Here at MUIC and most universities are really tough on plagiarism. And they should be. Not only because copying someone's words and using them as if they are your own is dishonest, but also because people should be challenged and encouraged to produce their own ideas and contributions to the world.But sometimes there is a grey area as Gladwell describes. The story you might overhear from a friend. The tune a guitar player strummed on the street. The poem on a napkin you found at a table... are those ideas us for grabs? If you write about a piece of gossip you heard: is it an idea? Or is it "intellectual property?"
The journal blog topic for this week: Is it a crime to use, reproduce, mix, and mash art as your own?
Include your Student ID and Section # in your post. Aj. M
＃5580508 section 11
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it is not crime if someone else use, reproduce, mix and mash art of my work. Firstly, everyone in the society has the similar values and similar norm, so it is not weird if someone else has the similar notions or norm like me. For example, I reproduce her music into the better tones. Does it mean plagiarism? I think 'no' because her music is become better without suffer any loses. Moreover, if that person (who did the plagiarism) do something different from other, everyone would think that he/she is weird? The second reason is art is the fantastic thing, and it is non stop idea. In my feeling, sometimes, we might copy other people work too because of our idea is similar, not because we want to use her/his idea. There might be some part of the art which is similar, but not totally the same. Lastly, plagiarism also can bring many advantages to the owner. For instance, when our work publish in the public again, it will bring the good reputation to our work and ourself without our action. In addition, when someone else reproduce our work, it shows that our works have the quality, so I did not see any crime which can occur due to plagiarism behavior.
You bring up very interesting points of view. Should artists be happy to be copied and re-used. Does that credit come back to the artist? This is a good comment.
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ReplyDeleteIs copying a crime? Yes, it is. There is something people call "plagiarism", it means copy someone else's work or ideas and use it as people's own, a lot of people take it very serious. But in fact, even themselves do that, there are thousands of people who download and copy musics from the internet, it fits the word "plagiarism" perfectly, so why should people be so serious about the problem if they do it as well. It does not make any sense, if they really want to make problems, they should be serious about themselves first. However, copying art, words, movies, musics or ideas are crime, but a lot of people do that, which means almost everyone in this world are criminal. So, it is a crime, but just do not be too serious about it, because you are one of them.
The internet has really complicated our understanding of intellectual property. We do download art everyday... are they ideas free for everyone to use? Is that the world we want?
Delete5580424 sec11 I think is not a crime because everyone sometimes have a same idea. I think it occur from the environment and the habitude. For example, the tune of music sometimes it look like the same because they have a same composer. Sometimes, he or she might not intend to copy the others but they have a same composer. The composer might compose the music as they like, so it might be same the others songs.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment. Ideas are "in the air" and we may be wrong when we think that we actually have an "original" idea. The chance is, many people have thought about the same thing before.
Delete5580137 section11 As far as I concern about plagiarism, I used to think that copying someone works, it's a crime. But now I tend to think that It's not every case which I can say it's a crime. For example, Art's student need to study about painting technique from former artists' works(former era) then they can adapt it to their work to make it's better or distinct. Is it a crime? I don't think so. On the contrary, if someone copy music melody for making any profit without asking for a license then I think this is absolutely a crime. They are many way to consider about this topic, sometime it's crime but sometime it's not especially when people make any disadvantage to an owner's ideas.
ReplyDeleteIts very hard to make the distinction these days. What is original and what is reproduced doesn't seem to matter anymore in some ways.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, If the artworks resemble to the sample, it is fine, but if the artworks be similar to the sample, I think it is crime. Although everyone may have the same idea, I think it is impossible that the works be the same.
It doesn't seem impossible anymore. If it happens exactly the same, there must be some connection.
DeleteI think it might be copying.
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ReplyDeleteThe law said that if you've got the copyright or permission from the owner of the work then it's not a crime. However, i think without their permission, it is also not a crime. Instead, you should be proud of it. This is because it means that your art has something special that makes them want to use it to create something new. Also it is something what we ALL do everyday. For example, downloading songs or video from youtube and 4shared. Therefore, i don't think it is something that we need to take is serious. Yet, the original owner might feel bad because they have spent so much time, may be a month or two, to produce each piece of work. But then suddenly within seconds someone just copy and paste their work on top of their own work.
That's right. What is the incentive to invest and produce art, it it will just be downloaded for free? How can we keep our artists if they cannot make money?
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ReplyDeleteOur world has come to a point, where plagiarism is indirectly legal.. Many famous people such as singers or music producers has made alot of money through this. They use music produced by others to mash it to their own, which in my opinion is quite artistic as they use it to produce something else updating the previous music, which is an advantage too as that old music will be known by people worldwide..
