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Say That Again

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Jul 9th 2003 1:26am





Obscure Japanese Author Flattered That Dylan Used His Words

from the building-on-others-works dept

A fascinating story about an obscure Japanese author who apparently was the inspiration for a recent Bob Dylan song - though, he isn't credited. The fascinating part is the writer's reaction. Instead of planning legal action, he is flattered that someone like Dylan (who he admits he knew little about until recently) would use his words. "Why would I sue? To take something that made people around the world happy and try to exploit it for money -- that's poverty." He also points out that he's, "just happy someone read my book and liked it." Meanwhile, of course, the song is on a Dylan album put out by Sony Music - a member of the RIAA - that doesn't look kindly on the idea of "building" on someone else's creative works and has fought to make copyright perpetual. If things had gone the other way, how quickly would Sony have filed a lawsuit against the Japanese author? Here's another version of the story that has more details on how an astute Dylan fan discovered the similarities.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Lots of imitations

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jul 9th, 2003 @ 9:19am

    Disney's Lion King is a carbon copy of Tezuka Osamu's 1950s cartoon "Jungle Taitei", Go-rangers is a copy of a 1970s Japnese TV show called Go-rangers, Pogs were an imitation of a 1950s Japanese fad called menko. The original Star Wars copied its character structure of Hans Solo, C3PO, Chewy Bacca, Luke, and Princess from a 1920s samurai film, while the medal presentation film in the end imitated a nazi film technique with mirrored rooms to make rooms look bigger. The space shuttle's design was invented by the nazis, and it's had a tendency to roast astronauts.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Lots of imitations

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jul 9th, 2003 @ 12:12pm

    Shut the fuck up, Anime fag. :-)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Lots of imitations

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jul 9th, 2003 @ 12:58pm

    I'm going to eviscerate you with my +2 vorpal sword, but that's after I smash up your windows with my homemade potato gun, and my RC-controlled plane drops icosahedral dice and lead figures all over you front lawn. I'll make Lum proud. ;)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Lots of imitations

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Jul 9th, 2003 @ 1:07pm

    Yeah, as your life drains away, the last thing you will see is my sandaled feet with black socks.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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