There was a recent thread on this which made me ponder.
J.K. Rowlings made millions by reworking old themes and situations into a new narrative. Tolkien himself took classical fables and reworked them into his work. Some phrases straight from the King James Bible.
To take a thought and a premise and rework it into a new piece is surely going to resound as a copy to the same culture. What is an echo and what is a copy is hard to determine.
To use a line from Tolkien; ..Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
This line has always resonated true for me. Who has the right to decide that a work is a copy? Who has the right to deal out judgement? A judge, a jury, or the original formulator?
All of us can accuse verbally but no one need listen. Our grievances are tertiary.
In my mind it is a condition between the originator and the copier. And only the originator can decide that he or she has been copied. Even then they should not be too eager to deal out judgement, least they too be judged.
Anyone heard of the infinite monkey theorem ?
PS: But when I find out who slole my Hyundai Mustang line and reused it.. Whammmo !
