ChiefNode

Who can be the author of our favorite works?

This post in CNN about Lucas continuing to change Star Wars and Spielberg editing E.T. to better fit with their current vision is grousing about how these authors/directors change their works over time -- one person is quoted as saying who knows when Lucas will be done. Will Star Wars in 2020 be different from what you originally saw in the 1970s? How available should "earlier" works be when the author/editor changes her/his mind? Moral rights, not an expansive concept here in the U.S., but used internationally (it's in the treaty, folks) could (might?) be used (expanded?) to help authors make the previous work unavailable. Remember, folks, your memory can't be altered. I must admit I pay less attention to "live" events now, knowing I can "rewind" using my Tivo. But what if I didn't watch "e.r." until a week after it aired, and the producers decided to alter all of those stored on Tivo-like devices? We're not there yet, but we could be. So we'd have different experiences of the "same" work. Isn't that inherent in our multi-channel array of choices for communication now, anyway?

posted by Dana Bostrom @ 11:38