Secondly, even if the law is very strict about copyright, we can still find work by people's intellectual brain being passed around on the internet without being credited, everyone is doing so. It is happening every minute and now it seems as if its quite a natural thing.
Thirdly, When someone publishes it to the public, they should expect people stealing their ideas and intellectual property.. If they really want to keep it to themselves either they should share it with a very close person or keep it confidential making sure it doesn't pass on without permission. For example, I produce a very good music on youtube, it can be downloaded through different programs and published again as their own. All this happens it is a natural thing it shouldn't be considered that much of a crime.
In conclusion, I believe that to use, reproduce, mix, and mash art as your own is not sort of a crime. If it was almost the whole world would've done a crime on one thing or the other. And most laws about this is broken around the world, the population of people doing this is large.. And so it shouldn't be considered a crime
So... are you saying that we should give up? Should we stop trying to regulate art and publishing and just surrender to the power of the internet? Should we tell all artists that once they release their work to the public, it no longer belongs to them? What do you think?
DeleteIn my opinion, we should give up to a certain extent, well not fully, but if freedom exists, a small plagiarism act shouldn't be punished to much of extent.
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ReplyDeleteTo reuse, reproduce, and adapt the other's works as one's self i think it might be a crime. It is all depend on many factors such as the intension, the idea, and the law. Sometimes, it might be a crime if all the work, every details or most detail, is copied then this is a crime. However, if some or little part is copied, this might be or might not be. If the type are the same of art and it came out similar or in same pattern, this case is not a crime.
Gladwell says the same thing. There seems to be cases when "stealing" is acceptable.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, i dont think that reproducing, mixing, and mashing art are not a crime. Everyone used idea from what they heard or see, and only creative person who are able to express themselves through art. Most of them used things that inspired them to create a better art work. It is what everyone do, and i personally think that it is not a crime.
So, when an artist releases his or her work to the world, are we saying that it no longer belongs to them?
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ReplyDeletePlagiarism has been known as a fatal thing since I was young but should we considered it a crime? Personally, my answer would be yes. I intensely think that mimicking other people’s work without giving credits is inevitably unacceptable as, generally speaking, we all certainly know how difficult it is to produce any inventions. However, I must say that there is a very fine line between copying and borrowing. To be more specific, sometimes, people are just so inspired by someone else's work that they erroneously borrow those work because they want to pass on the impressions they have to the world. All in all, the answer to this question is very broad as it depends on attitude and perspective of each person.
It is a very fine line indeed, and many people (including in this blog) thinks that there is no line at all.
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ReplyDeleteI think plagiarism is wrong because people who commit plagiarism is like people who stealing people idea. For example, the couple months aog Apple company just sue Samsung for stealing apple's product design, and Apple company won. Therefore, I think people who commit plagiarism is criminal because if it is not wrong, Apple would not win Samsung.
This is a very good example. In the case of Apple and Samsung, can a company have a copyright over "curved corners" on a phone? Is that an original idea?
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ReplyDeleteI do think that using someone else work and tell people that it is your own work is totally wrong. However, not in every case. If the person took information from someone and make a proper citation, it would be fine. There are some songs that have similar beats or groove. If they have ask the owner of the song for permission, that would be totally fine and definitely not a crime because they already got the copyright. If you got the copyright or you did the citation, there would not be any problem. If you did it without permission, the owner of the property can sue you and it can turn into a crime. It is a right thing to ask for permission or let the owner notice that you will use their work.
#5580203
DeleteYou're describing the current system, which the internet makes very complicated. If one person copies, its a big problem. If the whole world downloads and shares and sells, then its impossible to enforce.
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ReplyDelete#5580104 section 11
ReplyDeleteThe word stealing is the act of taking a persons intelectual property without asking for permission. When people think of the word stealing it automatically is related to simple things such as stealing a car. But people often don't see that there are other ways people can steal from each other. Copying something word for word is a type of stealing called plagiarism. In the world today, there are many situations where people take someones words or property and didn't give any credit to the founder or creator. An example that was shown in class for the stolen beat from Queen was used in the song ice ice baby by Vanilla Ice is clearly a sign of stealing due to the fact that beat in the beginning was from Under Pressure was stolen from the band queen when they produced it. In the future plagerism and taking other peoples wok will be a serious crime just like the when people still cars.
Do you think that people recognize ideas as property in the same way that they think about cars as property? I'm not sure.
