Brad Jeffers wrote:This is a serious question ...
Would it still be deemed unethical to perform Ricky Jay's material after he has shuffled off this mortal coil?
This really is a great question, and - by Ricky's own apparent standard - the answer would be "possibly." There's a fuzzy line between legitimate artistic license and theft... a line defined not only by the origins and age of the source material, but how closely that material was associated with its creator AND the perceived artistic integrity/merit of the "borrower." Folks like Ricky and, oh... let's say Bob Dylan have gotten away with things we'd summarily condemn each other for. (Love and Theft, ya know...) But each of these performers has a character perfectly suited to their body of work. They're not pilfering out of laziness; there's a certain logic to the selection of "raw material" and how it's employed.