{"id":505,"date":"2016-04-06T05:49:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T05:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=505"},"modified":"2016-04-06T05:49:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T05:49:04","slug":"plagiarism-plagiarism-steve-jobs-zuckerberg-shakespeare-simpsons-originality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505","title":{"rendered":"My Experiments With Plagiarism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

E<\/span>very time I begin writing a new script or a new post, an internal struggle takes place in my head. This is how it usually unfolds:\n\n<\/p>\u201cI\u2019m not being original.\u201d\n\u201cSomeone else has already written about this.\u201d\n\u201cThere are a million articles like this \u2013 why would anyone read mine?\u201d<\/em>\n\nUsually the struggle wins and instead of taking action, I wait. I go back to consuming rather than producing. I realise now how completely futile and self-destructive this kind of mindset is. This is not how creators think. As Salvador Dali said: \u201cThose who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.\u201d\n\nConsider this tale: a cultivated man of middle age looks back on the story of an amour fou<\/em>, one beginning when, travelling abroad, he takes a room as a lodger. The moment he sees the daughter of the house, he is lost. She is a preteen, whose charms instantly enslave him. Heedless of her age, he becomes intimate with her. In the end she dies, and the narrator \u2013 marked by her forever \u2013 remains alone. The name of the girl supplies the title of the story: Lolita<\/em>.\n\nThe author of the story I\u2019ve described, Heinz von Lichberg, published his tale of Lolita in 1916, 40 years before Vladimir Nabokov\u2019s novel. Did Nabokov, who remained in Berlin until 1937, adopt Lichberg\u2019s tale consciously? Or did the earlier tale exist for Nabokov as a hidden, unacknowledged memory?\n\nThe history of literature is not without examples of this phenomenon, called cryptomnesia. Little of what we admire in Nabokov\u2019s Lolita<\/em> is to be found in its predecessor; the former is in no way deducible from the latter. Still: Did Nabokov consciously borrow and quote?\n\nThe truth is, originality is a myth.\n\nVery little in this world can be considered wholly and unequivocally original. The phrase \u201cthere is nothing new under the sun\u201d captures the essence of this. Every film, every book, every speech, every painting, every innovation, is built upon the prior work of thousands of others. When a great orator makes a great speech you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men \u2013 but we call it his<\/em> speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it is<\/em> his.\n\nIt takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a telephone or any other important thing \u2013 and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite<\/em> \u2013 that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that 99 parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.\n\nTake a look at this list of people who have stolen, copied and imitated: Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Michael Jackson, Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, William Shakespeare\u2026 In fact here\u2019s Steve Jobs quoting<\/a> Picasso that \u201cgood artists copy, great artists steal.\u201d\n\nWere it not for stealing, progress as we know it would grind to a halt in every last domain: Poetry, science, writing, art, music, sports. It is simply not possible to create something out of nothing. Every innovation builds upon the past, standing on the shoulders of giants.\n\nThe kernel, the soul \u2013 let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all<\/em> human utterances \u2013 is plagiarism.\n\nIn a courtroom scene from The Simpsons<\/em> that has since entered into the television canon, an argument over the ownership of the animated characters Itchy and Scratchy rapidly escalates into an existential debate on the very nature of cartoons. \u201cAnimation is built on plagiarism!\u201d declares the show\u2019s hot-tempered cartoon-producer-within-a-cartoon, Roger Meyers Jr. \u201cYou take away our right to steal ideas, where are they going to come from?\u201d\n\nMost artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one\u2019s voice isn\u2019t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos. Any artist knows these truths, no matter how deeply he or she submerges that knowing.\n

Copyright is a \u201cright\u201d in no absolute sense; it is a government-granted monopoly on the use of creative results.<\/blockquote>\nWhat then, of copyright? Plagiarism and piracy, after all, are the monsters we working artists are taught to dread, as they roam the woods surrounding our tiny preserves of regard and remuneration.\n\nFew of us today question the contemporary construction of copyright. It is taken as a law, both in the sense of a universally recognisable moral absolute, like the law against murder, and as naturally inherent in our world, like the law of gravity. In fact, it is neither. Rather, copyright is an ongoing social negotiation, tenuously forged, endlessly revised, and imperfect in its every incarnation.\n\nAmerican Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, for one, considered copyright a necessary evil: He favoured providing just enough incentive to create, nothing more, and thereafter allowing ideas to flow freely, as nature intended. His conception of copyright was enshrined in the American Constitution, which gives US Congress the authority to \u201cpromote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.