(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catscradle Jul. 29th, 2002 11:57 am)
catscradle Jul. 29th, 2002 11:57 am)Today began rather oddly. I woke up and decided I didn't want to go to work today and that I would simply call off. That's not too odd, but I proceeded to get ready for work. Like I couldn't stop myself. I jumped in the shower, put on makeup, got dressed and found myself out the door and walking to my bus - all the while I'm thinking "I'm going to call off. Better call soon. IT's going to be busy today, better call now so they're prepared. . ."
So here I am at work.
It's a surreal day. One of my first calls was some kid that thought he could take our online classes for free. When I told him they're 10 week courses and cost nearly a grand, he was all freaked out and couldn't believe there was an actual schedule and projects due and WORK! What the hell? We're an accredited university, did he think this was Disney Land? He decided to pass and I told him that was probably wise, but to try Colorado Free University if he wanted the Mickey Mouse version of Information Technology.
No, I didn't say that, but I did tell him to try CFU. He said thanks, but he wanted an accredited school. I told him good luck in his search.
I saw Minority Report this weekend and liked it a bunch. There were some gratuitous yucky scenes, but over all the story made up for that. Well, there was one rather giant cliche in the story, but I honestly didn't mind it very much - it was an action/adventure/sci-fi flick, so this cliche was kind of expected - it didn't really matter much because the acting, characterizations and overall story rose above it and carried through. The movie theme of pre-crime was rather forbodding, in a time where President Bush's Citizen's Corp is enacted and we're all told to look out for terrorism, spy on our neighbors in the name of homeland security and what does the ACLU stand for anyway? How much of our freedom are we willing to give up because of fear?
The special effects were great too. Yo. Lucas. See? You can make a movie with great dialogue, an interesting plot AND keep the special effects. It's true, you really can.
In fannish news, the old argument of "All fanfic is plagairism so it's fine if I steal a fic and call it my own" has cropped up yet again. People? Stop. Writing about pre-established characters maybe copyright infrindgement, but it is not plagairism. If you take someone elses writing and copy it word for word - or paraphrase it in a way that doesn't change the story at all - that's plagairism. If you take someone elses idea and don't bother to change it at all - to the point where your character named Muffy is a vampire slayer and her friends Aspen, Gaia, Scythe and Alex help her save the world from vamps and demons - and you in no way give credit to Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor are writing a parody of the show - then yes, that is plagairism. If you take Buffy and write futher adventures or an alternate story line, or a what might have happened if such and such happened - then no, that is not plagairism. That's copyright infrindgement. Copyright infrindgement and plagairism are not the same thing. One is stealing everything - words and ideas down to the punctuation and claiming it as your own. The other is stealing the characters and setting of a book/series/movie - in other words, the foundation. The story idea and dialogue are original works, and the author always gives credit back to the original source. Which of these is the worse offense? This isn't too difficult to figure out.
Do people really not know the difference, or are they just trying to weasle their way out of it when they get caught plagairising?
So here I am at work.
It's a surreal day. One of my first calls was some kid that thought he could take our online classes for free. When I told him they're 10 week courses and cost nearly a grand, he was all freaked out and couldn't believe there was an actual schedule and projects due and WORK! What the hell? We're an accredited university, did he think this was Disney Land? He decided to pass and I told him that was probably wise, but to try Colorado Free University if he wanted the Mickey Mouse version of Information Technology.
No, I didn't say that, but I did tell him to try CFU. He said thanks, but he wanted an accredited school. I told him good luck in his search.
I saw Minority Report this weekend and liked it a bunch. There were some gratuitous yucky scenes, but over all the story made up for that. Well, there was one rather giant cliche in the story, but I honestly didn't mind it very much - it was an action/adventure/sci-fi flick, so this cliche was kind of expected - it didn't really matter much because the acting, characterizations and overall story rose above it and carried through. The movie theme of pre-crime was rather forbodding, in a time where President Bush's Citizen's Corp is enacted and we're all told to look out for terrorism, spy on our neighbors in the name of homeland security and what does the ACLU stand for anyway? How much of our freedom are we willing to give up because of fear?
The special effects were great too. Yo. Lucas. See? You can make a movie with great dialogue, an interesting plot AND keep the special effects. It's true, you really can.
In fannish news, the old argument of "All fanfic is plagairism so it's fine if I steal a fic and call it my own" has cropped up yet again. People? Stop. Writing about pre-established characters maybe copyright infrindgement, but it is not plagairism. If you take someone elses writing and copy it word for word - or paraphrase it in a way that doesn't change the story at all - that's plagairism. If you take someone elses idea and don't bother to change it at all - to the point where your character named Muffy is a vampire slayer and her friends Aspen, Gaia, Scythe and Alex help her save the world from vamps and demons - and you in no way give credit to Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor are writing a parody of the show - then yes, that is plagairism. If you take Buffy and write futher adventures or an alternate story line, or a what might have happened if such and such happened - then no, that is not plagairism. That's copyright infrindgement. Copyright infrindgement and plagairism are not the same thing. One is stealing everything - words and ideas down to the punctuation and claiming it as your own. The other is stealing the characters and setting of a book/series/movie - in other words, the foundation. The story idea and dialogue are original works, and the author always gives credit back to the original source. Which of these is the worse offense? This isn't too difficult to figure out.
Do people really not know the difference, or are they just trying to weasle their way out of it when they get caught plagairising?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject