Copying Versus Plagiarism
You don't find many academic publications in favor of copying, but I came upon In Praise of Copying. Marcus Boon makes the case that “copying is an essential part of being human... that the ability to copy is worthy of celebration, and that, without recognizing how integral copying is to being human, we cannot understand ourselves or the world we live in.”
Marcus Boon is a writer, and Associate Professor in English Literature at York University, Toronto. He says that "the university is a place that is truly saturated with copies and copying." From students who dress in "well-defined subcultural fashions" to the way they move through the "maze of corporate branding which controls everything from drinking water to the bathroom walls."
And speaking of copying, you can download a free copy of his book at the Harvard University Press web site that has been released under a Creative Commons license. You can also purchase a printed copy online.
Boon says that the book grew out of the observation that although copying is pervasive in contemporary culture, at the same time it is subject to laws, restrictions,
and attitudes that suggest that it is wrong.
We have music that samples other music, mashups, BitTorrent, tools like Google Earth or Photoshop, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter that make copying easy and encourage it in many ways.
Still, when we use many sites or products we are confronted with copyright and
intellectual-property law in the form of notices, fine print and terms in small print that we usually don't read and click on AGREE and continue.
He notes that our ability to
make copies at the macro and even micro (via nanotechnology and replication from the atom up) levels is big business. Even the software and services online that push and pull your "personal data" (if there is such a thing anymore) from one place to another makes me wonder what “public domain” and "fair use" and other legal terms will mean in a few years. This blog post contains things copied from other web pages including the author's site.
Interesting reading and an interesting topic of discussion to have with your colleagues and students.
Marcus Boon is a writer, and Associate Professor in English Literature at York University, Toronto. He says that "the university is a place that is truly saturated with copies and copying." From students who dress in "well-defined subcultural fashions" to the way they move through the "maze of corporate branding which controls everything from drinking water to the bathroom walls." And speaking of copying, you can download a free copy of his book at the Harvard University Press web site that has been released under a Creative Commons license. You can also purchase a printed copy online.
Boon says that the book grew out of the observation that although copying is pervasive in contemporary culture, at the same time it is subject to laws, restrictions,
and attitudes that suggest that it is wrong.
We have music that samples other music, mashups, BitTorrent, tools like Google Earth or Photoshop, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter that make copying easy and encourage it in many ways.
Still, when we use many sites or products we are confronted with copyright and
intellectual-property law in the form of notices, fine print and terms in small print that we usually don't read and click on AGREE and continue.
He notes that our ability to
make copies at the macro and even micro (via nanotechnology and replication from the atom up) levels is big business. Even the software and services online that push and pull your "personal data" (if there is such a thing anymore) from one place to another makes me wonder what “public domain” and "fair use" and other legal terms will mean in a few years. This blog post contains things copied from other web pages including the author's site.
Interesting reading and an interesting topic of discussion to have with your colleagues and students.
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