\u201d This was a balancing act between creators and society as a whole; second comers might do a much better job than the originator with the original idea.\n\nBut Jefferson\u2019s vision has not fared well; it has in fact been steadily eroded by those who view the culture as a market in which everything of value should be owned by someone or other. With no registration requirement, every creative act in a tangible medium is now subject to copyright protection: your email to your child or your child\u2019s finger painting, both are automatically protected.\n\nIn the contemporary world, though, the act of \u201ccopying\u201d is in no meaningful sense equivalent to an infringement \u2013 we make a copy every time we accept an emailed text, or send or forward one \u2013 and is impossible anymore to regulate or even describe.\n\nCopyright is a \u201cright\u201d in no absolute sense; it is a government-granted monopoly on the use of creative results. So let\u2019s try calling it that \u2013 not a right but a monopoly on use<\/em> \u2013 and then consider how the rapacious expansion of monopoly rights has always been counter to the public interest, no matter if it is Andrew Carnegie controlling the price of steel or Walt Disney managing the fate of his mouse.\n\nMaybe now\u2019s a good time to confess that <\/strong>I have deliberately plagiarised almost every word you have read here. How else do you make a point about the futility of originality? <\/strong>\n\nPlagiarised with great pleasure from:<\/em> The Ecstasy of Influence <\/a>by Jonathan Lethem; Screw Originality, Just Do It<\/a> by <\/em>Gary Wu on Medium.com. The rest of my points have been borrowed from this lovely BrainPickings essay<\/a>.<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[763,764,765,766,767],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-plagiarism","tag-steve-jobs","tag-the-simpsons","tag-william-shakespeare"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Experiments With Plagiarism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Experiments With Plagiarism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"RayC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"My Experiments With Plagiarism\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RayC\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"RayC\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe\"},\"headline\":\"My Experiments With Plagiarism\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505\"},\"wordCount\":1214,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1475501214.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Mark Zuckerberg\",\"Plagiarism\",\"Steve Jobs\",\"The Simpsons\",\"William Shakespeare\"],\"articleSection\":[\"POV\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505\",\"name\":\"My Experiments With Plagiarism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1475501214.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe\"},\"description\":\"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1475501214.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1475501214.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=505#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Experiments With Plagiarism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe\",\"name\":\"RayC\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"RayC\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=60\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Experiments With Plagiarism","description":"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Experiments With Plagiarism","og_description":"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":800,"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"RayC","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"My Experiments With Plagiarism","twitter_description":"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RayC","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505"},"author":{"name":"RayC","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/#\/schema\/person\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe"},"headline":"My Experiments With Plagiarism","datePublished":"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505"},"wordCount":1214,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","keywords":["Mark Zuckerberg","Plagiarism","Steve Jobs","The Simpsons","William Shakespeare"],"articleSection":["POV"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505","name":"My Experiments With Plagiarism","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-06T05:49:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/#\/schema\/person\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe"},"description":"Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","width":1280,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=505#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Experiments With Plagiarism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/#\/schema\/person\/d589ddc91bbc2a4dfdcbee5e7b0dadbe","name":"RayC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fda6b515c6f8f647a1f83d87a91ac3f15ac1ca7d749671c3efd60f5b9211db0a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"RayC"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=60"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1475501214.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}