[Newspoetry] Newspoetry print book

[Dirk Stratton]

>can a poem hold its own copyright?
>
>
>I would like to create a new class of "freepoems."  After all they've done
>our work already, why not let them attend to the work that they are most
>inclined to attend to?
>
>as long as my credit card companies continue to spell my name wrong, I
>prefer to see my name spelled correctly when placed 'neath the name of a
>poem.  Considering my previous argument the poems would clearly be free to
>leave my name behind, this represents not loss but a dual freedom, I enjoy
>freedom from the idea that these are poems I somehow created, an idea with
>which I am uncomfortable.
>
>sam

Sam and other Newspoets--

as I understand copyright, any text can hold copyright if the author 
simply places her/his name, the copyright symbol, and their name on 
the text.

please understand me: I am not interested in defending the copyright 
of my newspoems because I have not sought to attach copyright to any 
of them. Joe, newspoets everywhere, and any member of our reading 
public can attend to my work any way they see fit and more power to 
them. I was simply responding to Bill's suggestion. If there are any 
newspoets who, for whatever reason, want to protect their poems via 
copyright, the avenue Bill suggested is a simple way to do that. then 
it would be up to each author to respond in the way she/he saw fit.

personally, I'm with you, Sam: as far as I'm concerned, my newspoems 
are in the public domain and if Joe wants to print them, he has my 
permission because I do not plan to invoke any copyright 
restrictions. while i'm not uncomfortable in saying i had something 
to do with the creation of some of the newspoems that have appeared 
these past two years, I also believe that since they were created 
within the context of the collaborative atmosphere of Newspoetry that 
it would be foolish for me to claim sole authorship (which I would be 
doing by invoking copyright).

so, yes, liberate the poems in any way possible, but also let's allow 
those who might have more of personal stake in their work assert that 
if they so desire. i don't see a contradiction: we need not be 
unanimous in our response to the issue Joe raised. we should all be 
free to choose the path we're most comfortable with.

--dirk