Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Cheese is my shiny and a good reason for divorce

Although it's true I love cheese, and I really think that an unfair distribution of cheese in the plates is reason enough for divorce, the motivation behind my writing this, has nothing to do with cheese, or divorce, but with words and ownership. At the moment of writing this post, the following search string:

Cheese is my shiny and a good reason for divorce

when looked up literally, this is, written this way in Google:

"Cheese is my shiny and a good reason for divorce"

produces exactly ZERO results. That will change as soon as this post and my SL profile picks are part of the search database, of course. I know, it's not that I've found a cure for cancer and so I should feel proud for that line, nor my pride is the point of this.

My point is, those are my words. While we don't own each word separately, as we don't own colors, we own what we create with them, as an oils artist owns the image on the painted canvas. It matters not if it's one unique line or a whole book. Length is not what matters. What matters is that you've created it.

I did my best not to leave a reply when Whiskey Monday wrote about a person that, say, took without permission her profile's words and "creatively used" them, because I've had my own share of having been "ripped" in that regard (tutorials, profile words, class materials by, allegedly, "friends"... you name it), and I wouldn't have been nice, specially, after someone said in the comments:

how many people in history do you think have arranged those words together? do you think that you are the first person to do it? have you copyright that arrangement of words? if not, than nothing has been stolen, anyone can arrange those words together in the same order and they don't have to pay royalties to you.
[...]
what do you want to copyright next and claim you arrange them first, the words "how are you" with a question mark at the end?

The search in Google seems to be on Whiskey's side (I suggest to read all the comments in that post). But then again, are we talking about length? A creation isn't yours if it doesn't fit within a minimum of words? You shouldn't complain after being ripped unless you've written a whole essay? How long the essay should be? Can anybody enlighten me?

I remember, when I was at school, that our teachers always insisted in this: "explain, using your own words". That has been one of the most important things they've ever taught me. The importance of being able to produce your own words. If you feel that taking someone else's words isn't a big deal, if you think "come on, it's just one/two lines, why such a fuss over this", then don't complain when it happens to you... assuming you can ever tell how dull, how much of a boring nothing it makes of you to need copying, without even having the decency of giving credit, what someone else says as if it was yours. Trying to make excuses only makes you look even worse.

PS: Even when you copy/paste to then change words, the original author can tell. Specially if you're so dumb of leaving exact quotes inserted in the middle of phrases in a way that makes no sense.

9 comments:

  1. The people who do this, are the kids who were in your class and my class growing up...the ones who were too lazy to do anything other than copy from our tests and pay someone to do their homework for them. They want to skim through life :( How sad I had always felt for them. Not to have the love of reading, or the love of words...not to find the awesomeness in places you can go, a person you can be or people you can meet. Really, really sad :(

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    1. That has reminded me of one of many stories of being copied at school... If I have a chance, I'll go for it (because it requires of preparing a couple of drawings)

      I wish I had felt sad for them when I was a little girl, but nobody taught me that's what I should have done. I felt... very small, and the teachers would do nothing about, not even privately shame them for their behaviour. Now of course I see things differently.

      Sadly, our country is a place that encourages the thief, and so I wouldn't be surprised of learning that they've ended up being successful in life by replicating the behaviour that since kids has been awarded.

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  2. Auryn...sorry, the above comment was from me, Kylie. For some reason ,it wouldn't allow a profile for me :(

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    1. I don't understand what happens at times with comments... They are set so anybody, whether they're anonymous, registered, whatever... can comment. But a few months ago, Storm couldn't post a comment, now you're telling me this, and I wonder if it has happened to more people. Sorry :-(

      (At least this time the anonymous way worked.)

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  3. There is nothing more wonderful than a blank page (physical or electronic) waiting for something to appear from brain through fingertips. To swipe someone else's words without attribution requires no imagination and no investment. How boring is that?

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    1. Quite boring. And something else I can't understand is... what's wrong with quoting your sources?

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    2. Indeed! It takes only a moment.

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  4. Oooo... I just came up with a great idea for a blog post titled, "Divorce is my shiny and a good reason for cheese."

    ...Dres (And yes... I came up with that all by myself.=D)

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