Hazy Boundaries

I like writing poetry, on the occasion some thought inspires me to weave my thoughts and feelings into a word-painting. I'd also like to share them with an audience, get some feedback and provoke discussion, but something always holds me back: the risk of someone stealing my work.

On the Internet, people play fast and loose with rules, bending them, breaking them with impunity, relatively safe within the anonymous mass. Unless you're a serial downloader on the RIAA's hitlist, or on the federal hitlist for other things, there's plenty you can get away with.

I speak mainly of copyright laws, though the same sort of incursions on other individual rights also frequently occur. Music, movies, books (look no further than leaked versions of the last Harry Potter book), and art all become so vulnerable, once placed in the vast unregulated reservoir of the Web. And regulation, or lack of it, is the key point. (The Founders must've thought that the commerce clause was pretty clever in dealing with boundaries- what a headache the Internet would have given them). The absolute freedom of this decentralized medium is what makes it great, but it also puts the intellectual property of many at risk.

With a click, you can share your ideas with the world; but with another, you can also share someone else's without attribution. That's not to say this doesn't happen in the world of print and hard copies. After all, plagiarism and accusations of plagiarism have long plagued scholars, artists, musicians, and other thinker-creators. Still, the scope of such unlawful copying is more limited than what it would be on the Internet.

So the main reason for this post comes down to a plea, an appeal to the good nature of the Internet audience, an argument for attributional responsibility. (I may be wasting my breath, I know, but at least I'm trying): Please. Don't pass off as your own what is not yours. Think of the artist, the poet, the scientist, the analyst who labored to create what it is you're enjoying, and give them their due, be it proper payment, or simply a citation.

And if you share this with someone else, please give me credit.