Klarinet Archive - Posting 000469.txt from 1999/03

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Internet Gilbert & Sullivan
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:24:40 -0500

CEField@-----.com wrote,
>Not exactly clarinet related but clever just the same...Cindy

>NEWSGROUP PERSONALITY
To be sung to "Modern Major General" by Gilbert & Sullivan

>I am the very model of a Newsgroup personality.
I intersperse obscenity with tedious banality....[snip]>

Delightful parody. Are you the author? Someone named Matt posted these
verses on the alt.music.saxophone newsgroup on January 21, 1999. He said that
he got the song off the rec.music.dementia site and that the author was
unknown. No problem with the use of G&S, of course, since Mark Russell's
Supreme Court case established clearly that parody is protected speech under
the First Amendment. However, if you're not the author, this is worse than a
violation of the author's copyright, since the only name on this message is
yours: It's outright plagiarism, even if leaving off the author's byline (or
information that the author is unknown) is only an innocent typo. The fact
that the author is unknown (not necessarily because the author wants to be
unknown, but more likely because people have been passing the piece around
without crediting the author properly) *does not* mean that the verses have
fallen into the public domain.

I didn't write the verses -- I'm just butting in -- and I'm sorry to harp on
this tired theme yet again. However, as a fellow writer, I've been warned by
editors that I must search the 'Net periodically, under key phrases I store
from my published work, to see who's posting my stuff "anonymously" and where.
Then I have to decide whether to let it go or make an ass of myself by
complaining. Writers who fail to object to plagiarism that appears in a place
where they could reasonably be expected to know about it are afraid that we
can be held to have relinquished our rights under the copyright law (the law
as it applies to Internet distribution is not yet well-established), so
unfortunately it's a serious issue, despite how petty the complaints can look.
Legalities aside, it's only common courtesy to credit the rightful author.
Forgive me for the diatribe if you *are* the rightful author. If you are,
then you might want to protect yourself by informing Matt. (E-mail me and
I'll give you his e-mail address.)

Lelia

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