In both the articles of The Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book and Thomas's article we see that piracy has always been a problem. In the Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book the author explains that back in the day it was roughly 90 to 1 on stolen text material. Thats an extremely high number. Thomas's reading was mostly about the 13th century and talked about the reproductions of material where when they would write a book, re-write it, because in the 13th century they didn't have printers, names could be changed on the author, having multiple others for one story. They as well kind of changed the stories of the book at times and what the outcome was. This is all cheating though nowadays.
Now my argument is that it is not the same back in the day with the consequences that occur, but I do agree people do the same time of stuff as they did back in the day. Now when it comes to consequences, back in the day you could not be kicked out of school or even arrested as you can today ( if the fine is big enough ) . This piracy definitely brings me back to music piracy and movie piracy - I mean they are technically writers - but I feel like that this is another difference because this form of piracy can get you into jail and rack up fines like crazy...anyways...back to the main point...so the consequences are very different nowadays because If I were to plagiarize and got caught by a teacher I would fail the paper, maybe be kicked out of the class, and kicked out of the college. If I were to be caught by the website, book, paper, etc I took it from, thats copyright infringement aka i'm getting sued up the ass. The consequences are severe nowadays.
However, I do agree that people still do the same things as they did back in the day. People that pirate stolen text all the time and make it as there own, its wrong and most get caught; however, lots don't and get away with stealing someones hard work (cough cough Vanilla Ice..)- he got caught though. People also change a few words in the paragraph and expect that to now be there work...uh nope not the case. Most people however think so and basically just copy the text. If not cited then this is plagiarism a form of piracy.
I think the moral of this subject is just not to do it...
I agree that piracy has became a much bigger issue in modern society. It seems like the internet is a double edged sword in the fight against piracy. You can easily find the true author of a book making it very hard for someone to claim the work to be theirs, but you can also download e-books and books on tape.
ReplyDeleteYour title is interesting. We all use the phrases and thoughts of someone else at some point or another, often even. It seems like the a big issue is where to draw the line. We're so concerned with giving people credit where credit is due now and fining those who do not give other people credit. I, personally, think that we are a bit too harsh sometimes. I think we should be a little more lax when it comes to sharing information.
ReplyDeleteYes, music is a text! You might be interested in Old+Old+Old=New: A Copyright Manifesto for the Digital World if you haven't read it before.
ReplyDeleteI would call taking someones book and writing your name as the author on it cheating...Thats defined as plagiarism, the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work.
ReplyDeleteBeing punished for piracy is definitely a larger issue now days. Then again it is incredibly easy to do and there are far more people doing it today than in the 13th century. As the ability to pirate becomes easier and more accessible to so many people, so does the punishment and regulation have to increase in order to try to stop it.
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