Stolen Letters

...this book may not be reproduced in whole or part... (Engl.)

Stolen Letters You may eat the pages of a book you own, but you may not legally copy them. Why steal these particular letters,you ask? They are certainly not prize-winning examples. But they were here in my library within arm’s reach... There’s more to anything than meets the eye, of course, but what is it? What do books conceal that require legal protection? Row after row of particularly placed letters, pages consisting of plots of characters - and a swarm of copyright gnats ready to attack. Am I looking for trouble? Trying to get bit? I just want to examine some ordinary letters. They are surprisingly passive. Not a hint of resistance as the scanner sucks the in with its light and transforms them into pixels. -layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">Perhaps this is why they need copyright protection, on their own they are defenseless. Enlarged, letters change their tune. Instead of identical incidents, I find anomalies. Do anomalies constitute personalities - or are they merely imperfections? If nothing is perfect, there can be no imperfections. Do those who own a copyright know the personalities of all their letters? Could they identify their letters in a line up? If a thing cannot be recognized by its owner, can it be stolen?