The copyright question

Let me put this a different way:

  If any of you wants to become better known for your ascii art,
  what's the best way to make that happen?

1) Be protective of your creations and hassle people who don't ask
permission/ include attribution?

2) Do everything you can to propagate the *art*, confident that people
will grow curious about the authors eventually?


Kangaroo made a tool that could have helped.  But you've gone and
screwed it up by your possessiveness... :^(


-- 
"Tell me, Eutrapelus, which is the weaker person: 
he that yields to another, or he that is yielded to?"  --Erasmus

On Sun, 22 Feb 1998 09:39:22 -0500, jor...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) wrote:

>Let me put this a different way:
>
>  If any of you wants to become better known for your ascii art,
>  what's the best way to make that happen?
>
>1) Be protective of your creations and hassle people who don't ask
>permission/ include attribution?
>
>2) Do everything you can to propagate the *art*, confident that people
>will grow curious about the authors eventually?

Your logic is inconsistant. You call someone who gives away stuff
free for personal enjoyment and fun in general an asshole, in favour
of someone who does not give something away for free and actually tries
to sell the free stuff without prior permission, not very ethical. If
your are consistant, you should curse even harder at Kangaroo, and
encourage people to steal his program and redistribute it for free. As
I actually think the ASCII pictures are of more value than the Windoze
application, what would be just as, or even more appropriate is:
Lennert's Sigpack. Includes: Kangaroos program (for free), my stuff, and
other pictures. 30 day trial. This would allow Kangaroo to make him better
known as a programmer, etc.

Besides that, I've no drive into making myself better known for my
ASCII pictures. If you want to be known, I suggest to put your energy
into something else, to avoid disappointment, and go for the fun of
ASCII art instead. There's no fame or money in ASCII art, and if there
is any, you'd have gotten much more with the same energy doing something
else. What I'm really trying to say though is: it's perfectly respectable for
you to give away your stuff for someone else to make money with for whatever
reason you like. What's not so respectable is to force your opinion to the rest
of the world by encouraging people to break other's rights and choices
regarding those rights, especially when their choices are of the least
protective kind already.

>Kangaroo made a tool that could have helped.  But you've gone and
>screwed it up by your possessiveness... :^(

As far as I can see the tool didn't self-destruct, Kangaroo seems
to be heading towards freeware or shareware without the art, while
anyone can still find loads of free pictures on the web and elsewhere,
so this is kinda dramatic. What only would have a chance of 'helping'
ASCII art would be the freeware solution IMO, I doubt shareware would
make a great impact to the world. But that's Kangaroo's choice.

-- 
Lennert Stock
lst...@lstock.demon.nl
ASCII Art Hideout!
http://www.lstock.demon.nl/aas.html

Jorn Barger wrote:
> Let me put this a different way:
> 
>   If any of you wants to become better known for your ascii art,
>   what's the best way to make that happen?
> 
> 1) Be protective of your creations and hassle people who don't ask
> permission/ include attribution?
> 
> 2) Do everything you can to propagate the *art*, confident that people
> will grow curious about the authors eventually?

I thought you are concerned about this _art_ form?

I doubt that 'do everything' helps much. Most people
won't recognize ascii drawings as art but as some 
kind of 'fall out' from the internet. When ascii-art
is piled up somewhere like smelly second hand books in 
a suburbian basement everyone _must_ think that way.

Propagating ascii-art starts with treating it as art, and
in some way respecting the artist, don't you think?

:)
Andreas

                                                           ,
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       ___|\________,_/|\_______________________________ o/_ ___
       ___|/__________/_\_'_______o _.________________./_| _____
       __/|____4______\__L_ _____/T. ___________________/_\_____
       _(_/^\__4___________________\^\__________________\/ _____
       __\|/'___a:f________________'____________________________
          d
                 ASCII Art Dictionary :                          
                 http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/   
                
          Alt.Ascii-Art FAQ : 
          http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html

In article <34F...@mpq.mpg.de>, Andreas Freise
<ad...@mpq.mpg.de> wrote:
> 
> Jorn Barger wrote:
> > Let me put this a different way:
> >
> >   If any of you wants to become better known for your ascii art,
> >   what's the best way to make that happen?
> >
> > 1) Be protective of your creations and hassle people who don't ask
> > permission/ include attribution?
> >
> > 2) Do everything you can to propagate the *art*, confident that people
> > will grow curious about the authors eventually?
> >
> > Kangaroo made a tool that could have helped.  But you've gone and
> > screwed it up by your possessiveness... :^(
>
> I thought you are concerned about this _art_ form? 
[snip]
> Propagating ascii-art starts with treating it as art, and
> in some way respecting the artist, don't you think?
> 
> :)
> Andreas
[snip]
> ASCII Art Dictionary :
> http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ 
> Alt.Ascii-Art FAQ :
> http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/faq.html

Well said, Andreas.

Jorn, I find it fascinating that you think it's acceptable for Kangaroo
to receive payment for creating his program but that the people who
created the art (the reason for the program to be made at all) should be
expected to donate their services.


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