When someone asks you to copy something: Plagiarism

I received an email recently, asking me for my opinion on this matter. A few years ago, I made a comment on another blog regarding plagiarism, and the reader tracked me down. She sent me an email asking for my thoughts and opinions. My response is below:

"Hi April,

There are those that create work and those who sell iterations of other's work. In my experience, it has always been a matter of how hungry you are for the work.

Whenever I felt like my superiors where giving me direction towards a copy of something else, I worked late nights and long weekends to present them something better. Ideally, it was something new, too.

If a client blatantly hands you material, asking you to copy it; politely remind them of how they might feel knowing that their products, services or ideas are being copied and sold cheaper.

Think of it this way: Some clients, Bosses--whomever, may just be poor communicators. In saying this, understand that when they are providing you reference, they're also saying, "I like this style or technique." As the solution provider, take the old and make the new [skeuomorph]. Sometimes, a client or director has no other means of communicating their direction. So they find something that speaks for them, in some capacity. This situation happens a lot. If time permits, ask more questions. Ask them why they think that piece represents them so accurately. Try to get them to open up a little and focus on the task you are being given. This often sparks enough insight, to change the objectives. The more informed you are about the initial creative problem, the more likely you will be able to find a better solution, quickly.

There are also times that a client want's an identical copy while being totally cognizant of the fact that they are demonstrating plagiarism. People will use many excuses, as a means to justify the need to copy something, most of which are complete bullshit. There is always time to create something better. The more informed you are about the initial creative problem, the more likely you will be able to find a better solution, quickly.

As designers, writers, programers and creatives, we're tasked with providing creative solutions to conceptual problems, everyday. You are aware that this problem exists, be creative with how you solve it. There are always ways, and your creativity doesn't stop with a logo, webpage or print ad. :)

I hope this helps in some small way.
Thanks for reaching out.
Marc"

Anyone one else encounter this? How do you resolve the situation?

Ideas and action, talent is a species of vigor

Hopefully you have had the opportunity to read something from Eric Hoffer. His philosophies, writing and social commentary are always enlightening. His personal story is very interesting as well. Richard Florida, within the last four years, has been an influential voice regarding the creative class (someting Hoffer often spoke of) within societies and communities. I thought I would pull some quotes of Hoffers for readers to absorb. Enjoy. If you have the time, check out some of Richard's writing and research, too.

"The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action."

(And this excerpt is more interesting.)

"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor."

-Eric Hoffer

Apples, Nikes, Cokes, Facebooks, Zappos

Forget About Harley and Apple. On Dim Bulb, Baskin's recent article opens nicely:

"Marketing's dim science lets itself get distracted and misled by the stand-outs and exceptions. It's no surprise, since we're in the standing-out business (and think of ourselves as quite exceptional, thank you very much), but we tend to read a lot of meaning into uniquely complex accomplishments that can't be copied because of their unique complexity:"

Jump to the Article

Has the Internet Killed Print Journalism

Originally on Adholes

Events being validated by the people experiencing them as they happen, will be the News. The mountain top known as Media or journalsm, in theory, is becoming a mountain range. There is nothing wrong with that. If an algorithm can be written to aggregate events from the cloud as they happen using geo-specific data, and then delivered to your computer or mobile device--why would you need someone to report it?

Here's why: The News organizations are already practicing that old tried-and-true model for commoditization; scarcity. News is up, then down. It won't be crawled, so it won't be indexed, which means you can't search for it. Egalitarian information or News?

Technically, News is independent of the medium. It can be news, no matter how it is delivered.
The internet hasn't changed journalism, people have.

To add to my initial response above, Journalism is medium-independent, as well.

UPDATE: 11.22.09 David Weinberger writes about Transparency and Objectivity