Fans of Quirky 'Far Side' Snap Up Comic Compendium

Yahoo News ^ | 12/22/03 | Ben Berkowitz - Reuters

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[KateUTWS]

My hubby found a copy at Borders and relates the story of the little mature woman newbie cashier who had to call another employee over to lift the darn thing into a store bag! I can hardly wait to see "Recipes For Disaster" in glorious color.

[skinkinthegrass]

ranch...same here. :))

[SamAdams76]

I'm waiting until Christmas to see if anybody bought it for me. If not, then I'm going to buy it for ME!

[Ditter]

I'm going to Costco right now to look for it. The Far Side is my favorite.

[sweetliberty]

I could be tempted at $75 too. I always loved the Far Side and had many of the books, which, along with many others, were lost. This is a book I would love to have!

[dangus]

>> I was eyeing the big military books myself,, History of the Marine Corps>>

Almost as brilliant, but nearly as funny.

[sweetliberty]

"I may have to buy it early and make sure that there is nothing wrong with it"

LOL!

[Grampa Dave]

This son will only be 35 this coming spring, so we still need to monitor what he reads. :)

[sweetliberty]

But of course....kinda like me still having to preview the extended versions of Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers before being able to give them to my 25 year old daughter in good conscience.

[Grampa Dave]

Definitely, you should monitor the books that you and others give your 25 year old daughter.

[Charles Martel]

The last time there was a Larson thread on Free Republic there were a few samples of his work. Was there some static because of that?

Here's the form letter that Gary Larson sent around to webmasters of sites displaying his cartoons:

****************

Here's the letter that caused me to remove the cartoons from the net. Make up your own mind about it:

Re: On-line Use of The Far Side Cartoons

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

I'm walking a fine line here. On the one hand, I confess to finding it quite flattering that some of my fans have created Web sites displaying and/or distributing my work on the Internet. And on the other, I'm struggling to find the words that convincingly but sensitively persuade these Far Side enthusiasts to "cease and desist" before they have to read these words from some lawyer.

What impact this unauthorized use has had (and is having) in tangible terms is, naturally, of great concern to my publishers and therefore to me -- but it's not the focus of this letter. My effort here is to try and speak to the intangible impact, the emotional cost to me personally, of seeing my work collected, digitized and offered up in cyberspace beyond my control.

Years ago, I was having lunch one day with the cartoonist Richard Guindon, and the subject came up of how neither one of us ever solicited or accepted ideas from others. But until Richard summed it up quite neatly, I never really understood my own aversion to doing this: "It's like having someone else write in your diary," he said. And how true that statement rang with me. In effect, we drew cartoons that we hoped would be entertaining or, at the very least, not boring; but regardless, they would always come from an intensely personal, and therefore original, perspective.

To attempt to be "funny" is a very scary, risk-laden proposition. (Ask any stand-up comic who has ever "bombed" on stage.) But if there was ever an axiom to follow in this business, it would be this: Be honest to yourself and -- most important -- respect your audience. So, in a nutshell (probably an unfortunate choice of words for me), I ask only that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my "children" of sorts, and like a parent I'm concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And seeing them at someone's Web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, "Uh, Dad, you're not going to like this much, but guess where I am."

I hope my explanation helps you to understand the importance this has for me personally, and why I'm making this request.

Please send my "kids" home. I'll be eternally grateful.

Most respectfully,

Gary Larson

*********************

I don't know the original date of the letter, but I've seen it on the web for several years.

[sweetliberty]

"My hubby and I 'inspect' all of those I Spy books we get our son just to make sure all of the items are really in the pictures."

Aren't those the coolest books? My daughter loved those.

[sweetliberty]

It's in color? Now that, for me, would take some getting used to.

[EuroFrog]

They are! One of the two my son is getting for Christmas hasnt been 'inspected' yet but Im sure we will be laying with our heads together Christmas night checking it out.

[Mercat]

But it's an important little known fact about Christmas shopping. The first gift has to be for yourself. After that, the spirit can flow. It's totally a spiritual thing.

[EggsAckley]

Yeah, I know that. Practically everything I've purchased already has been for ME. Heheheh.

[jagrmeister]

It's called "fair-use". Some authors are more anal than others about prosecuting their fans over what others would consider "fair-use" of copyrighted material.

[discostu]

Giving away the entire content of a copyrighted work is not fair use. That's part of the problem with Farside being a single frame comic, if you put one frame of BC on your website you're only using 1/4 of the strip easily fair use, you put one frame of Farside on your website that's the entire copyrighted work no longer fair use. Problem is if you show a pattern of allowing people to freely distribute your work then when somebody crosses the line they could use the defacto precedent you've set against you in court, so instead he's setting a precedent of strong enforcement. It's his copyrighted work, it's his call to make.

[jagrmeister]

>Giving away the entire content of a copyrighted work is not fair use.

That's what's called a strawman. No one is contending that the entire copyrighted work should be replicated. I think what people object to is if a fan site uses a few characters here and there, a few lines from the strip, and gets a "cease and desist" letter.

>It's his copyrighted work, it's his call to make.

That was never in question. What is in question is his judgment in prosecuting his fans for expressing their support of his work through modest use of the Far Side strip on their site.