Re: [Harp-L] Jean de Florette and stelaing gifts

["Bob Laughlin" <rlaughlin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
> Anyway, I hardly think Little Water and SBWII qualify as the sort of
> robber barons that Robin Hood was up against (at least in legend) or
> the sort of selfish landowners who deprive others wrongly of water. And
> there are effective legal remedies to the wrongs you describe.
> Countering crime with crime is seldom a successful strategy.
>
> Winslow
>

However, in the eyes of some, though perhaps not in a strictly "legal"
sense, that which has allegedly been "stolen", was not one's "property" in
the first place. I mean, how much actual "work" or "creativity" does it take
for someone to come up with a harp lick? With enough practice, one
accidentally bumps into numerous licks, runs, passages that have already
been bumped into numerous times. It was only because this or that lick had
been recorded, with the advent of the recording technology, that the lick
was eventually attributed to so-and-so, instead of whoever he or she may
have borrowed it from. I'm sure neither Little Walter nor Sonny Boys I or II
were the first harp players, neither the original inventors of their
particular style. They borrowed, stole, copied from others as well. Isn't
this pretty obvious, logically speaking.

I "invented" a tool for removing scuffs from linoleum flooring. It's
essentially a tennis ball on a broomstick. I had heard that tennis balls
would remove scuffs, and simply went a step further in finding a way to put
one on the end of a stick. I use this tool a lot at the store I work at.

People coming into the store would say,,"Hey, you should patent that." I had
the feeling it had already been invented, since it was a very simple
concept, and didn't go to the trouble of doing a search. Someone else in the
store then began to brag that they had "invented" this tool, and were going
to initiate the patent process. I laughed inwardly.

Eventually, it's easy enough to find this scuff-removal tool on the
internet, and patents applied to it. Google "scuff removal tool tennis
ball", and see.

Now I could have been the first, if I'd been early enough, but I knew I
wasn't.

It's all in who decides to "lay claim" to the idea first, not necessarily
who ACTUALLY came up with the idea.

So,,who's "stealing" from whom?

If I say that I invented this tool, when someone else did, but didn't claim
to, am I right?

If I was first to patent this idea, does that make it "my idea"? Maybe in a
strictly legalistic sense, but perhaps not in fact. That makes the legal
system a mere system of procedures, by which some may "win", and others
"lose" at the expense of ultimate truth.

I am fairly certain that there are relatively unknown musicians who have
come up with plenty of things that others later took credit for, for the
sake of profit.

Could be some guy sitting on his porch whom we never have heard of played
every bit as well as Sonny, Slim, or Sally.

Who's the real "original"? I think it goes farther back than any of us are
aware of.

I'm not of the opinion that air, vibrations, or music can be "owned". In
this sense, I differ with thousands of lawyers, courts, and judges. I fully
agree with the assessment of said "Byrd", in that music is a gift, to be
shared by all, not fought over in courts of law. Sorry.

BL