The line between Inspiration and Plagiarism: A take on Content Creators Copying Content in the name of Inspiration

Inspiration vs Plagiarism: A difference you can’t ignore

Between uncountable books, thousands of films and songs, poems and creatives, paintings, writings, etc., we all come across, can we allow ourselves to think and be in isolation to the creations we absorbed? No, right. But with this, what you think, what you do, how you do and if you are a creator, how you create, can that be the same of what creatives you absorbed. Well, there we are. Here comes the difference between taking inspiration from content and plagiarism in content.

Whatever we see, whatever we do, whoever we live with, the space we are in, in some way or the other will influence and inspire us, consciously or subconsciously. We can not isolate ourselves from getting influenced or inspired by anything we come across. The inspiration we draw can be negative or positive but will be an inspiration. When a writer is reading a book and gets an idea from it, for their next write up, what will you call it? Inspired content or copied content? Well, it would depend on the end product that will come out. An inspired content can be on the similar lines yet have some intervention of the creator but the copied one will be a replica with no uniqueness of its own.

Copied Content

Here is a small example that an Instagram creator brought into notice. An example of AR Rehman’s tune being copied in a famous song called Quismat by Bpraak.

Read more: Social Media is not a place you should be pretentious of your activism

Another example can be Badshah’s recent song, Genda Phool which came out in a plagiarism row for copying the lyrics. Later, Badshah paid Ratan Kahar, the writer, 5 lakhs to let go of the case.

Inspired Content

Well, if the line is still not clear, then let us take the example of some content that is inspired by someone’s work. Remember Yahya Bootwala’s poem, ‘Bol Na‘

which became quite popular on the internet after it’s a release with Fifty Shades of Uth. In the description of the poem, it is written that it has been inspired by Zakir Khan’s ‘Kuch Sawaal Hai Tujhse” and which both the works are simply different from each other, the former is inspired by later and not a copy of the later.

But, what if someone chooses to take a part of a pre-existing work and do something of their own out of it?

Well, there can be such instances too, and it is very prevalent in the music industry where artists choose to create renditions with pre-existing work. Here comes the term, SAMPLING.

Sampling can be seen as a term in a grey area where a content can and can’t be called plagiarism. Generally, a content that uses bits and portions of any existing content incorporated into a new product, then it can be said as sampling. It is the Copyright Laws of different places which will define that a content that samples anything will be called plagiarised or not. In American Laws, sampling is legal if done by taking permissions. Most often, there are concerns of giving the credits and in case of copyrights, buying the rights if sampling. Anything beyond it is simply plagiarism.

One of the Notable cases of this can be Kendrick Lamar, a notable rapper who has involved a sax riff from ‘The Thorn”, a Jazz track by pianist Eric Reed and drummer Willie Jones III. Lamar flipped the segment in a trumpet riff on the song ‘Rigamortis’ and it came in as plagiarism.

Now, what is the problem if we even copy? What can happen if anyone copies content?

Well, first, copying a person’s content is morally wrong as it is discrediting the work and efforts of the original maker. If you do so, it will give your audience, a false assumption that the work is done by you, which is not true. Besides, ethically too, making someone else’s piece of work your own is a punishable offence. Plagiarism of copyrighted material can lead to stringent actions against you depending upon the copyright laws of the country and the product copied.

So, as our final word, take inspirations from the talents around you and become an inspiration, and stay away from copying content. Keep Creating!

Have a news story, an interesting write-up or simply a suggestion? Write to us at info@oneworldnews.com