distressing news

[John Dunn]

Three quick points.  Andrew Lloyd Webber will bear responsibility (take the blame?) only for the music.  Much will depend on his collaborator (presumably not Sir Tim Rice, too busy playing cricket and being a general pillar of the establishment). Second,  I saw this story attributed to the Daily Mail, not the ideal source for assessing Lloyd Webber's grasp of the intellectual compexities of the novel.  And finally, bearing in mind the learned disquisitions that have appeared on this list concerning the complexities of international copyright law, the date of Bulgakov's death and the publishing history of the novel, I am far from convinced that it is in the public domain.   Let us all pause in our endeavours, pour ourselves a refreshing drink and just for a moment contemplate the prospect of A.Ll.W. (or one of his many minions) tramping through half the lawyers' offices of Europe trying to establish who exactly does own the copyright.  And then having to sell the other half of his wine cellar to pay for the rights.

Do we not all feel much better?

John Dunn.

P.S. Who is Lawrence Welk??

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