Ethics of Use: Coupland and the Earth Sandwich
JA
October 08
As Canadian blog Quill & Quire observed, writers are often in the habit of borrowing small details from real life to be used in their fiction. This has attracted heavy debate over the years (the controversy surrounding Helen Garner’s semi-autobiographical novel Monkey Grip is just one example that springs to mind). More recently though, the question has also resurfaced in relation the ideas and personalities available on the world wide web. Douglas Coupland’s new novel, Generation A, which loosely replicates the narrative style of his iconic debut Generation X, has somewhat ironically touched on this issue facing writers of the web 2.0 era in a rather entertaining way.
In the book, Coupland describes ‘in detail’ how once character, Samantha, and her friends are taking part in a project called Earth Sandwich. Basically, this involves people on opposite sides of the world laying down a piece of bread on the ground and taking a photo of it, thereby forming a global ‘sandwich’. The concept was first imagined by a blogger called ZeFrank and it’s got a small but dedicated following, as explained here, however Coupland did not acknowledge this in the book. Reviewers of Generation A praised the writer for the idea. Trevor Pritchard of the Canadian Press wrote:
Coupland is among the best Canadian writers at extrapolating, in realistic ways, how society might be using technology decades from now. Take Samantha: when we meet her, she’s forming an ‘earth sandwich,’ a fictional-yet-believable fad where, by using a GPS-enabled cellphone, people on opposite sides of the planet contact each other, lay down slices of bread and snap a photo.
Similarly, there was this from Pat Kane at the Independent:
But Coupland always leavens his paranoia with optimism. These representatives of Generation A are doing their dorky, geeky best to raise their brand-strewn minds to the level of the global crisis. One New Zealand girl's hobby is to take photos of an ‘earth sandwich’: her and a pal use their phones’ GPS to position themselves on the top and bottom of the planet, daintily pressing a slice of bread to the exact spot.
Random House did put a small credit on a promotional video accompanying the book, and Coupland has since apologised for the oversight, tweeting ‘@zefrank. I send you warm wishes and much cheer. And thank you for the lovely (and amazing) Earth Sandwich idea. You are brilliant’.
The blogger accepted that the lack of decent creditation was perhaps a mistake, but he still expressed some irritation:
[I]t would be one thing if he extended the idea, or commented on it, but he simply repackages it to sell his book. [T]he attribution is weak at best, and feels like he was using what he considered to be the bare minimum to get away with it. Do you think I could get away with doing something he did VERBATIM and them putting a tiny credit?
This is yet another example of how murky the issues of attribution and copyright are when it comes to information on the web. This has already been touched upon very eloquently in other posts, so I won’t go into huge detail here, save to say we still don’t have clear idea on the ethics of use when it comes to writers taking from ‘real life’ or whatever you can call it, and I expect the advent of the digital will only complicate things further. Yet this is not necessarily a bad thing – we may never come up with the right answer, but in talking about the issue and debating it further, we may get part of the way there.
For more on the ethics of using other people’s lives in fiction, keep a look out for Charlotte Wood’s excellent essay ‘Forgive Me, Forgive Me’ in the forthcoming December issue of Meanjin.
Image courtesy of www.zefrank.com
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre
Comments
09 Oct 09 at 14:56
I know "the issues of attribution and copyright" are real and complex, but in this particular case, it seems rather clear cut.
Coupland has appropriated a product of ZeFrank's imagination
without any acknowledgement.
I consider Earth Sandwich as ZeFrank's intellectual property, way much more than just a small detail of his life . I also consider the medium in which this product is expressed (the Web) as entirely irrelevant, so is the question whether this product is protected by copyright laws. I think the crux of the issue is a creative artist paying due respect and credit to another creator.
Coupland could not have copied the concept "by accident" and he knew it was wrong (hence the ready apology, albeit a tweet), Random House was aware of the transgression (hence the small credit, albeit only in a promotional video), so why did they fail to acknowledge it in the novel in the first place? I'm not convinced it's a honest oversight, of which I know my university would not accpet as a forgivable reason if I had done the same thing. Coupland would never have overlooked this issue if he had, say, wanted to use a song lyric in his novel.
...12 Oct 09 at 5:36
Once problem is not knowing whether or not where you got the idea on the web is actually the originator of the idea. Everything spreads so much more quickly on the web and information can disappear just as quickly so how can you ever be really sure who the true originator is?
...12 Oct 09 at 9:34
I also think that Coupland should have put more thought into crediting ZeFrank, however I do see the issue as being a grey area.
Ganeen - yes one problem would be correct attribution.
Another I think would be use of personalities or anecdotes. If an author overhears something in 'real life' (I really have to think of a better term than that), they might ask their friend or family member if they can use it, or they may not bother. So what about information found online - through personal blogs or online identities? Is there an obligation there?
I suppose again it will depend on the context, and where you
stand on the free/open content vs. copyright debate.