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ReplyDeleteI think it is not a crime. When most people hear the word "plagiarism", they might think that is bad. Of course, according to meaning of that word, that means bad thing. However, in reality, I strongly believe that plagiarism is a kind of necessary, since I think plagiarism can be a basic thing of progress. Most things around us nowadays have been developed, applying additional things and plagiarizing on the basis of the firstly derived one, and i think intellectual things can be also applied. All things i said don't mean that all plagiarism is good. Naturally, it happens in bad way, but I wanna insist that plagiarism is not only bad thing, but also good thing, which is useful for progress. Thus, we need to be open-minded and see it as positive things, not only as negative things.
Plagiarism as progress... This is quite a radical idea. No one thinks that using sources is a bad thing. Its a really good thing to use the knowledge of people before us to help us expand our understandings of things. But to use other's knowledge and take credit for that seems dishonest. What do you think?
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ReplyDeletePersonally, copying other's idea without asking for permission is absolutely wrong. When people start producing their own works, especially arts, they try hard to create and design their works using their ideas from their brain. More than that, there are many people who spend more than ten or twenty years exerting themselves to finish their art works or research. And how do they feel if they find out that someone is copying their works?
It might be okay if they are asked and they then allow that person to use their work as an example or a case study. BUT, for many people who are never asked, will they feel that someone is stealing their personal property? For me, the answer is YES. This is why I believe that copying other's works is also one kind of crime.
I think most of us would like credit for the ideas we have developed and created.
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ReplyDeleteFor me, reproducing, mixing or copying totally lead to crime. We can call this kind of attitude as stealing. Stealing some people ideas are wrong because they do not ask for permission in order to use it as your own. If you get a copy right or license, it would be fine. Because all those ideas belong to the owners. For example, downloading song from website or copying some information to do a research. This happens in our daily life, and we do not realize it as a crime at all. The owner can sue you at any time if they feel that their properties are taken by someone. Therefore, stealing other perspectives is a crime.
Stealing 'perspectives'... it sounds like we need a kind of "thought police" for that kind of crime.
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ReplyDeletePlagiarism is forbidden in most well known universities and organizations; therefore a person who commits plagiarism may be punished. I personally believe that it is not a crime to use another person’s work or idea as long as the author who is trying to reproduce some sort of art from an original piece cites and give reference to the main artist. In that case, when people in society look at the reproduced particular piece of art, they will be able to tell who originally made it and where to find it, as well as the art of the person who reproduced it. However, if a piece of work or idea is used without the appropriate citations or references; that would be a crime worthy of punishment according to the law.
You have a very clear definition here. Gladwell thinks that the line between right and wrong here is less clear that what you describe.
Delete#5580217 section 4: Is it a crime or not to use, reproduce, mix, and mash art as your own? In my point of view, it is surely not a crime if you do ask for the permission from the owner. However, it undoubtedly is a crime if you use other people's intellectual properties without any license. For example, case one, one singer uses the rhythm from the 70's song in his/her song with the permission. Case two, one singer uses the rhythm from 70's song as well, but without any permission. See the differences? Concisely, using others' works does not always be a crime, yet it also can lead to a violation if you do not ask for the consent from the owner.
ReplyDeleteThis is the question of the article... what can be "owned"? Is it really right to "own" an idea. Are there no free, open, or public ideas that everyone can use and take advantage of?
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ReplyDeleteI strongly believe that "copying" is not a crime to some extend. We all have to agree that ideas and art have no limit. This means, the repetition of ideas is possible. On the other hand, copying clearly becomes a crime when one's intention is to make profit out of what he is stealing. If using, reproducing, mixing and mashing an art that belongs to someone else considered to be a process of making a profit; one needs to attain permission from the owner. Without the permission, this action may lead to a big copy-right conflict. With this in mind, one's intention truly decide whether or not "copying" is a crime.
Intention is a difficult thing to know.
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ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, plagiarism is not always a crime depending on the situation. In fact, people are plagiarizing everyday: people use internet to download music, use other people’s ideas, copying and pasting actor’s pictures. However, I do not consider this as a crime. For instance, if people from the old days have never plagiarized other people’s works, technologies and inventions would not be developed for people in the modern days. Same with medicines, a doctor who invented a cure to such disease and keeps the secret to himself is selfish since that cure could have saved many lives. If the cure is used publicly in many hospitals, the doctors could help invent and improve new cure to combat the new deadly diseases each year.
Nevertheless, plagiarism should be strictly forbidden academically especially in schools and universities. Plagiarizing and stealing someone’s ideas without citing is considered a crime. In my opinion, students are allowed to borrow the original author’s ideas, but they must be able to evaluate in their own words because at last teachers are trying to help and are testing student’s abilities and intelligence.
Why do you think plagiarism is more serious in schools that it is in normal internet use by people in general. Is academic knowledge more privileged that art that is produced online?
