara <bfriedman[_at_]mdbe.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 10:21:47 -0700

	Linda Gruber writes:  
	"A creator is the sole parent of his creative offspring."

	I would argue that this reflects a gross misunderstanding of how art

is created. No art is truly original--in fact, all intellectual creative activity is in part derivative. All artists must draw upon the public domain. As Judge Leval stated:          

	  	"Not since Athena sprung from the head of Zeuss has an
artist 	emerged fully formed.  There is no such thing as a wholly original
thought.  Every idea takes a substantial part from what has gone
		before.  Intellectual man, like biological man, displays the
genes of		his forbears.  Titian's Venus and Goya's Maja are
both present in 			Manet's Olympia.  Cezanne's
geometric reductions are found in 			Picasso's cubism.
T.S. Elliott tells us that while lesser writers borrow, 	great

writers steal. Fair Use or Foul.

        --Barbara

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http://www.mccutchen.com Received on Tue Aug 29 2000 - 17:28:21 GMT