strathspey@strathspey.org:27776

Oberdan Otto

Re: Cribs

Oct. 8, 2001, 7:24 a.m. (Message 27776, in reply to message 27774)

>Seriously, though, I considered Pillings providing a service at cost 
>as opposed to making a profit. Anything Pillings made over cost 
>could be justified as payment for his labor out of the value he 
>added to the original product.

I most wholeheartedly agree. The Wee Green Book is a wonderful 
product at a most reasonable price.

However stories about Pillings heirs taking hard positions on 
copyright infringement of the contents of their book are a bit much 
to bear, considering that neither they nor the original Mr. Pillings 
sought permission from the creators of all those dances to include 
them in the book. I thank them for that wonderful little publication. 
I thank Mr. Pillings for devising a great symbolic system which has 
been IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN since the day it was published (i.e. anyone 
can use it as they wish, although they should not claim credit for 
creating it).

The system Goss used many years ago for creating cribs could strictly 
be considered a copyright infringement since it involved direct 
duplication of the original graphics in the book. It is likely that 
that infringement actually resulted in MORE sales of Pillings books 
as a wider audience became familiar with the system.

It is doubtful that any reconstruction of a dance description with 
the symbolic system could be upheld as copyright infringement as long 
as it was clearly not a photocopy of any artwork in the book. 
Furthermore, given the laxity of Pillings and heirs in obtaining 
permissions for the contents of their book, there is no ethical basis 
for obtaining permission from them to use the symbolic system for any 
regenerated descriptions or generations of dance descriptions that 
never appeared in the book. Since they have been so ungenerous and so 
shortsighted as to deny any such permission in the past to people who 
were either legally unsophisticated or just trying to be courteous, I 
would simply ignore their feelings on the subject and use the system 
when and where I pleased.

Furthermore, if any SCD person or organization were the victim of an 
actual legal challenge by the Pillings heirs, I would happily 
contribute to their legal defense fund. It would be very satisfying 
to see the Pillings heirs lose a legal challenge on the use of the 
symbolic system or to be slapped down for making a frivolous suit. My 
guess is that the worldwide sales of Pillings is woefully 
insufficient to support a legal challenge that did not actually 
succeed. Chances of their following up on a threat to sue with a 
legal foundation as shakey as theirs are tiny.

Something the Pillings heirs should consider is marketing a computer 
program to generate diagrams from computer-encoded descriptions. It 
could be sold as "shareware" for $15 to $25, with periodic database 
upgrades for $5. Furthermore, as the size and price of PDA's come 
down it is only a matter of time before a clever computer-savvy SCDer 
learns how to host these diagrams on PDAs and every other person on 
the dance floor is carrying one in their pockets/sporrans instead of 
a WGB.

That is the legal/ethical/futurist opinion of someone who is not a 
legal/ethical/future expert.

Cheers, Oberdan.

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