Lethem Reading Assignment

In Lethem’s essay The Ecstasy Of Influence: A Plagiarism I chose to research the section entitled “Usemonopoly”. The term itself is coined by Lethem earlier in the essay, and he defines it as a “government granted monopoly on the use of creative rights”, and he ultimately states that this, in turn, hurts the public. When I analysed the source he use in this piece in the key section, ideas such as “second comers might do a much better job than the originator” which was phrased by Lessig, who quoted Vaidhyanathan who himself characterized a judgement by Learned Hand to emphasize that people who “copy” may actually improve the original substance and make it of more value to the public. Even the quote itself is derivative of three different people to fit the ideals of this argument, and Lethem uses this to emphasize that by copyrighting/trademarking/patenting, etc, we are preventing the optimal results for a work on the public. Therefor, the public suffers most from the current use/restriction of “intellectual property” and “usemonopoly”.

To support his argument that trademarks are unnecessary, he dissects the seemingly contradictory argument/sayings of Thomas Jefferson. Though Jefferson considered copyright a necessary evil he thought it was useful as an incentive for people to create, however has blown out of proportion as “almost limitless bloating- its expansion in both scope and duration”. In referencing Jefferson's initial idea, he is showing how copyrighting, trademarking, etc. no longer holds the original intention, and that this is hurting the public domain’s progress. As used in the section, Jefferson is quoted  to upport that idea of knowledge on the basis of “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening mine,” as a principle argument as to why this unnecessary restriction poses no benefits as it is used today. These transformations help the reader best understand the true intention of trademarks, and how out of proportion it has been taken in society today (as a “usemonopoly”) and how ideas that are not restricted to one’s specific use hurts the potential for society as a whole.