Re: Settling the stein argument -- hopefully

Spunk1111 wrote:
>...
> Pete's characters are so rudimentary.
> I compare it to the classic ASCII stick figure.
> Who "invented" them?--  can you prove it??
> ASCII pictures that small and that simple to make
> have been invented and reinvented by many
> people over the course of time.  And of course,
> each person created them independently from
> one another. There easily could be a long-forgotten
>  'birdstein' in someone's attic or in a collection of typed
> papers...  So who is right??

Two points here. Firstly, if several people create something
independently from one another, and that thing turns out to be
identical, that doesn't mean that either of them didn't create it after
all. Plagiarism is *knowingly* copying the ideas of another without
acknowledging them. As long as Pete didn't know that someone else had a
stein look-alike in their attic, then it doesn't matter.

> I wonder whether any small ASCII- ie 4 lines
> and down, should have any initials credited to
> them.  Sometimes I don't sign my small pics for
> the exact reason...

Yes, maybe ...
Here's a picture drawn by myself of a very small beach ball, complete
with initials:

O
  mt-2

Now, lots of other people are going to incorporate my beach-ball into
their pictures, aren't they? But that doesn't mean they're not being
creative. And I wouldn't have much of a case if I sued them.

In the case of the steins, I think that it's the *combination* of the
Frogstein and Birdstein shapes *and* the Frogstein and Birdstein names
which make up Pete's intellectual property. If somebody decided to copy
all these and draw their own 'stein cartoons, Pete could rightly feel
annoyed; however, since ASCII art is so easy to copy/imitate, Pete
wisely adopts the `imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' attitude
instead, and dishes out Frogstein awards to his imitators.

-- 
   .._o  Matthew Thomas (mpt26 @ student . canterbury . ac . nz)
 ..://\/ http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/ (Site for sore eyes)
..:_/\   ASCII FAQ: http://cantua.canterbury.ac.nz/~mpt26/art/ascii/
  ..:/   Cauliflower cheese!

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