Comments on: An Open Letter to Myra Borshoff Cook, Tour Organizer for Jack Kerouac’s On the Road Manuscript Scroll

By: Alenthas

Alenthas — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:31:02 +0000

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By: Jack Kerouac Manuscript Photo in San Francisco Magazine | California News

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By: On the Road Manuscript, #1 | Long Beach Lawyers | Long Beach Attorney | Long Beach Lawyer

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:55:50 +0000

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By: Kerouac Goes To War «

Kerouac Goes To War « — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:06:42 +0000

[...] way of doing that is to write. And I know of at least two soldiers who are reading another writer, Jack Kerouac, in their downtime in Iraq as a way to lift their spirits. So this is for [...]

By: tom b

tom b — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:52:09 +0000

you speak of jack as if you knew him. shouldnt you people be glad that you even get to see the scroll. suppose it was bought by someone who kept it locked in a safe. you would never even get the chance to see it let alone photograph it. must you take it for granted?

By: unwr1773nlaw

unwr1773nlaw — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:39:00 +0000

Your anger at Mrs. Borshoff Cook is wildly misplaced. You’re suggesting that she not only neglect her duties to her client, but that she forego all copyright legislation and take all responsibility of the consequential violation upon herself and her client. You’re “open” letter doesn’t stick it to the man at all. In fact, it doesn’t even address the man. It addresses an event organizer who was following “the man’s” law. If you want to stick it to “the man”, maybe you should address the law instead.

For those suggesting that copyright law “trumps art appreciation”, you clearly haven’t had to deal with displaying art in the public domain. When artists lose original works to people mass-reproducing them in areas where copyright law holds little to no sway, they lose both livelihood and ownership of their own work. Sure, Keroac is dead, but ownership and livelihood still remain for the copyright holder.

Since the scroll hasn’t extended past the age of public domain, it doesn’t fall under open copyright yet.

By: Poetslife

Poetslife — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 05:44:00 +0000

If the National Archives, who know something about preserving manuscripts, allow researchers to photograph at their secure facility, why not Kerouac's On the Road?

I was just at the National Archives II in College Park, MD, doing research on my MIA uncle, Frank Curley, going through the 11th Bomber Group's records.

http://poetslife.blogspot.com/
2005_12_11_poetslife_archive.html

Next to me was a PhD student from Japan shooting hundreds of photos. All around me there were dozens of researchers (mostly Asian because from what they told me China and Japan do not allow access to their archives so they have to come here), taking hundreds of photos.

The National Archives must know something those who control the On the Road manuscript do not. Maybe they can contact the Archives and see that it is harmless.

More importantly, such a work needs to be put into a digital format to be preserved for future generations, and taking pictures of all of it is a start.

By: M

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 09:28:00 +0000

I’m a little late to the game on this (I’ve been away from the blog for awhile), but there seems to be another problem with the “Copyright” argument aside from those you have already raised. The tour/library is publicly displaying the same portion of the work that you would photograph. If it is an infringement of the copyright for you to photograph that portion, it would be a similar infringement for them to display it.

Of course my point is lost if in fact the tour/library/whoever obtained permission to actually display the text from the actual copyright holder(s) (who I doubt is Jim Irsay).

By: Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 09:10:00 +0000

Anonymous. Sorry about the formating issue. I’m not very good with HTML. I’ve got people who are going to help me look at my blog formating shortly.

Can you try opening the browser all the way on the page?