Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery - it’s breach of copyright.

Why...

Have these little blogs been sprouting up elsewhere? Recently I may have been suffering delusions of grandeur as a bunch of themes from my recent missives seem to have been turning up in the wider press in a number of musings of weekly columnists. Of course it could simply be that great minds think alike and fools seldom differ. However recent posts about the Oscars (Oscar night... just has me riveted to my seat, January 24th) and hidden car rental charges (Extra! Extra! Read All About it... Actually we’d rather you didn’t which is why we put the extra costs in the fine print, January 5th) have both popped up in British national newspapers. So if you are a bored columnist itching for a quick answer to your highly paid weekly article... sod off. Otherwise I shall be forced to ask the advise of my litigious Japanese lawyer Mr. So-Sue-Me. Of course these regurgitations of my latest ramblings could be pure coincidence in the same way as those columns which have included ideas might find their articles repeated here... quite uncanny!

...and another thing

I used to think remakes of anything just showed a lack of imagination. Spielberg is an undoubted genius Director but why does he want to remake West Side Story. The original was perfect. It’s like asking Da Vinci to copy the roof of the Sistine Chapel. But then again that film is what they now call a ‘re-imagining’ of Romeo and Juliet and that has been churned out a zillion times.

However I just saw A Star is Born and it is without doubt better than the three that came before it; 1937 Janet Gaynor and Freddie March, 1954 Judy Garland and James Mason, 1976 Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand.

I can remember the adage when I worked in movies and TV that original just meant no one noticed it came from somewhere else or was out of copyright so no royalties needed to be paid.

Certainly in music that seems to be the case. Freddie Mercury (bless him) was quite open in how he had ‘borrowed’ works from long dead composers to ‘re-imagine’ as part of Queen’s wonderful riffs!

However let’s be practical. Copy away… just send me a royalty cheque!

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One Comment

  1. Peter Clark says:

    I did not know that your blogs were copyright!! I’ve just about finished putting a paperback of them all together and sending off to a publisher. Am I doing the wrong thing?

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