Copy This

Another story plagiarized again. Ohohoho.

Let me be clear about a few things. I'm not totally against grabbing other people's ideas and presenting it to other people. As we can't be thinking of the best ideas all the time, sometimes we just need to borrow the bubbles of other people to achieve our goals. No need to reinvent the wheel, because that's one of the few reasons lasting mediums of communication such as print and vinyl recordings were invented in the first place - sharing of knowledge, experiences, and pornography with the emphasis on the latter. Jokes are a good example of that, as with, ironically called, quotations. That's how jokes, urban legends, and quotes live long, through constant sharing.

But then again, you shouldn't start claiming shit as your own if you know it's not coming from you. Forgetting to tell where stuff came from is one thing but telling people stuff that you didn't shit came from you is another. Because that is lying. Lying is bad. It will make people who find out get pissed at you and probably, if you piss them enough, kick you in the nuts with zeal. I believe anybody can be pissed off enough to be able to kick people in the nads if you try hard enough. It's just harder to make some people get pissed that much, like the pope, and deaf-blind people.

I've lost count how many times my works I've done for Ragnarok Online fiction have been stolen and claimed by other people, on several occassions, they even stole stories that had my online name on them ("red" and "redkinoko") with the names still preserved, even the typos. Quotes I've made in public boards have been passed on too so many times, I can't even be sure that theyre coming from me anymore.

At first it's frustrating, because it's your hard work, it's something that you really put your heart into and to see your work being copied by others and claimed as their own, it's like seeing your kids stolen from you, and it's not the bad, snotty kids that get stolen - only the type that's really helpful around the house. Because like it or not, recognition is what drives an artist. A storyteller can tell a story so many times if nobody's there to listen.

But then again, you realize that no matter what the wordthieves do with the work, all praise and pwnage attributed to a work is still to its author. Because you know its your work. I believe that if you love your work in the right kind of way, you'll feel just as good as long as your work is being praised, even with you out of the picture.

"Some artists use art to glorify the lives they live. Real artists use the lives they live to glorify their art," says Da Vinci. Just kidding, he used art to be able to eat through patronship. I was the one who said that. Just now. To hell with you if you don't believe me.

Actually I find getting plagiarised quite flattering. That means one of two things. Either the one who stole my work is a tasteless hack who just feels he has to steal anything with more than four words or he's a regular joe who thinks my work is good enough to show to other people and claim as his own so as he gets praised. Not all works on the net get stolen so I guess my works being part of the stealable minority is a good benchmark. I'd like to believe that plagiarism of my work is a case of the latter, even if it's just me thinking about it.

Me feeling good about it, however, doesnt make plagiarism any lesser evil. You still stole stuff that's not yours. That makes you unworthy of that thing inside your skull that makes you eat, sleep, study, and download pirated episodes of Desperate Housewives.

We were given nature's largest brains for a reason - that is, for us to use it. If you have dignity left in you, use your head to create ideas the way your brain was designed to function. If God wanted you to just copy other people's works he would have put you in this world as a photocopier instead.

And we all know hanging around photocopiers makes one sterile.