Innovation, Piracy or Both?

Innovation or piracy is a grey area, some see as stealing a work of art, while others see it as improving or inspiring another piece of art. While this is a difficult topic with many different opinions, I believe that it is not piracy as long as they acknowledge the original authors. As Stokes argues “any author, whatever he creates, embodies some part of himself in his works… To mistreat a work of art is to mistreat the artist, to invade his privacy and impair his personality” (Stokes 2012, p.83).

But what counts as innovation? Innovation is defined as the act of introducing something new, is each new piece of work an innovation or is it merely an inferior copy of the original. After much thought I have come up with the conclusion that innovation like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is up to the individual to decide. This is the case because art form is different to each individual, one persons work of art can be another person’s rubbish.

 

(one man's rubbish is another mans treasure)  

Piracy is the act of appropriating somebody else’s work without acknowledging it, but the product of this piracy may still be an innovation. An example of this is 1994s Disney’s Lion King which is arguably copied almost directly from the Japanese cartoon Yoshihiro Shimizu’s 1965s Kimba the White Lion. From where most of Lion Kings design, concept and storyline were appropriated from the original Japanese cartoon.

 

 (Left: Kimba the White Lion, Right: Lion King)

This is both an innovation and a piracy because while The Lion King is more modern animation, successful, well-known and much more critically acclaimed, it still copied design, concept and the storyline from Kimba the White Lion without acknowledging it. 

The creator of Kimba Yoshihiro Shimizu even explained that they rejected urges from within the industry to sue because, “we’re a small, weak company. It wouldn't be worth it anyway ... Disney's lawyers are among the top twenty in the world!"

On the topic of if we should pay for every sample used in a recording or piece of video art, i think that should also be decided by the individual themselves. As we as consumers are the ones who decide if it is innovation or not.

Piracy can be seen as a question of ownership, I believe it is piracy if they do not acknowledge the original source material, while innovation is the quality of transformation of the work that ultimately decided upon by the individual. 

References:
Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY7cWwOTosk
Links
Link 1: http://www.fastcompany.com/3001131/innovation-can-be-plunder-piracy-if-you-copy-right
Link 2: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/bittorrent-we-represent-innovation-not-piracy/22723 
Link 3: http://thelawdictionary.org/copyright/ 
Link 4: https://copyrightalliance.org/2013/03/innovation_and_piracy#.Uh9ymz_AHR8
Images

Image 1: http://www.backfills.com/rubbish-art-shadow-art-from-rubbsih.jpg

Image 2: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://hroman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Kimba%2520the%2520Lion.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hroman.com/page/2/&h=450&w=500&sz=175&tbnid=8zwd7dhl37XoAM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=94&zoom=1&usg=__DZ8L5cyrpm48fRz6Rdw6HdNdOi4=&docid=1iOYH06zXMldRM&sa=X&ei=XLwQUu34NseFiQetvICICA&sqi=2&ved=0CGsQ9QEwCQ&dur=5773