>Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 16:59:21 -0700
>From: Stanley Nodvik <cupola1776@earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: cupola1776@earthlink.net
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>To: John Politis <jpolitis@phila.k12.pa.us>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: Cartoon Plagiarism - Opinions?
>X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.15
>
>Hi John,
>
>Wow! What a nut (some sort of personality disorder?) Must be from the
>state of Ohio, home of strange people. He should forgo the comic page
>for the sports page and focus on cork bats.
>
>1) Like minds who play/work with their imaginations are always hitting
>upon the same idea or concept, as in this case an identical cartoon gag
>idea. In the golden age of magazine cartoons, it was common to see the
>same topical gag in 2 or 3 different magazines. Your pun-type topical gag
>with math and mass set in an airport inpection area is such a gag many
>gagwriters or cartoonists would individually orginate. A few might think
>it too obvious or too contrived and drop it.
>
>2) These published cartoon panels or strips are always thought up weeks in
>advance and there may be a 2 week lag from the drawing board to the
>published newspaper page. Month or more for magaines. So I would guess
>the cartoon came first but published much later. The only exception are
>editorial cartoons which must be done and published that same day, which
>is why many editoral cartoonist are on the staff on the premises of a big
>newsaper.
>
>3) Jokes and cartoon gags are considered free game to lift as one's own.
>Comedian Milton Berle is more famous as a stealer of jokes; even published
>his own large book of stollen jokes. And it was no shame for him to tell a
>joke without crediting it on National TV every week. The only example that
>comes to mind of a copyright fight is when David Letterman defended his
>Top Ten Jokes list and won.
>
>4) As for copyrights, the government does not prosecute plagerism. A
>copyright only establishes the registerng of the date you filed for
>protection. The lawyers you hire and pay to take someone to court are the
>ones who defend your copyright to your stuff. (The idea of mailing your
>idea in a sealed envelope by registered mail to yourself has never been
>accepted as proof of original authorship. It's just a folk lore myth.) It
>is good, however, to keep an "inventor's diary" for use later as
>additional proof when one's hired laywers fight any infrigments of more
>substantial projects.
>
>5) No professional cartoonist or gagwriter will take and use a "great idea
>or joke" from friends, or well-meaning relatives. They probably heard it
>last night on Leno or Letterman. Or taken it from Penthouse or Playboy.
>And certainly not from e-mail jokes. Professional creative people don't
>need to plagarize because they can knock off 10 or 20 better gags in an
>hour. All original. If someone else comes up with the same gag idea and
>publishes it first -- it's called a "beat" in the trade or months later
>the gag is known as a "been done" gag and avoided. A gag idea which is a
>beat or a been-done one by another pro-- no matter how good --
>isn't anything to go to war over. These are not consider 'stolen' gags by
>trade pros. Cartoonists and gagwriters have always belonged to a small
>interconnected and ethical community where no one gets away with pulling a
>fast one as suggested
>in this case.
>
>--Paul Cupola (Cartoon gagwriter since 1960)
>
>John Politis wrote:
>>
>>>Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 17:14:41 -0400
>>>Reply-To: Jacqueline Henry <jhenry@GANANDA.ORG>
>>>Sender: School Library Media & Network
>>>Communications <LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
>>>From: Jacqueline Henry <jhenry@GANANDA.ORG>
>>>Subject: Cartoon Plagiarism - Opinions?
>>>To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>>>X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.15
>>>
>>>Today's version of the cartoon "Shoe" by Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins =
>>>caught my eye (Sunday, July 27). I am always looking for "real life" =
>>>examples of plagiarism - particularly outside the strictly academic
>>>arena. =
>>> This certainly is an interesting example of possible plagiarism. The =
>>>cartoon is basically an email joke that I have received both at home and =
>>>at school several times in the past few months. I am wondering if the =
>>>cartoonists will be called to account for this? Or is it possible that =
>>>they ARE the originators of the joke? To see the comic go to
>>>http://www.uc=
>>>omics.com/shoe/index.phtml
>>>
>>>I am not certain if the cartoon will be available after today. I will
>>>not =
>>>quote the entire text of the comic, but it concerns the arrest of a math =
>>>teacher in an airport because he had a calculator and a protractor. The =
>>>teacher was being charged with "concealing weapons of math instruction." =
>>>=20
>>>
>>>I would be most interested to hear your opinions of this situation. I =
>>>suspect that technically the cartoon violates copyright law. In reality, =
>>>it would probably be close to impossible for the original author of the =
>>>joke to claim ownership. These kinds of jokes fall into the grey areas
>>>of =
>>>folklore I suppose. But certainly, if the cartoonists are not the =
>>>original authors, presenting the joke as their own work with no
>>>source/attr=
>>>ibution/disclaimer is plagiarism. =20
>>>
>>>It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. I am sure that =
>>>thousands of people reading the cartoon will recognize it as an email =
>>>joke. The need to remain vigilant and read critically becomes more =
>>>important by the second. Plagiarised information ranges from the =
>>>"sublime?!(Jayson Blair/NY Times) to the "ridiculous" (The Sunday comics)!
>>>
>>>Jacquie
>>>
>>>"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those that wander are lost"
>>> J.R.R. Tolkien
>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>Jacquie Henry, MLS
>>>Ruben A. Cirillo High School (GHS)
>>>Gananda Central School District
>>>3195 Wiedrick Road
>>>Walworth, NY 14568
>>>jhenry@gananda.org
>>>http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>John Politis
>>Librarian
>>Bodine High School for International Affairs
>>4th & George Sts.
>>Philadelphia, Pa. 19123
>>Homepage: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~politis
>>http://libraries.phila.k12.pa.us/bodine
>>
>>"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature,
>>music - the world is so rich - simply throbbing with rich treasures,
>>beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."
>>- Henry Miller
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> channel@verizon.net
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