{"id":6,"date":"2012-01-13T07:18:48","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T07:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/?p=6"},"modified":"2012-01-13T21:32:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:32:13","slug":"the-ecstasy-of-influence-a-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/2012\/01\/13\/the-ecstasy-of-influence-a-plagiarism\/","title":{"rendered":"The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Lethem\u2019s \u201cThe ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism\u201d<\/em> is a fascinating read.\u00a0 He makes a very compelling argument that art should be shared freely, and that the first copyright laws were only enacted to encourage development, not to permanently keep works out of others hands or mouths.\u00a0 By bringing artists such as Shakespeare and brand-named like Band-Aid into his argument, he makes it seem like no one would be harmed if plagiarism were to be allowed.\u00a0 The only problem is, that I don\u2019t buy it.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems ironic to me that a writer for one of the longest standing newspapers is the one writing on plagiarism.\u00a0 A man, who presumably was paid in advance, is writing about how art should be free, for a news source that is bought on newsstands.\u00a0 While Lethem is paid upfront for his work, the very artists who he wishes to strip of their rights are not.\u00a0 Lethem argues that copying a movie is not the same as steeling a handbag, because he is not depriving anyone of their right to the movie.\u00a0 He is wrong though.\u00a0 He is depriving the money owed to the people who paid tons of money upfront to produce the film.\u00a0 They do not get paid unless people pay to see their film.\u00a0 If he wants to see the film, he should give these artists their dues.<\/p>\n

I am the daughter of a computer engineer.\u00a0 My father and the various companies he has worked for, spend a lot of time and money upfront to produce computer software.\u00a0 If this software is copied instead of bought, as it should be, then my father and his companies will have lost years of work and thousands of dollars.\u00a0 They are real people who produce things that are copyrighted.\u00a0 Without these copyrights, my father would not have produced new technology.\u00a0 He would find a job that pays him for his work.<\/p>\n

While I agree with Lethem on some of his finer points, like that improvements on old ideas are creative forms of plagiarism, and that copyright laws have been extended beyond their original intentions, I cannot agree with his general sentiment. \u00a0Call me old school, but if you borrow someone else\u2019s idea, I believe they should get credit for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Lethem\u2019s \u201cThe ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism\u201d is a fascinating read.\u00a0 He makes a very compelling argument that art should be shared freely, and that the first copyright laws were only enacted to encourage development, not to permanently keep … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":4,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"kdean","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/author\/kdean\/"},"qubely_comment":4,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Jonathan Lethem\u2019s \u201cThe ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism\u201d is a fascinating read.\u00a0 He makes a very compelling argument that art should be shared freely, and that the first copyright laws were only enacted to encourage development, not to permanently keep … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katied\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}