Copywrong: Copyright laws are stifling art, but the public domain can save us
Artists steal. It's a well-known fact. Blues musicians built upon the tradition of other blues musicians playing on the same circuit, and rock musicians built upon their music in turn, sometimes appropriating wholesale their songs and styles. Writers, it's been said, choose from a limited number of plots and write the same story over and over, just tweaking the details. Nothing is entirely original, yet artists make original work out of the culture they're immersed in.
"Ain't nothing new under the sun," says rapper Phonte of emerging Durham hip-hop group Little Brother. "Everything's been done before. For the most part, in every art form, every innovation comes out of some form of imitation."
