Page:Culture.vs.Copyright 01.pdf/60

Delta: I believe that not every painter can make a precise copy of a great work. He has to be talented to be up to the job.
Alpha: If someone is a talented copier, does this mean he is creating while copying?
Teacher: Good question!
Beta: I wish I had a good answer.
Kappa: Is it maybe like understanding other people? Don’t you think?
Delta: You mean, seeing all of the details of one’s painting and reproducing them?
Beta: Look, what are we talking about here? If exact reproduction requires creativity, then inexact reproduction, when you substitute an author’s details with yours, is not creativity!
Gamma: Wow! How can that be?
Alpha: Wait, wait, who says it can? Who says that reproduction requires creativity?
Beta: No one does, so far. I said “if.”
Gamma: So, is it possible for brilliant work, even copying, to not be creative? What is talent for?
Alpha: How about photography?
Beta: I got something. Look, a photograph depicts something real, exactly how it is, right?
Gamma: So? There are riveting and telling pictures out there, and there are many that are good for the trash can only. How is this possible?
Beta: That’s where I was heading. When you take a picture and get what you wanted, how you wanted it . . .
Delta: You mean, when you intend to capture something, or what?
Alpha: My uncle is a photographer—a very good one; everyone says that. He says you have to be ready for a quick shot. It is not as if you have to have some goal.
Beta: I understand, you have to be prepared . . . but that is also a goal, isn’t it?
Alpha: It’s different.
Kappa: Alpha is right. . . . And Beta is right . . .