Lethem and Tenner and Authorship

These articles have finally given my brain enough fuel to realize and understand what this research topic needs to be about. For me, it will have a focus in nature as always. My task will be a difficult one. I have found forums associated with wildlife used by the public to answer questions and communicate, but I haven't been able to find something that would bring up the question of authorship other than a Website concerning nature photography and the postings therein. I may need to look into nature writing and its presentation to the masses along with its past influences in order to meet the goals of this topic. Lethem has certainly inspired me when it comes to authorship, and I hope to utilize this new insight to possibly throw another stepping stone in for the nature writing and nature oriented community.

To begin, Jonathan Lethem has provided me with the most inspiration in his examples, imagery, and explanation of the problems with copyright and common knowledge. One thought with which I strongly agree is the idea that through artistic works, other works live on due to their influences on the artist. The artist in turn is not stealing the works that influenced him or her, he or she is utilizing these often life long influences to create a new idea, a new gift to society as Lethem might say.

A photographer may photograph nature, an enormous influence often owned by no one and every one, and make this image his or her own to portray a feeling, a mood, or an influential portrayal of human destruction of a common natural resource. The photographer is not stealing from nature any more than a writer is stealing from previous writers to write.

I think that a big part of the problem with copyright and common knowledge is a need for some morals, morals associated with creativity and artists. As Lethem has mentioned, the mindset should be to gift new creative ventures to society, and society should accept this gift graciously by letting the creator make a living i.e. "Don't pirate my editions; do plunder my visions." The concept makes perfect sense. There is a lyric from a country song running through my head. I can't remember the author at this time as I've only heard the song on the radio without a name ever being mentioned, but the singer says, "you never see a hearse with a luggage rack." This I interpret as a call to do something for the greater good, the common knowledge, and less for personal gain.

However, there is still a fear of this plagiospheric monster in creating or gifting new ideas to the public and common knowledge. Tenner mentioned a development in the making going on at MIT, a non verbatim plagiarism detection system of sorts. If this works, I would suggest using this tool to rule out those who are truly dishonest by using this tool and then having a human evaluation of the document, the human posing the question of, "Is this really plagiarism?" Thus, giving people the tools to police, while also keeping in mind that many artists and writers truly do want to commit their work to the greater good of common knowledge and furthering of a culture or cultures around the world.