Download/Rip divide
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- Danski
So I'm sat talking to a friend last night when an advert comes on TV, looking like a style rip. I mention it off hand (i know, being *that* guy) and consider the matter dusted. My friend asks me about it, and I explain about the phenomenon of site ripping. He says, "but you download MP3's, isn't that the same thing?"
But I put forward the idea that these things are equivalent:
Pair 1:
Downloading and listening to music, and Downloading and looking at design.Pair 2:
Downloading a DJ set, and playing it at your club night whilst pretending to mix, and downloading and ripping a site design to use as your own.Am I right or wrong? Surely looking/listening and enjoying is not the same as plagiarism/claiming as your own? Has this world gone topsy-turvy over night? Where is my milk?
- jox0
well, when you rip a site, you're taking advantage of somebody's talent by using it as your own.
But when you download music, you actually enjoy the artist and you would never think of d/l-ing a karaoke-version of the song to sing in your own text.
I don't think it's the same thing actually.
- Danski0
That's exactly what I am saying. I don't speak english good today. Danski is most wanted brain mulcher but cannot write for ham.
- sparker0
but you leave out a fundamental understanding that "style" cannot be owned or ripped.
you said it was a 'stylistic' rip...meaning that it didn't actually copy anyones finished work - or call it their own, it only pertained to a certain genre or style of design...
if style could be owned, then there would be NO design industry...because nothing designers do is every totally original. whether designers' egos allow them to know this is another story...everything you design can be traced to another, previous work.
even international copyright law states that 'style' and 'concept' CANNOT be owned, patented or copywritten.
now, if it was an EXACT copy of someone finished design, and the commercial called it their own, that is a rip.
but just because the commercial used vector art, 3d or pixel fonts...doesn't make it a rip.
why people don't understand this, i'll never know...but it is the facts of the industry and of design as a whole, and has been for centuries.
- Danski0
That was unecessary information on my part... just saying that it looked like a clumsy attempt to be like agency X, and that sparked a conversation. today my head is full of ham.