Plagarism

Copyright laws are very straightforward.  How they are being interpreted though is a bit more Byzantine.  Dan Brown, as is being universally reported, is in court in England on a charge of plagarizing Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Leigh and Baigent.  In scholarly works one can lift ideas with proper attribution (such as a footnote or a textual note) so why should it be different with fiction?  Copyright, at least in the U.S., protects completed works from being reproduced in whole or in part.  Thus, you can't take sections of completed works, characters, settings, plot devices, etc. and use them in another work.  In the Dan Brown case, however, Leigh and Baigent are suing based on Brown's use of their speculative theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were husband and wife, and that after Jesus' death, the Magdalene settled in the south of France and sired a lineage which persists up to this day, and which has been protected by a variety of secret societies, including the Knights Templar and the Priory of Zion. 

Though Brown's book recites this theory, he gives full credit to Leigh and Baigent.  Furthermore, it forms a small portion of the "completed work."  The characters, plot, events, settings and textual conflicts in the novel go far, far beyond Leigh and Baigent's work.  The Da Vinci Code stands on its own as a work of fiction.  Certainly Dan Brown was cognizant of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, he mentions it in his novel.  But ideas, in and of themselves, are not copyrightable.  It is within my rights as an author to cite other authors' work for analysis, discussion and/or inspiration.  Having read both works, the conclusion I have reached is that Brown's best ideas are his own, that his use of the theories presented in Holy Blood, Holy Grail is innocuous and does not rise to the level of plagarism.  Having CITED the work in question it cannot be plagarism in that word's common definition and meaning.

Let's also look at Leigh and Baigent's motives.  There have been two other works which have copied far greater portions of Holy Blood, Holy Grail than The Da Vinci Code.  One of them is Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.  The other is an episode of The Secret Life of Jules Verne.  Neither of those two works, to my knowledge, were sued by Mssrs. Leigh and Baigent.  It was only Dan Brown, with his 40 million copies world-wide, who attracted the lightning-bolts of their solicitors.  Where deep-pockets are concerned, you'll always find blood-suckers. 

Come back soon for my analysis of the Larry Cohen/Fox lawsuit over The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it will answer the question why Alan Moore refuses to have his name associated with V for Vendetta.  Don't miss it!

Bird Flu 2

Bird flu has spread to Sweden.

Watch this story called The Bird Flu Reality Check and tremble in your shoes.

Degeneracy

One of my coworkers was disturbed by yesterday's post.  She raised some valid concerns.  First, I don't believe that all shoplifting is pathological.  It's always antisocial, but there's a big difference between kids testing boundaries and developing their consciences and their sense of morality with what Winona Ryder and Claude Allen are alleged to have done.  Such conduct is performed in spite of conscience (if it still exists) in an attempt to destroy it.  It's proto-psychopathological, degenerate behavior.

I wonder if strong families help guard against this kind of degeneracy.   More responsibility towards others may turn one aside from morbid internalization.  Just a thought.

Low Crimes and Misdemeanors

Petty theft, as opposed to treason, which is a high crime performed for the most egregiously venal motive, personal financial gain, is almost always pathological.  When Winona Ryder was caught shoplifting, the news organizations trumpeted the headlines all over the world.  But have you heard the one about Claude Allen, though?  Claude Allen was President Bush's domestic policy advisor.  He was a White House intimate, a person who advised the most powerful man on earth.  Claude Allen is also an alleged petty criminal, who allegedly swindled Target out of more than $5,000 worth of merchandise. 

What makes otherwise successful people resort to this kind of public indecency, this maladaptive and apparently uncontrollable urge to behave in deplorable ways?  What makes them flirt with discovery, and the public humiliation and destruction of one's reputation which inevitably follow?  Like bulimia, masturbation or self-mutilation, it hides in secret.  It's a festering miasma of hidden rage, deep and gangrenous.  Like a reservoir of pus it lurks under the surface, growing hotter and more pestilent, until it expresses itself in the only way it can: an eruption of self-destructive conduct.

It is the desire to be caught, to flirt with danger, but also to be caught, to get away with it for a while, but also to be caught, that drives such a deeply disturbed, proto-psychopathic mind.  The only difference between such a one and Theodore Robert Bundy is scale.

Justification

"Be a sinner and sin on bravely, but have stronger faith and rejoice in Christ, who is the victor of sin, death, and the world. Do not for a moment imagine that this life is the abiding place of justice: sin must be committed. To you it ought to be sufficient that you acknowledge the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, the sin cannot tear you away from him, even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders." 

--Martin Luther

Stay away from Pate

An article in today's Slate magazine about swans dying of avian flu have put the issue into the forefront of my mind.  Last summer was the first I'd heard of it.  I ignored it.  My mind justified the ignorance by saying "it's a third-world problem..."  So racism helped me keep my head stuck in the sand. 

However, recent stories such as the one in Slate, and the stories that the virus has jumped to cats has me pulling up my sandy head and panicking. 

The danger for human beings is that we have no natural antibodies for this strain of flu.  In Indonesia, there have been 29 confirmed cases of avian flu, of which 22 have proven fatal. 

That's a very high percentage of fatality.  Likewise, if the flu begins to be passed from person to person, then it will quickly decimate the world's population.  Currently, all confirmed cases were contracted from infected birds, though there have been cases where it may have been contracted through proximity to an infected person--though the infection doesn't go beyond that. 

So it's still contained.  But I see a chained monster ready to be unleashed on a very vulnerable population. 

The CDC has the most current information, and from there you can link to the WHO and other government sites that can help you prepare.  But, they'll also scare your pants off.

In the meantime, I'm going to stay as far away from birds as I can, particularly ducks, which can carry the virus without dying of it themselves.  So, no more walks around Greenlake for the forseeable future.

Disney's Decline

The Shaggy Dog opens today.  I don't know about you, but it's a miss on my list.  Tim Allen is a talented guy and I'm sure that he and all the artists involved tried their best.  But when guys in Armani suits come knocking, bearing skads of filthy lucre, who can say no?  Thus we have this remake.  The Disney of yesterday made its reputation on clean, wholesome, family-oriented entertainment.  Let's be honest: Their movies were square even in the 60's and 70's when they were made.  The Disney of today makes its reputation snickering up its sleeve at its former reputation.  Their films have all the technical expertise one would expect from an A-list film, the timing is right, the images clear, the camera stable and firmly affixed to its tripod, which all cameras should aspire to.  But there's no soul.  These films are as pretty and empty as Seattle would be after a neutron bomb explosion.  The filmmakers have no conviction because they've got mixed motives.  They can't make quality family entertainment because their corporate managers have no desire to do that.  The only raison d'etre is the filling of bank accounts and to do that, they must be hip.  Everyone wants to be hip, don't they?  It is souless, bankrupt, bereft entertainment that is as sharp and unappetizing as aluminum foil.  That is because their people in charge of the company are souless, bankrupt, bereft of style, grace or substance.  The Disney Studio of the past has transformed into the Disney Corporation of today.