So I got an anonymous message the other day from the contact form on my website:

"www.myspace.com/simonparks seems to be using one of your images in order to promote himself/ his band."

When I looked up the IP address of the person that sent the message, it was a computer (dhcp80ffad72.residence-rooms.uiowa.edu.) in a dorm on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. Which is notable for only 2 reasons: I'm from Iowa, and Simon Parks, the supposed infringer, is an aspiring rock star based in Iowa CIty. Which would seem to mean that someone who knows him wants him to get in trouble for copyright infringement, and somehow found the image that Simon is re-using, and yet isn't aware of my pro stance about the recycling of culture.

The funnny thing too is that *I* couldn't even find the image at first, which I recognized as a collaborative collage that I made with friends at a collage party I threw years ago in Portland. In fact now that I've located it online, thanx to Google, in some little-visted directory on my site, I am reminded that this particular collage is probably mostly the work of my friend Seth Ladygo. So the image itself and its presence on my site is the product of many infringements of others' "intellectual property" anyway.

Really a beautiful and wonderful example of the complicated intertext that is modern creativity. And really a funny, ironic thing if this anonymous undergrad in Iowa hopes to get this other person in trouble over it.

Relax, dude. Are you jealous cuz this Simon guy makes pretty good music? Or maybe he stole your girlfriend? How about you sample his songs and make something better out of it, mash them up with some Peaches or something, and then sleep with his girlfriend. No, the one he's gonna have after he dumps yours, when he plays his next gig at Gabe's. or wherever kids in Iowa City are watching shows these days. But anyway like I was saying, relax. have fun. it's how culture works.