Today is World Intellectual Property Day

Today--April 26--is World Intellectual Property Day. This day was designated by the members of the World Intellectual Property Organization "to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property in encouraging innovation and creativity" and "with the aim of increasing general understanding of IP". I think is a fantastic idea. Poetry--and indeed all forms of creative writing, including essays, novels, scripts, etc.--constitute intellectual property.

The theme for 2013 is "Creativity: The Next Generation". The WIPO site has a great list of suggested activities. One of those activities, which relates to writing and copyright issues, was to "celebrate the works of a notable inventor, artist, designer, entrepreneur, etc.". "Notable writer" and "notable poet" fit well within that list, so I'm going to start a series here on the blog highlighting various poets who have inspired me over the years.

Who inspires you?

April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. National Poetry Month was started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. In their own words:

"National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern. We hope to increase the visibility and availability of poetry in popular culture while acknowledging and celebrating poetry’s ability to sustain itself in the many places where it is practiced and appreciated."

One of my favorite National Poetry Month activities is NaPoWriMo, which stands for National Poetry Writing Month and is modeled after NaNoWriMo--that's National Novel Writing Month, in case you didn't get it. NaPoWri Mo was started in 2003 by Maureen Thorson. The goal during NaPoWriMo is to write 30 poems in 30 days. They don't have to be good poems, just something down on paper that can be edited later.

I've been doing NaPoWriMo for several years now, and I highly recommend the experience. Although it can be tough to let go of the inner editor that wants every line and image to be JUST PERFECT before letting go of it, the results at the end of the month are glorious. Thirty new poems to play with!

If you post your work on a blog or personal web site, you can add your site to the list of those at the official NaPoWriMo site--just click here and follow the instructions. Bloggers on Wordpress can also add the tag NaPoWriMo to their posts and share their creations. If you have a Wordpress account and just want to read what others have written, navigate to the "Reader" page and enter "Napowrimo" in the search box under Topics.

Or if you're like me, you can just print off the poem and put it in a folder to work on after the end of the month. Happy poetry writing!

Friday Links

Some linkage for your Friday reading pleasure and amusement:

(1) PoetryFoundation.Org has up an interview with Richard Blanco, the United States' fifth inaugural poet. At 44, Mr. Blanco is the youngest inaugural poet, and he is the first openly gay one.

(2) TechDirt has a brief article about a lawsuit filed by Universal Studios against a film company that is making a pornographic version of the book "50 Shades of Gray", which in itself began as fan-fiction. The film company's response is Quixotic and bit baffling, as there are better legal theories to argue in my IANAL opinion. However, the lawsuit may allow the court to address the issues of fan-fiction and derivative vs. transformative works, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

(3) This article at PlagiarismToday.com contains an update on the U. S. House of Representatives's IP Subcommittee's process in looking at creating essentially a "small claims court" for copyright issues. I wasn't even aware this was in the works until I read this article, but I wholeheartedly support the goal of this process.

(4) Finally, from the WTF Department, we have the case of copyright-troll Prenda Law, who seems to have incurred the wrath of federal judge Otis Wright for their recent actions. Judge Wright has ordered a group of people associated with Prenda Law and their alleged clients to show up in his courtroom on Monday, March 11, 2013, to explain themselves. Ken at Popehat has covered Prenda Law here, here, and here, and ArsTechnica's latest article is here (with links to earlier coverage). The Most-Evasive-Deposition-Ever can be read here if you like that legal stuff . So grab a big cup of coffee and settle in for some entertaining reading.