<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>Here is an intriguing item that is relevant to the current plagiarism/permissions thread. The Dada artist and poet Kurt Schwitters spent his vacations in the 1930s on the Norwegian island of Hjertøya, and often practiced the recitation of his <i>Ursonate</i> out of doors on this island. In 1997, the author Wolfgang Müller visited this island and was astonished to hear the local starlings reproducing portions of the <i>Ursonate.</i> He recorded these bird sounds and integrated his recording into an exhibit in Germany. Shortly after the mounting of the exhibit, Müller received a letter from the firm that owns the rights to Schwitters's work, stating that they had no record of his asking permission to reproduce the <i>Ursonate</i>. He thought this letter must be a joke and did not answer--but additional letters of a more threatening tone followed. He finally wrote a letter in which he placed the onus for the unauthorized reproduction on the starlings. Apparently that was the end of the "case." My source is Müller's booklet <i>Die Nachtigall von Reykjavik </i>(Berlin: SuKuLTuR, 2004), 12-17. (SuKuLTuR's booklets are available in automats on train platforms in Berlin, alongside the normal offerings of candy and snacks!)</div><div><br></div><div>Harald Krebs</div></body></html>