On Wed, 4 Jun 2003, Michael Landau <mlandau[_at_]gsu.edu> wrote:
>
> What is wrong with requiring attribution?
The trouble with it is the requirement itself. When you start to require people to provide attribution to you when they copy any portion of your works whose copyright has expired, you are imposing the restriction on them under the threat of lawsuit. This in turn diminishes the freedom of communication as demonstrated in the freedoms of speech and press.
> Oh, have you heard my new record, Landau's 5th symphony? The first 4 notes
> are killer !
(and other examples of using other works without attribution.)
This is exactly what many authors and artists do every day. They don't want to reveal where they get ideas from for two reasons: 1) To maintain their big ego. 2) To protect themselves from meritless lawsuits.
The academic world invented its own 11th commandment against plagiarism not only because they care about the honesty but also because they want to maintain the godlike status of authorship. The higher number of attributions that author receives, the higher his/her status is. Their obsession with footnotes is so high that the love of freedom of communication is often forgotten. The people should always steer away from that trap.
Attribution is nice but it should be always optional as it is since the beginning of the word.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
http://www.boycottcopyright.com
Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 5,688
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Fri Jun 06 2003 - 20:32:50 GMT
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