Delete#5481054 section 4 In my opinion, if you have to use some people'art that they create by themselves and it unique. All the time you using those art, you have to consider that those are not yours so references is required. On the other hand, if you do not references them, you will have to fight in the court because the law that call copyright is exist.
ReplyDeleteSo, there should be a lot of people going to court, because I rarely hear of anyone referencing their influences for the art they produce.
Delete#5580456 section : 4
ReplyDeleteIn the general circumstance, there are a large number of situations about plagiarism. In my point of view, "to copy" other people is not totally to be a crime and it depends on that they had made the copyright before or not. Everyone's styles and ideas are certainly different while sometimes it is quite similar. Therefore, we can say that if the illustrations are similar, it may not copy before due to the fact that the ways to think are no limit. However, "copying" is not totally to be a crime, but when we are going to use the other thoughts, we must give them a credit or a citation.
I'm glad that you understand this well. It is a key to good academic work. Use lots of sources, but always cite them as a reference.
Delete#5580095 (sec. 4) In my opinion, to use, reproduce, mix, and mash art with the clear acknowledgement and credit is not a crime. However, if we borrowed some other's words, idea, phrase, etc. without declaring the reference sources, it is a plagiarism. And plagiarism is truly a crime.
ReplyDeleteGladwell doesn't seem to think it is so clear. He says that sometimes, it is ok to steal.... it depends on how words, ideas, and phrases are used. Do you agree?
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ReplyDeleteI believe that as long as I put the citation it is not a crime because I put the reference to the original source.. Giving credit is obviously the way to play safe because it shows that you are not robbing someone else's ideas and make it your own. It would be very appreciated for those people who work really hard to see that someone is giving credit to them by just not stealing their ideas.
That's right. I think most people are happy to be the influence for others... but credit is important.
Delete#5580107 (Sec 11)
ReplyDeleteCopying others work is a crime; it is like stealing from a bank. But with permission, it is different. As when you borrow from the bank with their permission is not a crime.
Interesting point. (I think you can write a little more next time.)
DeleteThis blog topic is now closed. Thank you for your participation.
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ReplyDeleteSection 4
Is plagiarism wrong?
In my opinion plagiarism is both wrong and not wrong: It one those questions that did not have a definite yes/no answer. If you plagiarize others people work it is wrong, however, if you ask for the copyright first then it is not wrong. I think that it is appropriate according to the law that you could own a copyright for 60 years. After all, what is the worth of owning something when you are already dead? However, even if you don’t own the copyright but you should always be cited for your work. An example could be in Shakespeare’s work: even though his work is available for public, however, it is always cited that it belongs to him. On other hand, if you use others people work as an inspiration for your work then I don’t think that it’s wrong. Human are able to create something incredible if they have a “base” to start from. The famous math formula that are use today all come from some other “formula” that are now not cited and forgotten. In conclusion I believe that weather plagiarism is wrong or not depends on each situation.
#5580060 #Section 4...In my opinion, for someone to take the copyrighted work and claim that his own is absolutely wrong because the copyrighted work is already considered as the intellectual property. However, if he takes an idea that is not copyrighted and includes it in his work, I think that is not wrong because the idea has no owner.
ReplyDelete#5580445 section 4 : In my opinion, plagiarism is wrong in term of you copy some other works for instance literary, term paper, character or life without citation. I believe that people or person who belong the works, they tried hard or work hard to distribute or make them. However, if someone had inspiration from other works, they should cite the owner or ask their permission. This is acceptable for me because sometime we do not intent to copy other works but we like or love and want them to let us develop our own inspiration. it likes continues or reproduce other works.
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ReplyDeleteTo copy, reproduce, mix and mash people's works by without a permission is unacceptable for most of people in society. The ideas or works must be owned by people who did it. It is undeniable that plagiarism can be a crime, and it also can not be a crime. It depends on laws, ethic and the direction of society at that moment. In my opinion, following the laws, the owner has the right to occupy their invention for about 20 years. After that, anyone can do, duplicate and develop that works to be better. It is impossible to ask the authorization from old people in the past who their works are used more widely . On the other hand, in the ethic's view, plagiarism is the bad manners and acting even though it is lawless because it influent to people who are the owner of works.
However, I thing that it is a good opportunities for people in society if the invention is adapted to be better. Thus, people will have more choices in their life. Many people will get the new notions or inspiration from some artworks, and that is a good thing to give a chances to other people. Maybe the new invention will be occured soon.
#5580153 section11
ReplyDeleteCopying someone's work is wrong. No one will feel happy when somebody robs their work or their idea. On the other hand, if you give a credit with the acknowledge they would be much more happy. However, i think, nobody would feel proud of their self copying someone else's, at least, people should try their best but sometimes using other's as the example would be okay.