<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=459839" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Moral Rights</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘The moral rights of the author<br>have been asserted’… that, I’m told, <br>is what I should say when I write<br>anything for publication here; even before<br>I say anything..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It means, I guess, the more, the less..<br>than ‘Copyright’ which normally<br>gets printed just above it; <br>which just means, don’t copy this; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">whereas ‘moral rights’ convey<br>so much more…<br>suggesting that I even possess morality; <br>which, considering my wild, undisciplined<br>former life, you might well question..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">but note, I merely ‘assert’ them; <br>feel free to challenge them (you note that ‘rights’<br>are plural; plenty lawyer’s fees there<br>to say, well maybe this, not that…</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and you’re free (your defending counsel may assert) <br>to copy my poem and put your own name to it; <br>since truth can be in no man’s sole possession, <br>and my poem, bless its metered tropes, <br>speaks naught but the truth..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">though now I mention ‘truth’, I don’t recall<br>that phrase about the moral rights<br>upon the title-page of, let’s say, <br>the Gospels; Books of Moses; Qu’ran; Upanishads; <br>those guys on whom we’ve so long depended<br>to tell us what morality should be..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">so please understand, that when I ‘assert’, <br>it’s more for my self-image than for yours; <br>makes me feel good; I must be<br>a serious author, if (in the subtext, scholars footnote) <br>the moral underpinning may be detected..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">and that said – now to the poem.. Except<br>now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Perhaps that, too, is a moral issue; but<br>I have the right to remain silent..<br>even if I’m up on this morality charge..</div><div style="margin:10px 0">my defence is, that my Muse, <br>hearing the word ‘morality’, <br>flees my company. ’Twas ever so.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Michael+Shepherd">Michael Shepherd</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=459839" data-title="The Moral Rights de Michael Shepherd" data-description="‘The moral rights of the author have been asserted’… that, I’m told, is what I should say when I write anything for publication here; even before I say anything.. It means, I guess, the more, the less.. than ‘Copyright’ which normall..."></div> </div> </div>

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