Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery (?)
"Broadcast Yourself." It really just means yourself. And nobody else. Not a single other soul. This I recently discovered when I attempted to upload a private video which incorporates a soundtrack by the Eagles.
"A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video." More frustrating than the message itself (which, might I add, popped up in several windows and emails), is the idea behind it. Some ideological third party, a YouTube filter, just went through and knocked out my video...or offered that I uploaded a video with no sound. Cute. Nobody would have been hurt by my posted video because, oh yeah, it was private. Actually, somebody was hurt. I was hurt. The pleasure and glory one experiences when revelling in her inner creativity and innovation is inexplicable. And mine was inhumanely destroyed by a YouTube filter. But in some twisted way, I supposed I was destroying the Eagles'.
We've all encountered the sheer terror of plagiarism as we craft our academic masterpieces. The consequences are no joke. I mean, there are only so many words in the English language...who is to say that we are the first to combine them in a specific way? A person's work is a person's work. And trying to pass off someone else's brainchild as your own is sick. I understand that.
But this song which is already widely acclaimed? I'm not exactly trying to pass the Eagles work off as my own. It's not these already-established-big wigs that need help. It's the commoners.
I'm not waking up everyday to someone taking credit for my work. And even if it were so, what would I do? Tell my mommy that so-and-so is a copycat? Welcome back to the 3rd grade.
As an amateur, it's all too risky to confront someone for having plagiarized your work. You have no choice but to sit tight and let your blood boil as you watch someone coincidentally have "the same idea" that you did.
I never quite mastered the whole "copying is a compliment" thing. I could not wrap my mind around solidarity in a creative context -- paper topics, school projects, and other non-academic affairs. I am not trying to say I'm some progressive, untouchable genius who is running around setting trends that simply cannot be replicated. It's more the cry of the common man. Innovative and edgy ideas rare, it's the icing on top when you are sharing the already dim spotlight with a copycat (plug your ears as the Leo inside me roars).
There will come a day when we look at a supposedly novel piece of work and realize that it looks suspiciously familiar... An uncanny resemblance to something that we have created ourselves. Only the privileged few will have a "personal" YouTube filter to actually be able to do something about it.
In ninth grade I told my physics teacher that I wanted to have a unit named after me. But I've since changed my mind. I want to one day see my name in a MLA citation.
"A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video." More frustrating than the message itself (which, might I add, popped up in several windows and emails), is the idea behind it. Some ideological third party, a YouTube filter, just went through and knocked out my video...or offered that I uploaded a video with no sound. Cute. Nobody would have been hurt by my posted video because, oh yeah, it was private. Actually, somebody was hurt. I was hurt. The pleasure and glory one experiences when revelling in her inner creativity and innovation is inexplicable. And mine was inhumanely destroyed by a YouTube filter. But in some twisted way, I supposed I was destroying the Eagles'.
We've all encountered the sheer terror of plagiarism as we craft our academic masterpieces. The consequences are no joke. I mean, there are only so many words in the English language...who is to say that we are the first to combine them in a specific way? A person's work is a person's work. And trying to pass off someone else's brainchild as your own is sick. I understand that.
But this song which is already widely acclaimed? I'm not exactly trying to pass the Eagles work off as my own. It's not these already-established-big wigs that need help. It's the commoners.
I'm not waking up everyday to someone taking credit for my work. And even if it were so, what would I do? Tell my mommy that so-and-so is a copycat? Welcome back to the 3rd grade.
As an amateur, it's all too risky to confront someone for having plagiarized your work. You have no choice but to sit tight and let your blood boil as you watch someone coincidentally have "the same idea" that you did.
I never quite mastered the whole "copying is a compliment" thing. I could not wrap my mind around solidarity in a creative context -- paper topics, school projects, and other non-academic affairs. I am not trying to say I'm some progressive, untouchable genius who is running around setting trends that simply cannot be replicated. It's more the cry of the common man. Innovative and edgy ideas rare, it's the icing on top when you are sharing the already dim spotlight with a copycat (plug your ears as the Leo inside me roars).
There will come a day when we look at a supposedly novel piece of work and realize that it looks suspiciously familiar... An uncanny resemblance to something that we have created ourselves. Only the privileged few will have a "personal" YouTube filter to actually be able to do something about it.
In ninth grade I told my physics teacher that I wanted to have a unit named after me. But I've since changed my mind. I want to one day see my name in a MLA citation.
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