A Thought on Intellectual Property

[benlehman]

Inspired by some kefluffle.

On the internet, a lot of thought (including me) is put into the availability and rights to creative work: intellectual property.

Considerably less emphasis is put on producing creative work which is actually work someone's time: your own or others.

This seems backwards to me.

Comments

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

You're distracting.

Actually, I think you're just coming from a totally different place and perspective than I am, to the degree that we have almost nothing to say to each other.

Your tradition, which we might call the brainstorming tradition, seems to be "people's ideas, naked, are inherently of value, and all the other stuff (the craft, basically), is little more than distractions or added value that someone else could easily tidy up."

My tradition, which is called the authorial tradition teaches that ideas are themselves valueless (everyone has a lot of good ideas all the time) and it is the preparation, selection, and craft of your ideas that gives them any value at all.

For the first, the core question is "how can I get access to as many ideas as possible, filed tidily?"

From the viewpoint of the second, this is obscene. The question is instead "how can I learn to prepare my ideas in the best way possible, to improve my craft as a creative person?"

I'm sure that there are equally strange things looking from the other direction.

yrs--
--Ben

[the-tall-man.livejournal.com]

That smells true to me.