Patently absurd

[Ed Hopkins <Ed.Hopkins@mci.com>]

Poster: Ed Hopkins <Ed.Hopkins@mci.com>

Lora Leigh asks:
> Ok how about this one if I abduct Efen (at next Pennsic) and then
> tie him up on a little wagon with wheels (so I can move him from
> bardic circle to bardic circle...... 
> Well I figure I can keep him gagged (screams for help give me a
> headache). People then give me money to take the gag off and he
> can sing requests. If he won't sing for us we won't feed him, do
> mean things to his recorder, and sell that silly cat of his into
> stuffed animal slavery. Now because I have the artist and he is
> performing his own work..am I Ok on the copyright?

Etymologically, no.  Consider this:

 Plagiarist means strictly one who kidnaps a slave. Martial
 applies the word to the kidnappers of other men's brains.
 Literary theft unacknowledged is called plagiarism. (Latin,
 plagrarius.)

from THE DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE BY E. COBHAM BREWER
     FROM THE NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION OF 1894
(http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/index.html)

Earlier, J. Blackbow wrote:
> I invented the Thumper (golf club tube arrow capped with a rebar cap
> (plastic, not to be confused with actual chunks of rebar metal) head).
> Estrella War now doesn't want to use anything EXCEPT that arrow.  Pretty
> flattering, no?  Do I give a damn about the copyrights on the arrow?  No.
> I'm flattered that somebody likes the thing enough to use it exclusively.
> Is there a copyright on the arrow?  Almost certainly.  Is the arrow
> exclusively "my" intellectual property?  Doubtless.
> 
> Do I therefore demand monetary recompense from the autocrat of Estrella
> Wars?  No.  Give me a break.  If I were to do something that asinine, they'd
> find another arrow to use, I suspect.

To be blunt, by an arrow interpretation of the law, Jonathan
_could_ place a pheon his invention.

-- Alfredo
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