I HATE THEFT!
Now I'm not talking about breaking in to someone's house and taking their TV, I hate this too, but in my opinion theft of artistic ideas is even worse. Especially if you're stealing from a working professional and using their ideas to make money yourself.
Stealing the ideas from anyone who works in the arts is essentially the same as stealing a farmer's tractor, a vintner's grapes or a chef's recipe. Without them they just can't work. Its diabolical and I truly detest anyone who takes something that isn't theirs and use it as if it was.
Why has this come up now?
Well earlier this week my friend Dan over at Lebanon Circle told me he'd suffered from intellectual property theft and how he's frustrated that there's next to nothing he can do about it.
For those that don't know Dan is an artist and creates awesome props and special effects for the performance industry. His ideas are simply that, HIS ideas. No-one has the right to take them and sell them as their own.
This really pissed me off. But, as you know from my earlier post, I had a load of packing to do and that kind of took over my week.
Then earlier today whilst surfing Facebook I noticed yet more theft!
I couldn't believe it.
Earlier this season I worked with a couple of very talented circus performers and their act involves being brought on as a clockwork doll. Now I know this isn't completely original with them. I know others have done clockwork characters before. However, their act and costume design came from their own creativity.
Their act isn't a direct copy of someone else's work.
However another performer from that same show has suddenly started working as a clockwork doll. Not only that, they've started working as a clockwork doll that looks very similar to those I worked with before.
In fact if you put them in the same gig together they look similar enough you'd think they were all part of the same act.
I think anyone who blatantly steals from another artist is the lowest of the low.
No, scrap that.
That last sentence makes out like those thieves are also artists. They're not. They're thieves.
I think anyone who steals from artists are the lowest of the low.
If you can't create your own material or can't afford to pay to have an artist create material for you then you shouldn't be in the creative arts. Do something else. Do anything else. I don't care what you do, just stop stealing other people's stuff.
If you've seen something you really like and that particular artist won't sell it to you LEAVE IT ALONE!
If you still think its ok to steal other people's stuff watch this video from Dan. You have been warned....
