Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
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Christopher Shea writes the Critical Faculties column for Ideas.
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« Woe is us, Part 1 | Main | Woe is pompous me » Thursday, March 15, 2007Lethem, againTo respond to Evan's post, I don't think it's misleading to point to Lethem as a good model of how an artist might insert himself productively into the copyright debate. For two reasons: 1) If Lethem were an unsuccessful artist whose novels had never been optioned, then his gesture would be less meaningful; it would also be easier to dismiss as a publicity stunt. 2) He's not exactly throwing money into the street. If you read the whole option statement, he does require the filmmaker who options his novel to pay him royalties if the film actually gets produced, and he will collect those royalties for a few years after this hypothetical film appears. So Lethem is protecting his intellectual rights, but he's not being hoggish about it. He's compromising, creating a win-win situation for himself and hypothetical future artists who might want to draw upon his work. This is -- to my mind -- what copyright was originally supposed to be about. You know who I'd like to hear from in this discussion? Ex-Legal Affairs senior editor John Swansburg! What do you make of Lethem's option idea, John? Posted by Joshua Glenn at 12:29 PM
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