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<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/10/22 Christopher Meredith <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chmeredith@gmail.com">chmeredith@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Robert McNamara<br></blockquote><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">It's not an issue of ethics. It's an issue of fairness. If you're not<br>
protecting a proprietary interest and I'm not intruding upon a<br>
proprietary interest, what does it matter what I or anyone else does<br>
with it? It is fundamentally unfair to tell someone they can have<br>
something for "free," but they can't enjoy it as they please. It would<br>
be completely unreasonable for me to write a book and give it away<br>
with the condition that no one may read it in artificial light. If I<br>
give away a book, I would intuitively understand that the recipients<br>
to whom I make it available can do anything they want with it. They<br>
can write in it, mark it up, take out pages, even burn it if they<br>
want. That's what goes along with publicizing something. If I was so<br>
artistically sensitive that I could not bear the thought of someone<br>
"disrespecting" my unique artistic vision, it would be up to me to<br>
keep it to myself.<br></blockquote><br>I am finding it hard to disagree with this entirely logical and eloquent statement.<br><br>Another analogy would be that a famous artist (who could sell their artwork for thousands) gives you a piece of art, they take it home and make "improvements" with their kids painting set. Sure the artist could/should/would be upset about these changes but the artist has no legal recourse.<br>
<br>Further than that, I am no lawyer but I would expect that the artist couldn't then stop the artwork from being sold on especially if the full history of the artwork is fully disclosed - they may have the right to stop reproductions of the altered artwork. This seems similar to the music sampling permissions and royalties.<br>
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