topherchris

Flickr user Von Brandis used to have a whole set of these, but they’ve disappeared. It seems that there was some controversy over the fact that this wasn’t an entirely original idea.

It’s interesting to me how many people get so upset over this sort of thing — this presumed “copying” of an idea. You can’t copyright an idea (only a specific execution of one), so it’s not a legal matter. It seems to me that people want to turn it into an ethical issue. You’re either a talentless hack or a thief if you make something that’s inspired in any way by something else (or if you just coincidentally stumbled on the same idea).

What’s weird about this phenomenon is that it doesn’t seem to apply to music in the same way. An artist can directly sample as much audio as possible and it’s not frowned upon in the same way. I don’t know of any intelligent person calling Girl Talk a no-talent hack or thief. Sure, maybe he’s not your cup of tea — but people generally seem to respect what he does at the very least as a legitimate form of artistic expression.

Don’t get me started on the Apple iPhone teaser commercial mess.