You were right about Graham being bi-universally admired and disliked. I think, for me, from parsing all the cases of fair use on the boards I sit on for authors' rights, I'd say, it's not a slippery slope exactly… it's a broader study…and there are amongst a lot of writers, as you noted in your article on AP/ No Free Lunch for Blogosphere, quite a few informal tests we can apply to make every effort 'to be fair' about 'fair use.' Once that mindset is in place, it appears there is far, far less friction between original creators and those who quote 'from' those creators w/o taking the heart, or making a sorry derivative. I think there IS a difference between differentiating fair use re a poem vs a book, vs a news article of facts.

Discernment is a good deal of what seems missing. Discernment seems a good remedy for much that would normally be put in the category of slippery slope. As I understand copyright law, the fair use clause was purposely written loosely (although there are some specifics regarding certain kinds of parody for instance,) so as not to bind up the courts with having to decide the nuances. Most of the time, and this is just my two cents worth, an agreement between the parties about “how much' of the material is fair use, settles everyone's bile. Just my experience.

dr.e

As per your question, where I havent been in my life, feels like so so many places and attendance to things I wish I could have. Maybe I still can. Being on call for decades in my chosen field, gave me a weird sort of reversal sometimes of day and night; sleep is so precious, but often I'm not able to have the usual 8 uninterrupted most people might have.

How to achieve megamulti-tasking. Did you just make that word up? That's a cool descriptor. I'd say it this way, maybe a small set of clues that might apply to some: try to do things that carry meaning for you no matter what it costs y ou: Choose what you care passionately about that you think might somehow matter to at least one other besides yourself, give of yourself whatever you can, whenever you can. Rest when you must. Keep going. And especially, learn to work in the interstices. Dont wait til y ou have that fabled huge amount of time to think/dream/create. Part it out at every opportunity

I've often asked how I wrote Women Who Run With the Wolves while going to school, caring for family, working mor than one job… For me, esp when raising kidlettes, Lynx, it was 5 minutes here to write, four minutes there to think/plan, ten minutes between this and the other, to write some more. I learned to focus hard, to have quick connect and quick release. It took time to develop. No one told me/ guided me. I had to make it up or else go mad from an inner push to create and other inner pushes to cherish my family and to become educated and to make my family survive

Too, lynx, as you know, there is something of a magneto that is greater than the self that has energy beyond the merely mundane. Link to that in spirit, and there is much uncanny energy there too.

I'm glad you asked. I joke about my vitae, saying if you get a lot of decades of work behind you and ongoing and people say, send me a bio, I always laugh and think, Which doorstop do you want? I just joke but also, find many people who are also –not driven– but who are 'given' so much to do in life. Hopefully we also have the cojones and ovarios to try to do as we've been asked/ charged.

This is all I know. I hope it is helpful.

dr.e

I followed the Grateful Dead for years and knew a couple of them, alternately admired and loathed Bill Graham, and am the curator of a collection that includes most of the posters that Graham and fellow promoter Chet Helms commissioned for their San Francisco dance concerts.

The message from the case, which was correctly decided against Graham's estate, is that intellectual property rights and the concept of “fair use” are slippery slopes.