Bryant McGill and His Blatant Highly Illegal Plagiarism

First of all, to start out, let me state categorically that I have absolutely no personal vendetta against Bryant McGill. I do not know the man and he, his publications, and his websites, are far from being the only “Celebrity” or “Government Sponsored” archives, collections, or re-writings that are guilty of the ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES that I am about to point out; it is just that his name is becoming more and more linked to my postings and this blog. Of course, I am not a “celebrity” and mine are just little; non-commercial, insignificant, hobby blogs that do not really matter—except to me—and-- my few international readers. For those of you that may not already know:

“Bryant McGill is an internationally renowned author, essayist, speaker and activist in the fields of self-development, personal freedom and human rights. He is an iconic personality and cultural critic, whose writings have reached millions of people and appeared in thousands of works by other authors, educators and social leaders. His writings on values have been featured alongside Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa at the prestigious Foundation for a Better Life, who has called McGill one of “the brightest minds in human history.” In an official Congressional commendation, the nation’s leaders applauded McGill’s, “highly commendable life’s work,” as an Ambassador of Goodwill. His writings have been published in over 70 books and translated into 15 languages by publishers such as Cornell University, UNESCO, Simon and Schuster, Random House, HarperCollins, Writer's Digest and Walt Disney Company. McGill is a sought after workshop leader, and a speaker who has delivered speeches with diverse groups, from the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office and Chief of the LAPD, to the United Nations, with Dr. Gandhi, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and the UN Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs.”

--The above information can be found on several websites: including but not limited to bryantmcgill.com/about/ and wikipedia.com

So, since I have nothing personally against Mr McGill, just what is the purpose of this posting? What are my complaints? Why do I object to my name being linked to his? What are the illegal activities to which I refer?

1.       Any material that was first published before Sept of 1923 is by US of A copyright law PUBLICDOMAIN.

2.       Any material,( by the same laws), of which the original author or creator has been dead for over fifty years; is PUBLIC DOMAIN and cannot be re-copyrighted unless there have been “real and significant artistic contribution”. While it cannot be denied that the translation of poetry into a different language, or languages, while still maintaining the essence or the original poem, requires considerable artistic talent; most of these works were fully translated before Mr. McGill was born and in any case, rights apply to the modified version only—not to the original—or the original copyright, which also cannot REALLY be sold or taken over by anyone else. No matter what, it is still the original copyright.

3.       You cannot copyright an idea. Short quotes generally represent ideas and for this reason are not subject to copyrights; and, while quotes about common wisdom, creation, existence, family, love, life etch are often attributed to some well-known celebrity there is absolutely no positive infallible way of knowing when they were first said; or by whom. We do know that there is nothing that can be said today; that has not been expressed; as an idea, or as an opinion, by someone, somewhere, very much previously.

4.      Any claim to copyrights of material which is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN; especially when that material was translated into the various languages, published, and copyrighted, long before you were born, amounts to blatant plagiarism and is therefore illegal.
      Mr McGill  can not just decide that he is going to take over copyright of MY, OR ANYONE ELSE'S ORIGINAL, AND COPYRIGHTED WORKS; as he is apparently trying to do with my posting entitled TRUE AND LASTING LOVE DEFINED.

5.      It does not take very thorough examination of the poems and quotations--most of what is  now claimed by, or commonly attributed to, Mr McGill-- to realize that, at the very least, it is exactly that—BLATANT,  UNMITIGATED, PLAGIARISM.