IPR and the internet - who cares

[deepvisual]

Prompted by the recent direct rip off on CDM of the running tiger, I got to thinking about the pros and cons of IP theft..
seems that more and more, people are quite happy to blatantly rip off other peoples work from youtube and the benefits of doing so far outweigh the negative consequences.

No one seems to care anymore about who it was that was came up with an idea or who did it first, they just want to be the first to appropriate the idea for themselves or their product..

[SilentEclipse]

Someone once told me that agencys basically look through youtube/vimeo, find something they like that seems cutting edge, then make it themselves for a client..

[john01]

There's inspiration and then there's copying. Sometimes the copying is unintentional, and we all learn by imitation.

If I was younger, more talented and less lazy I might have been inspired by the tiger to go out and do some mobile mapping, probably not an animal, I'd probably try to do something like map a live feed of 5 yards back down the road.

[john01]

Originally Posted by SilentEclipse

Someone once told me that agencys basically look through youtube/vimeo, find something they like that seems cutting edge, then make it themselves for a client..

you mean ad agencies?

I know creative directors who refuse to copy, and others that do it blatantly. However advertising is extremely complicated these days, so just copying off Youtube is not really an option for a campaign, though you may find examples in the creative execution of part of a campaign.

Hey ho, it's 10.30PM here in Tokyo, I'm still at work, another 12 hour day, and it's Friday, if only advertising were so simple as copying stuff off Youtube, my life would be much easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czAfu3O-qg0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czAfu3O-qg0

[many2]

Originally Posted by SilentEclipse

Someone once told me that agencys basically look through youtube/vimeo, find something they like that seems cutting edge, then make it themselves for a client..

What happens even more often is that a client has seen something nice on the net and asks the agency or studio to do something similar. Happens all the time.

[deepvisual]

Yup, Monkey See Monkey Do.

Its just become one big ideas free-for-all. which is kinda sad really. IPR has totally turned on its head in some industries but not in others. You cant publish a photo of a photo of a can of soup, if it was taken by Andy Warhol, but you can copy someone else's projection exactly and take all the credit.

[many2]

Well, I'd say that the video projection world is much like cooking : execution of cooking recipes is NOT protected by copyright or any other intellectual property laws as far as I know. I suppose the text of the recipe can be protected, just as any written text, but that still would not prevent anyone from using any recipe and even to sell the meals in a restaurant.

Fashion is another industry with a similar set of very loose intellectual property protection. Unless you are selling faked Louis Vuiton handbags produced in china, you can copy the style of any designer and not fear any legal issues whatsoever.

[sleepytom]

I don't get the obsession with this idea of originality. Nobody has every really cared who invented an idea.

It is sad when a good idea from the art scene gets copied for comercial advertising (normally in a way which is poorly executed as well as unoriginal - see then endless Blu animated graffiti rip offs by ad agencies) but it is not surprising.

In the case of the two tigers they both seem to be arts projects rather than adverts - in which case it could simply be a coincidence? Projection from a moving vehicle isn't new (i've done it at least 5 years ago for a music video shoot) and as soon as you try it you think of having the projection be of an animated person / animal. If you were to pick an animal to animate which one would you choose? Maybe a dog? perhaps you prefer cats? which is the most iconic cat, with a good high contrast fur colour that would work well projected?

I can easily see this idea being invented twice by people.

[many2]

I do get the idea of originality. While to a point nobody cares who really invented an idea, I can understand the value of being recognized as the creator of something fabulous. To come back to my cooking and fashion world examples, all chefs will want to be known for their recipes, and fashion designers for their clothes (even though they both might have borrowed the idea from someone else in the beginning) and I can understand it can be the same for video projections.

[sleepytom]

It seems that some people are desperate to be credited as the "inventor" of something, regardless of how popular that thing is or isn't.

In reality your only as good as your last gig. The people who do well are the ones who can sell their abilities to people with money. Often these people are not "the best" or "the inventor" of the thing they are doing.

Obviously being credited with developing a technique is a nice complement, but it seems that many people these days are actively seeking such complements, by posting "documentation" type videos on youtube or even going so far as to apply for patents in an effort to claim they are the originators of a generic idea.