A peculiarity of the internet is that ideas get copied so quickly. I’ve seen words from my own little blog repeated elsewhere without attribution. But it is much worse when certain corporations target specific cottage industry people and repeatedly copy their creativity. Creative people will lose their desire to be creative if there are mere nanoseconds between when the roaring crowd is complimenting them on their creations and when the roaring crowd has forgotten where the idea originated and is complimenting some knockoff. Don’t get me wrong. I work in television and it is hard to do something original and get it out there. When one of my favorite books is adapted, I approach the movie or TV version with optimism.
But think how boring it would be if every single episode of CSI riffed on Raymond Chandler. Or, worse yet, if every single episode riffed on a story written by the same specific living writer. It would be unbelievably lame and, additionally, that one tormented specific living author would stop writing. The whole exercise would serve to make the TV show suck and make the source of the creative ideas dry up.
On advice of counsel, you will not see my precise thoughts about a lame rip-off site putting out some seriously ugly skull designs in response to the hot new Blue Blood Boutique skull designs. Longtime readers of Sexy Fandom certainly know what a big fan I am of Blue Blood, but I’m a fan for a reason. I love art which speaks to me. Everybody needs a paycheck and inspiration can strike from the strangest places, but I have no love for poorly conceived photocopies. And, when a television writer says something is a lame ripoff, those are strong words indeed.
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