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.
