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The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision has
ruled that there is not a lick of creativity in the white pages of the phone book. Sandra
Day O'Connor went so far as to say they are "devoid of even the slightest trace of
creativity."
Well, Sandra's beginning to sound like a film critic. But I
suppose what she and her esteemed colleagues are getting at is you can't copyright a list
no matter how much effort you've put into compiling it.
In other words, it's not good enough to be merely useful. Your work has to be original to
be worth protecting. Wow! What great news for creative people everywhere. The fruits of
your labor just jumped up in value. But let's not get too protective.
In fact, ideas, like lists, should be free. We should be as free to take them as we are to
offer them. Imagine a society as diverse as ours tossing ideas around as freely as we toss
around opinions. We'd see a renaissance of creativity with unlimited opportunity
for everybody.
So let's get started. Free an idea that's been rolling around in your head by telling
someone else about it. Especially if you aren't going to do anything with it.
What's there to be afraid of. Somebody stealing your idea? They can't steal what you're
giving away. Besides the more ideas you free, the freer you'll be to generate
more ideas.
And if your ideas fly, you don't lose a thing. Because in our idea-devouring society,
whoever runs with your idea obviously needs a source. And who are going to call when they
need more.
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