Better Together

 

            As I was reading the information for the copyrights and fair use assignment, my mind kept thinking about the poem that begins Ernest Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.  For those of you who are not familiar with this novel, Hemingway starts the novel with a poem by John Donne, written in an archaic form of English.  The part of the poem that resonates with me is the beginning where Donne writes, “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine…”(Donne, 1940).  As this relates to creativity and original works, this means that no one who creates, creates alone, in a vacuum, devoid of the influence of other people.

            Practically, creativity is spawned by the people, culture, and ideas of those that we allow into our sphere of attention.  In this way, every person creates their own understanding of the unique experiences of the world that they live in.  These unique experiences would not be possible without the thoughts and experiences of others.  Original thoughts and ideas are born on the thoughts and ideas of others in a sort of human culture amalgam.

            However, ideas are where the law draws the line.  If you go beyond ideas and copy someone else’s work wholesale, and try to pass it off as your own, at the very least it is plagiarism, and at its worst is theft.  Not only is this practice theft, but it is also lying.  Regardless of the law, ethically it is wrong.

            Unfortunately, it is becoming more evident every day that the law is just words when it comes to this subject.  If those words are not enforced, then the words of the law are empty and do not amount to the value of the ink (or electrons) used to portray their meaning.  This seems to be where our culture is heading in the information revolution.  Now, anyone with a computer and mouse can clip, snag, screen capture, and crop any digital representation of anyone’s hard work with a few clicks and taps.

            For these reasons, I liked learning about how creative commons licenses can help keep the balance of protecting creator’s works, yet unleashing the potential tangential ideas that other creators can use to add to the amalgamation of culture.  Creative commons licenses keep creators in control of their works, so they can decide how and what works of theirs will be used.  Even though it is not a one stop fix to intellectual theft, it is a beginning to unleash creativity.  In this way, we are better together.  Again, “No man is an iland, intire of it selfe…” (Donne, 1940).

References

Donne, J. (1940). No Man is an Iland.  In E. Hemmingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (p. 1). New York, NY:  Quality Paperback Book Club