Peter Friedman
Lawyer
Ruling Imagination: Law and Creativity
Plagiarizing about Plagiarism
You could write a column entitled “When it comes to songwriting, there’s a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism” any day of the week, and I believe I have, though I only stole the idea from the KLF (or Negativland or Bob Dylan, or Jim Jarmusch or Jonathan Lethem or David Shields or David Markson or Shepard Fairey or . . . )
July 9th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
This is almost a drinking game in copyright circles. Every time you see a lesser-known musician make a dubious claim of plagiarism against a better-known one, take a shot. If they waited five years or more, take two. If they waited ten or more, take three. If they waited more than 20, you’re clearly in Australia and listening to Men at Work and probably already drinking heavily.
In all seriousness though, I get tired of talking about these issues on the podcast week after week after week. It gets old.
Yet, they keep a comin’.