4 ms·

You can't steal a joke - it isn't property. You can plagiarize it, or infringe copyright. But the first isn't a crime, and the second requires litigation to pur

by Blahah 12y ago

You can't steal a joke - it isn't property. You can plagiarize it, or infringe copyright. But the first isn't a crime, and the second requires litigation to pursue. So nobody cares because generally, these alleged infringements are tiny pin pricks and not big sword stabs - the sharing of tiny throwaway bits of creative content without permission just doesn't hurt that much. Some people are getting rich off doing it on a large scale, but they probably aren't hurting any one person that much. I'm not saying it's right, but it's not so wrong that any individual is motivated to care.

tzs 12y ago
> You can't steal a joke - it isn't property. Steal has more meanings in English than just taking someone else's property without permission or legal right. Many more...it is quite a versatile word, as you can see below. From the New Oxford American Dictionary: steal |stēl| verb (past stole |stōl| ; past participle stolen |ˈstōlən| ) 1 [ with obj. ] take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it: thieves stole her bicycle | [ no obj. ] : she was found guilty of stealing from her employers | (as adj. stolen) : stolen goods. • dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own: accusations that one group had stolen ideas from the other were soon flying. • take the opportunity to give or share (a kiss) when it is not expected or when people are not watching: he was allowed to steal a kiss in the darkness. • (in various sports) gain (an advantage, a run, or possession of the ball) unexpectedly or by exploiting the temporary distraction of an opponent. • Baseball (of a base runner) advance safely to (the next base) by running to it as the pitcher begins the delivery: Rickey stole third base. 2 [ no obj. ] move somewhere quietly or surreptitiously: he stole down to the kitchen | figurative : a delicious languor was stealing over her. • [ with obj. ] direct (a look) quickly and unobtrusively: he stole a furtive glance at her. noun [ in sing. ] 1 informal a bargain: for $5 it was a steal. 2 chiefly N. Amer. an act of stealing something: New York's biggest art steal. • an idea taken from another work. • Baseball an act of stealing a base. PHRASES steal someone blind see blind. steal a march on gain an advantage over (someone), typically by acting before they do: stores that open on Sunday are stealing a march on their competitors. steal someone's heart win someone's love. steal the show attract the most attention and praise. steal someone's thunder win praise for oneself by preempting someone else's attempt to impress.[from an exclamation by the English dramatist John Dennis (1657–1734), who invented a method of simulating the sound of thunder as a theatrical sound effect and used it in an unsuccessful play. Shortly after his play came to the end of its brief run he heard his new thunder effects used at a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth, whereupon he is said to have exclaimed: “Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!”]
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- UweSchmidt 12y ago
  But clearly, people who take a stricter stance regarding "intellectual property" want to use the most common definition of "to steal", of taking someone's physical object away. A weasel word, or a little dishonest, since we are dealing with a completely different type of situation: - When someone copies your content, you keep it. A loss happens on an abstract level of potential lost profit etc. - Someone else just might have had the same thought process as you and distilled some widely available piece of information into the same joke as the official joke author. Who owns it? - The joke author has probably processed a vast amount of humor, and information in general and inevitably, unconsciously builds his joke on this foundation without being able to "attribute" anything. I'd say if you have a good case you can do fine without using the s-word.
  - sophacles 12y ago
    I generally come down on the side of copyright infringement is not theft - it's something different. If I copy the latest pop song, no one has been deprived of it. However, in the case of plagiarism (and related forms of passing of another's work as mine...), there is something really akin to property theft: credit theft. If you take my words, and pass them off as your own, and get credit for them rather than me - well then it is pretty much the same thing as you taking my dollar: I am deprived of it.
- tomp 12y ago
  The only definition that applies here is dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own However, the article (and the whole copyright lobby) mentions that spreading jokes (or other copyrighted content) is "stealing" even if you also attribute it.
hawleyal 12y ago
Semantic nonsense.

by Blahah 12y ago

tzs 12y ago

> You can't steal a joke - it isn't property. Steal has more meanings in English than just taking someone else's property without permission or legal right. Many more...it is quite a versatile word, as you can see below. From the New Oxford American Dictionary: steal |stēl| verb (past stole |stōl| ; past participle stolen |ˈstōlən| ) 1 [ with obj. ] take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it: thieves stole her bicycle | [ no obj. ] : she was found guilty of stealing from her employers | (as adj. stolen) : stolen goods. • dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own: accusations that one group had stolen ideas from the other were soon flying. • take the opportunity to give or share (a kiss) when it is not expected or when people are not watching: he was allowed to steal a kiss in the darkness. • (in various sports) gain (an advantage, a run, or possession of the ball) unexpectedly or by exploiting the temporary distraction of an opponent. • Baseball (of a base runner) advance safely to (the next base) by running to it as the pitcher begins the delivery: Rickey stole third base. 2 [ no obj. ] move somewhere quietly or surreptitiously: he stole down to the kitchen | figurative : a delicious languor was stealing over her. • [ with obj. ] direct (a look) quickly and unobtrusively: he stole a furtive glance at her. noun [ in sing. ] 1 informal a bargain: for $5 it was a steal. 2 chiefly N. Amer. an act of stealing something: New York's biggest art steal. • an idea taken from another work. • Baseball an act of stealing a base. PHRASES steal someone blind see blind. steal a march on gain an advantage over (someone), typically by acting before they do: stores that open on Sunday are stealing a march on their competitors. steal someone's heart win someone's love. steal the show attract the most attention and praise. steal someone's thunder win praise for oneself by preempting someone else's attempt to impress.[from an exclamation by the English dramatist John Dennis (1657–1734), who invented a method of simulating the sound of thunder as a theatrical sound effect and used it in an unsuccessful play. Shortly after his play came to the end of its brief run he heard his new thunder effects used at a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth, whereupon he is said to have exclaimed: “Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!”]

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
UweSchmidt 12y ago
But clearly, people who take a stricter stance regarding "intellectual property" want to use the most common definition of "to steal", of taking someone's physical object away. A weasel word, or a little dishonest, since we are dealing with a completely different type of situation: - When someone copies your content, you keep it. A loss happens on an abstract level of potential lost profit etc. - Someone else just might have had the same thought process as you and distilled some widely available piece of information into the same joke as the official joke author. Who owns it? - The joke author has probably processed a vast amount of humor, and information in general and inevitably, unconsciously builds his joke on this foundation without being able to "attribute" anything. I'd say if you have a good case you can do fine without using the s-word.
- sophacles 12y ago
  I generally come down on the side of copyright infringement is not theft - it's something different. If I copy the latest pop song, no one has been deprived of it. However, in the case of plagiarism (and related forms of passing of another's work as mine...), there is something really akin to property theft: credit theft. If you take my words, and pass them off as your own, and get credit for them rather than me - well then it is pretty much the same thing as you taking my dollar: I am deprived of it.
tomp 12y ago
The only definition that applies here is dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own However, the article (and the whole copyright lobby) mentions that spreading jokes (or other copyrighted content) is "stealing" even if you also attribute it.

hawleyal 12y ago

Semantic nonsense.