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Stealing Is a Skill

ben-mini.com

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Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#21

Post by mannanj »

I looked up stealing to ground this comment of mine:

> stealing: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice

I admire Ben for being so direct. I wonder why we fetishize, herbicide and normalize theft, even deception today. When did this become normal, and why draw the line at digital creation and not just allow theft of physical objects, too? (I mean I get the arguments about copying someones digital creation doesn't really mean you took what they had from them, you just made a copy, though this doesn't logically apply to if I also physically stole someones product and made a copy since copyright/patent protection likely applies)

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#23

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

MCP123 wrote: post #22

It's stealing when copyright is infringed and when the stealing part is not acknowledged. Otherwise, can we called it "inspired by"?

No, that's just copyright infringement. It's stealing when the stolen thing is no longer accessible to the previous owner.

Consensus differs on whether both, or just one, is morally objectionable. Conflating them is problematic.

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#24

Post by patrickscoleman »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #17

Copywork is an exercise where writers just copy verbatim another writers work. If you haven’t done it, it is an extraordinary way to see how the greats work. It also tends to improve your own writing skills - at least as long as you are copying from your betters. This seems like the web design version of this.

Obligatory link to a relevant Jorge Luis Borges story: Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote (about an author who copied Don Quixote word for word)

https://raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/Engl10/Pierre-Mena...

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#25

Post by dchftcs »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #17

Copywork is an exercise where writers just copy verbatim another writers work. If you haven’t done it, it is an extraordinary way to see how the greats work. It also tends to improve your own writing skills - at least as long as you are copying from your betters. This seems like the web design version of this.

A bit tough to say this, but transformers are trained the same way.

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#28

Post by carlosjobim »

emaro wrote: post #7

I kind of agree in the sense that stealing a good idea and executing it well is a skill. Copying someones site "pixel by pixel" seems disrispectful though and I don't know what there's to be proud of.

I thought the same at first, but they are copying somebody's old and retired design, ie the other company doesn't use that design anymore.

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#29

Post by a4isms »

MCP123 wrote: post #22

It's stealing when copyright is infringed and when the stealing part is not acknowledged. Otherwise, can we called it "inspired by"?

There is something of a tradition in the design world to use theft-shaped words for things we collect for inspiration/ideas. A piece of advice I followed in the 80s and 90s when paper was still a thing was to have a "Swipe File," which was a collection of things you saw and liked, on paper.

In my own case as a designer of desktop apps, my Swipe File was not just digital screen shots of parts of apps that I admired, but I physically printed them out as well so I could spread them on a desk, floor, and walls when brainstorming.

That word "Swipe" also inspired the name of a design store catering to creative professionals in my home town, Toronto:

https://www.swipe.com/about

Re: Stealing Is a Skill

#30

Post by anonyfox »

mannanj wrote: post #21

I looked up stealing to ground this comment of mine: > stealing: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice I admire Ben for being so direct. I wonder why we fetishize, herbicide and normalize theft, even deception today. When did this become normal, and why draw the line at digital creation and not just allow theft of physical objects, too? (I mean I get the arguments…

the very point is that theft means you no longer have something since someone else has. copying is you still have it and someone else now too. there is no harm done by copying, except you actually believe that exclusivity as a separate concept is important to you. (debatable, I don't).
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