[cc-community] No Hard Copy Distribution Condition (Let's discuss)

Rob Myers rob at robmyers.org
Sat Feb 16 04:57:45 EST 2008


Greg London wrote:

> "To be or not to be" is a work that altered the
> world. 

And was written by a noted plagiarist.

We don't now know the exact source for Hamlet but we do know for example 
that Romeo and Juliet was adapted from English translations of an 
Italian work.

> And the world will not allow it to be
> twisted and turned without reminding us of the
> original version.

This is both its value and the value that the world gives to it. The 
problem, even for Sekspia / Sheikh al-Subair / Shakespeare is the 
spectre of obscurity, not the reality of piracy. And obscurity for 
Shakespeare would be a loss for society.

The value paradox of popular work is that it the most financially 
valuable and well regarded work but also the work where that value is 
most created by the desire of society to copy and derive from it.

- Rob.


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