Sunday, June 3, 2007

Privacy and copyright

I want to think about privacy and copyright. Now, i can write this for me - the blog is really just for me. I am keeping it that way, for now, perhaps forever.
Writing is deeply personal - fiction more than any other form. Even in poetry you hide. Yet i can't post my poems here - not without copyrighting them first. And, isn't that wrong? Once you decide to write you agree - if you will let anyone read it - that you open up the inner thoughts that float through your mind. But not so that they can run away with it.
Then what? You try to sell it. If it is worth nothing you can then post it online and hope someone reads it (in which case later on, perhaps, something you write might be worth something. Yet if you post that online someone may steal it.)
I finished a book - and am waiting for comments from friends. Then i try to sell it. I have started a new book. It is coming along quite nicely, thanks.
Sometimes i don't want to hide behind a fictional character - i just have something i want to say. But i don't really want to copyright it first. If i say it so someone will hear it then it has to be worth nothing. Where does that logic lead?
I can write thoughts in a notebook, hide that in a drawer and feel heard. But my expression is illusory.
So i will do this blog instead - and tell no one. Then, i can pretend that perhaps someone, somewhere read it and thought for a second about what i had to say.
It is all just fiction isn't it?
That is the beauty of writing. The words fall on a page, and sit there. One day perhaps someone else will find them and think they understand.

No comments: