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I began a new academic term a week ago, and one instructor went to great pains to impress upon us the importance of proper (and in our case, APA) citation in our written work. Suffice it to say, she stopped short of suggesting that we would likely have no original thought, and should cite accordingly. I didn't give it much further thought after class as this is an area in which I'm quite diligent.

That is, until a few days later brought the arrival of the new Harper's. Two pieces in the Februrary issue are worth a read. The first, On The Rights of Molotov Man: Appropriation and the Art of Context (Joy Garnett and Susan Meiselas) concerns contextualization and decontextualization of an image (in this case a photograph) and how at times the subject of a certain image and context may be lost in the midst of lawyers arguing over intellectual property and copyright laws. The second, The Ecstasy of Influence (by Jonathan Lethem) discusses the conflicts within art, culture and the marketplace--what he describes as a "gift economy" and the "market economy." He states that "Contemporary copyright, trademark, and patent law is presently corrupted. The case for perpetual copyright is a denial of the essential gift-aspect of the creative act. Arguments in its favor are as un-American as those for the repeal of the estate tax." Now, my instructor mentioned earlier would no doubt caution me to not apply any notions I have regarding art, the public doman and the public good to social science research. And, she'd have a point. Nonetheless, all of this has me all in a tither and I'm interested in the thoughts of others on these subjects.

I recently spent about $30 for a DVD box set of old Looney Tunes cartoons just so I could share a piece of what I consider one of the most brilliant moments in American culture (tongue only partly in cheek here): Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny in "What's Opera, Doc?" Of course I will now at some point have to drag them to Siegfried, if not the entire Ring cycle at some point, so they will have a greater appreciation of Elmer Fudd's sword and magic helmet, and Bugs Bunny as Brunhilde. I look at Bugs, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, et al, as cultural gifts, dammit, and people shouldn't have to fork over $$ for an entire box set to have access. However, Mr. Lethem reports that ASCAP is still receiving royalties for Happy Birthday to You, 114 years after it was written. So, I suspect Bugs will not be entering the public domain any time soon.

I don't know exactly why I find the subject so fascinating--but I've just picked up Richard Posner's book, The Little Book of Plagiarism, so it isn't a subject I'm ready to let go of just yet. Posner is a judge on the 7th Circuit known for his pragmatism. I'll attempt to summarize his take on all of this at a later time.