Molotov and the Ecstasy of Influence Response

The Molotov reading was very interesting.  I am really not good when it comes to all that copyright politics stuff.  I may sound ignorant when I say it, but it did not seem like it was that big of a deal just to see if you can get permission to make a painting of a piece of art that was originally created by someone else.  I kind of thought that the author who was telling their story was making a big deal out of something that was not that big of a deal.  Sure, the author was putting his or her own spin on the piece of art but it was still originally the idea of someone else. Yes, art should not have any limits but it still gets very difficult to decide who is in the wrong and who is in the right when someone wants to take another person’s idea.  The tone I got from this author was kind of negative and a little pompous.  Again, I could be wrong but that is just the vibe that I got.   I mean, if you are that nervous about getting involved in copyright issues then do what the original artist’s lawyer requests you should do.  After all, they worked hard for that piece and getting your art to be recognized is not an easy thing to do, so credit should be given to wherever the credit is due.

This same idea of plagiarism falls in line with “The Ecstasy of influence” article.  Plagiarism is a very scary word to me.  Since the topic of this article is plagiarism, it reminds me of how paranoid I get whenever I have to turn in a paper for one of my classes.  So much is at stake like the grade you will receive, how much the paper will affect your overall average, and last but not least, making sure that the information, or ideas, included in your paper is 100% yours.  The professors scare you so much whenever they say that one word.  It is scary that whether or not you meant to plagiarize you still get penalized for it. There are no re-dos and regardless of your intentions the fact that you still plagiarized is a nasty concept.  The article points out that it is ok to be influenced but you still must watch what you claim as your idea.  Influences still have their own ways of leading to new and fresh original ideas.