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| Golden-Silk Spider, Nephila clavipes, resting on its artwork |
With all the bugs you've eaten, I ought to call you "pig."
But out from Charlotte's Web fans would come a mighty yell
That "this itsy-bitsy spider her own story must spell!"
A recent blog post by a fellow Floridian, Mary Lemmenes, got me thinking. And then a post by Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out fame got me thinking even more. Mary expressed concern about how discouraging plagiarism is to artists who want to be discovered and sell their work on the Web. It seems that there are unscrupulous people out there (online) who steal ideas/stories/artwork and put them on their own websites, trying to make money with stolen "property.". And Arlee pretty much said that putting my derivative story based on Winnie-the-Pooh and friends (written and illustrated when I was nine years old) on the Web would probably result in legal action by Pooh's modern-day handlers.
Hmm. I think I'll check into this whole derivative/copyright thing a little more closely. Someone might decide to copy and profit from a work of mine before I have a chance to say anything about it. Like, wow, I'm impressed that you can make money from this stuff. I sure can't. Or maybe I don't want to.
After a while--it does take more time these days--the old brain really started to work. I thought to myself: Self, it's a good thing that spiders don't need or pay attention to copyright laws. Otherwise, they'd be hiding their "artwork" (webs) which would never be discovered by those bugs they like to catch and eat, and you, self, would be covered up with bugs a mile thick.
By the way, does anyone happen to know who wrote the song and lyrics to Itsy-Bitsy Spider? I'd like to give credit where credit is due. I just hope whoever it is doesn't expect any royalties from me for borrowing an idea.
