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Wot I Fink: Copying


McJobless

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*sigh* Peer pressure.

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I'm going to be honest. A certain part of me has been both laughing and cringing at the recent influx of members who have taken to the blogs to express their feelings after certain events transpired (and a lot of me didn't want to acknowledge it with a Wot I Fink). However, it has been interesting to see everybody's thoughts laid out before I get to writing a Wot I Fink on the subject, and because of that, it's given me a lot more things to consider and talk about. So, put your flaming torches down for just a second, because I've got a fair bit to get off my chest.

First, let's start with something I want to nitpick on. There seems to be a common belief here that "copying" and "plagiarism" are interchangeable terms. They are, for all intents and purposes, pretty close, but whereas "copying" is just replicating something someone else created, "plagiarism" is completely stealing it and passing it off as your own without acknowledging the original source. The difference is in the acknowledgement (or at least the referencing) of the source material.

I'm not going to name names or cite examples, but I think that explanation makes it pretty clear that these blogs are all regarding the latter term. Plagiarism is, in most civilised states of the world, a very serious offence. Supposedly in Los Angeles, plagiarism in school is enough to put you on a public register and have you expelled, so that all the schools know you've essentially been cheating, and they too will refuse you entry. It's considered a very serious crime by most people, and for a good reason.

It's not your INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.

The thing with copying is that, while you are essentially recreating something someone else has done, you still admit that it's not your idea and then, in most cases, you will add something new to the copy or tweak it in some way to give it a new purpose or breath new life into it. That's essentially what fan-fictions, music remixes and video game mods are, and so long as the author has no reservations about how their work is used (I'm not going to completely explain IP laws and patents right now), everyone remains happy. Even the use of Deconstruction qualifies as a good copy, as long as the deconstruction is done well and isn't played straight for the sake of being played straight (and therefore just becoming a copy).

With plagiarism, you're completely doctoring the thoughts and words of somebody else, without indicating that you didn't create the work (or the idea for the work) in the first place. When somebody creates something or writes something, it becomes their intellectual property (unless you're in a job where your contract specifies the disclosing party owns your work). They own it. Simply making any piece of intellectual property look like you created it (by rearranging words, rewriting in your own words or throwing in bogus content) should be considered an immoral action, and one that should be treated as such.

Why? Because it undermines the very core of our political and economical structures (unless your communist, where you can ignore this entire blog since the Government owns everything you make automatically), and more importantly, it ruins the way that we as humans grow and learn. If we could simply cheat our way through life and gain nothing from experience, we would not be as advanced as we are today. Charlemagne didn't say he created all the books he used to rebuild civilisation. If he had, he would have become an emperor, and having a barbarian as an emperor could have only led to some dire circumstances. Furthermore, what about the creators of the intellectual property? If you sell the work as your own, they don't get paid. If you claim you did it, who are the people going to believe, and if it's not them, how will they be able to build their reputation up?

I don't think stealing intellectual property is on the same level as murder or arson, but it's definitely a crime that deserves punishment more than just a simple warning. As a creator of a lot of new intellectual property, I know the sting when somebody steals your work, and it truly is the one thing that sends me into a rage unseen by the members of this site (and most people in real life). The worst part is when the plagiarist themselves don't (or simply refuse to) understand the implications it has on not just the original creator, but on everybody in society. In many circumstances, the plagiarist can't even accept the fact it is hurting the original creator, even if they know and interact with that creator in their day-to-day life.

Using other peoples ideas to strengthen yours can be okay. That's how we got Star Wars, BioShock and even the Printing Press, which is a big reason for you and me being right here and right now. The thing is, they used basic concepts, and went in a different direction from the source material. They looked at the underlying reasons for why and how the idea worked and what implications (positive and negative) they could find buried in the implementation of the idea. Most importantly, though, if you looked at any of these works, you would notice that they don't shy away from what they reference. Most people know about "Ayn Rand" being rearranged to form "Andrew Ryan". Star Wars is pretty good as an allegory for WW2 and the Vietnam war. The printing press looked pretty much exactly the same as the wine presses it was based off. The difference here is that they were going in a different direction to the original work, and/or they were even attempting to comment on the original work. They acknowledged their original sources, albeit in creative ways.

When you plagiarise someone's work, the deepest meaning behind it is that either "you're lazy" or "you're a scumbag". It's a despicable practice and everyone is better than that. You might find that, if you spend effort slowly crafting your work, it may turn out much better than anything ever created before. And even if it doesn't, you'll gain more from the experience than just copying what somebody else did. Therefore, turn off the internet. Stop yourself from reading your friend's answers. Think carefully, and ask for help if needed. We all have a duty to bring something new to this world, and your failure to do so hurts everybody in the end.

And that's Wot I Fink.

P.S.: I think it's also morally unacceptable to straight copy somebodies work, even if you do acknowledge the originally source. That is, without a valid reason. For example, ORR is not in this category, because we want a version of LegoRR which we can modify beyond the normal game.

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The Ace Railgun

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Copy-cats...are just lazy idiots who have no imagination...Like the people who made millions of ipad clones and temple run clones...

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That gif is freaking amazing.

Also, somebody needs to send this to all the sad LU fan game attempts.

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ipad clones

Not sure what iPad clones you are talking about. Tablets weren't created by Apple.

 

If you're not referring to that, then I've never seen an iPad clone.

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Another great blog post, again I agree with your points. Without copying I wouldn't have learnt and developed so much in my Graphics Design course, but plagiarism is a complete no-go in everything we produce.

 

For further visual explanation, I highly recommend people take a look at the video below (applying it not just to art but all creative forms). It's not exactly about copying/plagiarism but talks about ideas, and I think it's a brilliant animation that really communicates the point well.

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Technically, Temple Run is based off of other games, which leads back and back until http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/, which I believe was the first "runner" game.

Copycats?"

Copy-cats...are just lazy idiots who have no imagination...Like the people who made millions of ipad clones and temple run clones...

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Making games of the same type isn't plagiarism or copying - it's fine to make more running games if you want. Or platformers. Whatever.

 

There's a blurry line between what's copying and what's simply work inspired by something else...and it's determined by opinion and whether or not you can sue someone for it.

 

ORR doesn't have to be straight-up copying if you make it your own by making your own vehicles, music, code, models, and environments, using some of the same stuff but making it something else (still Rock Raiders, but expanded, not just repeated).

That gif is freaking amazing.

Also, somebody needs to send this to all the sad LU fan game attempts.

That's old hat. The only LU copycat game still around is LEGO Galaxy, and I've already been discussing that with them. The others are all differentiated significantly. That said, only BUILD is actually getting anywhere.

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I almost got expelled for plagiarism once, although I did no such thing. Protip for teachers: just because you can copy my sentence into google and actually find results similar to my sentence, does not mean I copied them. :|

 

Oh, and by the way, I'm not back. *disappears back into darkness*

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