[Newspoetry] Newspoetry Print Book

[Rick Burkhardt]

All rights waived.

(Susan Parenti's new book of plays has a good solution to the 
copyright problem...  I don't remember the exact wording but it uses 
the phrase "expressly waived")

I usually copyright things with a little remark ("All rights reserved 
by the authors" is the one I use) not in order to rack up money (not 
about to happen anyway) or prevent other people from performing the 
work (which probably will happen), but to prevent others from using 
it and copyrighting it themselves.  I used to think that was a stupid 
worry too (like McDonald's is going to use one of my songs to sell 
McHeads -- hey it could happen) -- but recently I got into a 
situation where somebody wants to market a lot of what I do under a 
different name than I use... and it's touchy.  I have to be very 
careful that I remain in control of the way it will be presented just 
so that somebody else doesn't change it into something politically 
opposite of what it is now and THEN sell it.  (The word 
"collaborative" doesn't always have a positive meaning.)

Since an awful lot of Newspoetry stuff is comedy material, which has 
a very different kind of market than poetry material, I think 
copyrighting it is appropriate as a way to ensure that it stays in 
its current format until the authors want it to be used for something 
else.  Which could happen whenever they want.

God I sound like I live in California don't I.  Shit.

Anyway I'd be most flattered to be included in such a volume.

Rick