Plagiarism and copyright laws

[Comrade B]

A Marxist perspective on the issue?
It seems somewhat disrespectful to claim the ideas of someone else for yourself, but on the other hand it seems just more reasonable for information to be free.

[Tifosi]

As long as you say who came up with what you are spreading I see no problem with it. If you take credit for it or don't say who made it then I see it as wrong.

[ZeroNowhere]

The first thing that comes to mind is this (http://kapitalism101.wordpress.com/robots-vs-luddites/). It's two videos, and most of the text is below them if you just want to read the relevant parts.

[mikelepore]

Note that they are different things.

To use writing as an example:

Copyright law says you may not copy the exact words that someone else used, unless the part that you copy is a small fraction of the work as a whole. As long as you change the words, you may paraphrase as much of it as you want to. Giving the author credit won't get you out of that restriction.

Plagiarism is failure to give the author credit, regardless of whether you use the author's exact words or paraphrase it.

[Martin Blank]

Copyright law says you may not copy the exact words that someone else used, unless the part that you copy is a small fraction of the work as a whole. As long as you change the words, you may paraphrase as much of it as you want to. Giving the author credit won't get you out of that restriction.

Even so, copyright is only a problem if the holder enforces it. We hold copyright on the articles in our publications, but we only enforce it selectively, against plagiarists and capitalist pirate publishers. However, if someone reprints our work with proper attribution, copyright is not an issue as far as we are concerned.

[The Vegan Marxist]

My view on copyright laws is this. I had a book of mine published last year, & can be found on Amazon.com along with a copyright & everything. All you'd have to do is look up 'Project-Mother Earth', & you'd find it. But, due to my views of the copyright law, here's my response to it for everyone. Click here (http://download852.mediafire.com/yjjt0ubngxlg/utx0ozqiobw/project.pdf) to get a free digital copy of the entire book.

[Bitter Ashes]

Depends. I think people should have credit for thier creations, but this has been seriously abused in capitalism.

Copywriting is just another form of denying access to goods. GSK has permanently severed the supply of anti-aids drugs to millions of Africans with copyright laws. An American buisnessman crashed the whole basmatti rice production in India with a patent application, leading to mass poverty and the eradication of a significant peasant class.

I think at the end of the day, the risks of denying products are far too high and aknowledgement and credit are social conditions and cannot be legislated.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Ideas are ideas. Why do you want credit for them.

If you come up with an invention that benefits society you should be glad that it benefits society.

[mikelepore]

If you don't give others credit for their writings, it can cause social problems for other people. Suppose John Smith says "I wrote a new poem today. It goes like this: To be or not to be, that is the question." Suppose someone hears that and quotes it to others. "As for the source of those fine words, they originated with John Smith." Then other people bash the person for performing sloppy research: "You idiot, those words are from Shakespeare."