BOUNDARIES
Kidding aside, the question of boundary lines for intellectual property is a serious one. It manifests itself in various ways. When one goes to an improvisational theater, the actors may call on you to contribute to the improvisation. If you do, are you helping to write the script?
The answer to that is “yes.” Although you may not mind that--if attending an improv session in a public theater by choice--how would you like it if actors wanting to play improv games infested your living quarters--and you had no choice in the matter? That is an experience your humble correspondent has had himself.
You can read about my experiences in a companion article on this web site. Click this line.
My complaint in that regard concerns NBC more than CBS and may have something to do with my problems with Chairman Alan Greenspan. (Mr. Greenspan, as we know, is married to the lovely NBC.)
However the Indianapolis NBC station is owned by Dispatch Printing Co. of Columbus, Ohio. They also own a Columbus CBS TV station and a newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch. The highest-ranking person in the company is apparently Mr. John F. Wolf, the publisher. Below him is an associate publisher, Mr. Michael Curtin.
Those are real people, but not everyone at Dispatch Printing is a real person. I called the company on August 2, 2004 to complain about the conduct of two reporters at the Indianapolis NBC station. (You can read more about why I was calling in the second, related story that may be viewed by clicking for the above companion article.) I wished to talk to Mr. Wolf or Mr. Curtin--or to perhaps talk to a secretary or leave a message on an answering machine. Instead the operator switched me to a Mr. Donald Cramer who said he was with “internal security.”
We then spent about five minutes in the world of fantasy improv theater games. I even thought I recognized the voice--as that of an actor I’d seen on network sitcoms. He spoke to me of how the helicopters flying over my building might be sending special signals into my TV set and other improbabilities.
When I phoned back a little later in the day, I wasn’t surprised that the operator told me she’d never heard of Mr. Donald Cramer.
I imagine that the Columbus Dispatch has been around for some time as a newspaper. Aside from the comic page, readers probably expect to get mostly factual information from the Dispatch.
You can click on their web site and view what seems like a respectable news operation.
But now the world between reality and fantasy improv nonsense is blurred in Columbus. I think Mr. Wolf and his staff are going to be facing some difficult choices about how to draw the line between the two worlds. Does Mr. Wolf want to run a newspaper or a sort of fantasy improv bordello? Or does he want a combination of the two?
If he wants the combination, I suggest that he may wish to provide two separate facilities—phone lines, entranceways, etc.—so as not to offend the respectable portion of his trade.
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