TUMBLR

A SCRAPBOOK OF STUFF I'M READING / LISTENING TO / LOOKING AT.

Oct 01, 2011

» "Why no credit? The photographer 'plagiarised' by Dylan speaks out"

A sensationalized story from the Independent. Here’s the lowdown, buried about 5 paragraphs in: this “photography enthusiast from Pennsylvania” posted a bunch of antique Japanese photographs on his Flickr stream, which Dylan then painted.

Dylan’, whose gallery won’t reveal the price of the paintings, did not actually breach copyright - since the antique images from Oechsle’s Flickr are too old to be protected by proprietary laws.

Of course, the “photographer,” who wasn’t really the photographer, but the person who scanned the photos and put them on Flickr, wants credit:

It’s plagiarism, pure and simple” Mr Oechsle told The Independent. “If a writer were to use a phrase from Shakespeare, and not credit him, or attribute it in any way, that’s what they’d be accused of.

Actually, you can quote Shakespeare all you want, without credit, since it’s in the public domain.

Again, this whole “scandal” is so silly, because anybody who’s been following Dylan’s work knows he’s been thieving for the entirety of the 50 years he’s been releasing music. (Brilliantly.)

The best part of this story is the idea of Bob Dylan cruising Flickr for painting fodder.