More on the thief (I thought we were past that)

[Donald Markstein]

> I agree that crediting your self with someone else's work is not fair but
I
> see nothing wrong with useing someone else's work on you page as long as
you
> give them credit for it.
> As the Internet is freedom of information.

Kenneth Glendinning:

You're not the only person who thinks the Internet has made copyright law
obsolete. And it may be that we'll have to re-define a few things and come
to a revised understanding of what is meant by intellectual property.

But we have not yet done so -- and I very strongly suspect that like the
vast majority of extravagant predictions for new technology, the one about
the end of copyright will turn out to be more than a little on the, shall we
say, "enthusiastic" side. The law still states that the creator or copyright
holder of a piece of intellectual property has the right to choose where it
will be displayed -- and so do the Yahoo/Geocities Terms of Service, which
bind Mr. Totti as long as he is using their resources to display "his"
pages.

(By the way, is his name spelled with two T's, or three? I've seen him spell
it both ways.)

I have worked hard to make my Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com) what it
is. I did not do so for the thrill of seeing myself "credited" for it. By
now, nearly 40 years since my first printed byline, I've become a bit jaded
about that -- I still enjoy it, but when that much effort goes into
something, I prefer the sort of reward that makes it easier to feed my
children.

Not being Uncle Scrooge, I CAN NOT AFFORD to spend that much time and
creative energy on work with no prospect of paying. If anyone can simply
come along and take it, without permission and without paying me, then the
work has no value to me and therefore will not be done. As dreary as the
prospect may be, I will be forced to apply my writing skills to trade
papers, advertising, and other types of work that pay reasonably well but
don't hold any real interest for me.

When Mr. Totti steals a person's work, he steals that person's livelihood.
When he wonders why anyone would make a fuss over Internet thievery, he is
saying that person's work has no value. And when YOU say it's okay to steal
as long as the victim is "credited", you are promoting a brave new world in
which work that is attractive to thieves will of necessity be relegated to
the creator's spare time -- and therefore, will tend not to be done.

If Mr. Totti wants to use another person's work, let him ask permission. And
let him be prepared to pay for it.

Quack, Don

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