Since rcw isn't a picture show and as most leading lights seem to move on from this ng, we have few if any problems re copying and plagiary. In fact, I suspect most of us would be very flattered. Nevertheless it appears to be a problem for some others so it does interest us, notwithstanding our loud protests that it doesn't. It's the bit dog that whelps and none here seem to have been bitten yet. :)
In an poor attempt to help diffuse a gathering storm of personalities off net (more like a tempest in an embellished bowl) I suggested these aphorisms about copying. Of course they are plagiarized from somewhere, most every original thought is and I haven't seen any posts from an Einstein nor a DaVinci. So without apology I'll dump them here, unasked for. Add or subtract your own plagiaries and don't feel guilty about it. :) ******************************************
- If the borrowed copy is not as good as the original, that's plagiary. What is it when the copy is an improvement?
- A plagiarist is really just a second hand dealer.
- In art there is no sixth commandment.
- If you must kidnap ideas, at least don't murder them.
- We feel uncomfortable about copied ideas until we learn how to use them. Then they become our own.
- It's almost as hard to avoid copying a woodturner's work as it is to turn it.
- A few turners who have had original ideas feel a greater right to use others' original ideas.
- Disfiguring a copy to hide the original idea doesn't make it your own.
- Plagiarists at least, are preservationists.
- A borrowed idea is like borrowed money, it just shows that the borrower is bankrupt.
- Plagiarists may have poor ethics, but they usually have good taste.
- Stealing ideas from a contemporary is plagiarism. Stealing the ideas of past generations or the ancients is erudition.
- A borrowed coat never keeps us warm. Arguing about plagiary often does.
Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter