" To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research ".
- a quote by comedian, Steven Wright.
I had other plans today to kick off my first post for Philosophy Friday but a most timely post by master beader and fellow teacher, Robin Atkins of Beadlust This link gave me further food for thought. With the SOPA bill being current in the news, many artists, writers and musicians have once again, been discussing and mulling over copyright issues. One walks a very thin line with copyright - there are many grey areas and to complicate matters, there are varying copyright laws in numerous countries.
By blogging, or being active on the internet, one puts themselves out there so to speak and one is, or should be aware of the fact that there will be people in cyberspace who either have no idea about copyright, or claim not to, or people who just have no scruples or manners when it comes to copying other's work or literally stealing it.
When I look at Robin's work, I see mastery, passion and personality, and I feel it would be hard put for anyone to truly copy her work and have it look the same. As she says, any infringements have not impeded her abilities to fill classrooms or show a decline in the sales of her books etc. It's pretty damned hard to copy a true original but there are many who will try. However, I still honestly believe that courtesy should be foremost when showing off her work or showing work that has been inspired by her.
Much like Robin's situation, in recent times, I had an offending student, who literally took my handouts from a class and put it on her blog as HER tutorial, along with a couple of my diagrams that actually had a printed copyright notice on them with my name on it. And it was in fact, a fellow student, who very graciously informed me of the demeanour.
I think because of the anonymity and vastness of the internet, people do not look on these type of acts as " stealing". To me, it's no different than being a pick pocket!
As a teacher in the fiberarts, I am happy to be able to share information with others and I'm delighted to inform those who are eager to learn and have an appreciation for beading and textiles. When we put our photos online, we are at risk of the copycat syndrome but our love for the art and willingness to teach and share information supercedes most minor infringements. However, I do draw the line at blatant piracy.
Many folks copy photos from blogs and keep them in a personal file for " inspiration" or reminders of particular techniques. To a point, that's one thing, unless, someone copies that work totally and then says " Look at what I did" etc. However, to pluck someone else's pictures and show them on your blog or for " show and tell " at a guild or other public gathering, or to photograph my work in a gallery setting or a show and display it elsewhere, I rather take issue with that. It is so very easy to contact the artist or writer or whoever's work it is and politely ask if you can show their work or at the very least, if photographed at a show and then blogged about, give credit to the creating artist with the picture. I think many people would be surprised actually as to how gracious and generous most artists are when someone approaches them in that regard. Acknowledgement and attribution are key !! To me, it boils down to COURTESY and RESPECT and I feel that as teachers, we have a duty to inform our students and others about copyright issues, as much as we do about educating them in our craft. Awareness and education are essential tools in creating a better understanding of privacy and copyright issues and I personally, make a point of bringing up this topic in a general way, not a lecture, in my classes and workshops in order to make people more cognizant of some of the issues.
Now, we could ask the ever provocative question " but what is original ? " - however, let's leave that for another day (-:
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