IP theft: Are we all up to no good?

Imitation, as the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. In artistic circles, however, direct imitation may just as readily be seen as theft of intellectual property. One could easily formulate an argument that this is not true in all cases, and might even suggest that the imitated piece of work itself is actually ‘borrowed’ from elsewhere.
The notion that there are no longer any original ideas, and that this has been the case for a very long time, was raised via an online video our class watched throughout the week. In linking globalisation to this idea that we are all borrowing from at least one source when creating a piece of work ourselves, my mind journeyed to one of my top ten favourite films, The Departed. This film, which won Martin Scorsese his first Academy Award for Best Director, is of course a remake of a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs.
Filmmaking quite often lends itself to this concept of borrowing or sourcing ideas, and films invariably contain instances of intertextuality, described by Brown (2012, p.33) as being ‘the inherently interrelated or interconnected nature of all texts and conventions.’ This is certainly true of a film such as Pulp Fiction, and director Quentin Tarantino has previously stated his admiration of the work French director Jean-Pierre Melville did with his characters’ costumes. This adds weight to the argument that the cinematic art form can transcend international barriers and influence mainstream culture.
In terms of music, mashups are now a common element of a DJs arsenal, and the concept of artists sampling other artists’ work is certainly not new. Examples of this range from Destiny’s Child’s sampling of Fleetwood Mac’s Edge of Seventeen in their song Bootylicious, to the controversial use of The Rolling Stones’ The Last Time by The Verve in Bittersweet Symphony, which resulted in the latter having to relinquish their rights to the credits to the former.
Globalisation has allowed the work of international acts to prosper as they gain inspiration from sources that they previously might not have been able to, however it is no surprise that issues of copyright have arisen as a consequence of this. After all, who ever said imitation got you anywhere?
Reference List
Brown, A 2012, Narrative, Communication Tools and Making Meaning: ‘Tell Me a Story!’, in T Chalkley, Communication, New Media and Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp. 32 – 40

Is imitation in a globalised world a positive thing?