Re: Academics and coursepacks

On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Timothy Phillips <hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> wrote:
>
> Michael Scarpitti <mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org> wrote:
> >
> > The pieces may be there, but it will take an architect (not a
> > repairman) to re-create the original.
>
> Even if this were the case with Shakespeare (and it sounds more like the
> reconstruction of a lost ancient work from quotations and derivative
> versions) the "architect" is reconstructing SOMEONE ELSE's authorship.
>
> A scholar of Shakespeare (or Hippolytus, or Irenaeus, or St. Patrick)
> shouldn't have it both ways. If he's restoring what Shakespeare wrote,
> then by definition what the result is not an original work of the
> scholar's own authorship, but of Shakespeare's. Copyright should be
> denied, regardless of how much work the scholar expends in establishing

Two points. First, if the reconstruction of the text brings into circulation something that has never before been published, and which is received to be closer than other texts to the author's intended work (or some variation) then perhaps (apart from legal technicalities such as life of author + 50/70) there is merit in providing protection for such newly published materials. The question in such a case, though, would be whether the scholar who does the reconstruction or some other entity should be steward of the copyright.

Second. I don't see why an author's claim of historical reconstruction has anything to do with a finding of no copyright. If that were the case, novels that claim to publish found manuscripts would be unprotected. Just because an academic editor makes a claim for reconstruction does not mean that the claim is true, or that it can even be verified. The scholarly editor's effort to reconstruct is always an act of fiction, however it is represented, and always creates a *new* text. The claims about it being an "old" text are just academic trimmings, some more enticing than others.

Gerald Barnett
University of Washington
<barnett[_at_]u.washington.edu> Received on Tue Jul 14 1998 - 13:59:51 GMT