Thoughts on Copying & Culture, Essay for DMY symposium 2011

The Internet, globalization, and an open-source mentality have changed our thinking almost overnight about what constitutes a copy versus an original. Copying not only has legal and cultural repercussions; it bears on moral and psychological issues as well. Therefore we have chosen a multi-faceted approach to this complex issue, examining the dilemmas and raising the important questions. It is up to the visitors to form their own opinions and take a stand. 

Fear of being copied

Left side is a 'forbidden' copy of the Chest Drawers, by Tejo Remy. Allthough the concept looks as if it 'wants to be copied'  

Every art student or design student has likely had some fear of being copied, or that  what he creates is actually a copy of somebody else's work. No designer likes to hear, “your work is exactly what designer x did in the mid nineties (or something similar).” The fear that an idea, form, or material will be stolen by another has the same fondation as the fear that one is “stealing“ (from?) oneself. This fear is completely understandable: the uniqueness of a creation is being threatened by the possibility that someone will copy it. And uniqueness--or call it originality--is at the heart of western European creativity. 

Design student from Weißensee is learning by copying a "Maarten Baas" chair.  

The tension that immediately arises when speaking about copying proves its relevance and explosive potential – not only in the field of design. Aside from the formal and juristic consequences, in design there is a “moral of authenticity” that is deeply rooted in western culture. What would happen if we could let go of this ‘authenticity’?

Original foto by Piet Trular (above) and copy beneath.  

In the Copy Culture Symposium we will confront this basic fear. How does it work, and what can we do about it? We will see examples of painful copies and hear how a copy can ruin your work. Should we learn to accept that copying has become part of our culture? How can we deal with the fact that the deeply rooted western value of originality is being challenged and perhaps disappearing? 

copying and inspiration

Another issue at stake is the similarity between copying and inspiration. Any good designer will study examples of designers that inspire him. Designing is in part copying, leaning, re-using; placing an old idea in a new context. It's foolish to reinvent the wheel, so we cut and paste from all kinds of  sources of inspiration. And since the rise of the internet those sources are even more accessible: with a couple of clicks we can see everything, everywhere. Instantly.  

But the line between inspiration and copying is a thin one. Anyone who breaches that line will be singled out not only by colleagues, but also, inevitably, by lawyers. The western world has installed a huge copyright system in which the copying of intellectual property equals theft. That whole system is relatively young--only about a hundred years old, and some say copyright protections holds us back from innovation and  impedes creativity. It’s common knowledge that in the music industry, the Internet has had a huge impact on the business models of performing artists. Will the same be true for the design sector? 

Asia and Europe have very different attitude 

A copy of a Rolls Royce, by Geely. Origial in right upper corner. 

The question of where inspiration ends and copying begins can be answered from personal, cultural, and moral standpoints, but also from commercial and legal points of view. Cultural differences certainly have an effect on where one stands in this debate. It has always been said, for example, that Asia and Europe have very different attitude towards copying; that originality and authenticity have different meanings in different cultures. In Japan and China, where a totally different ethical code from that in the West governs authorship, you are considered a ‘master’ if you are able to copy good craftsmanship. Here in the West however, originality is at the heart of design culture. In order to compare and contrast these cultures and discover why they are so different, we will include aspects of these colliding self-images.

We will seek to raise questions about the roots and implications of our current value system as well as discuss its relevance in the realm of copy culture and a sampling society.

Legal questions

Legal questions surround copyright culture. How is copyright built? What are the premises?  How do we define a copy from moral, legal, and cultural points of view? Is the situation in the fashion industry different from that in the design industry? Should copying be deplored or could it be also seen as a process towards perfection or the development of skills? Could it be regarded as the predictable consequence of an ever-present marketing, branding and personality cult? 

In the likelihood of a future society dominated by copy culture, what changes will we see? Will patents and copyrights lose their raison d’étre, becoming artifacts of mass industrialization? Will they be replaced by open source concepts, appropriation and personalization? What will be the designer’s role in a shared and thus reciprocal relationship with a new, potentially multi-faceted breed of user, client, producer, reseller and co-developer? 

open design

Which models will the industry need to develop in order to adapt to a possible grass roots based, decentralized development, production and distribution system? Open Design, for example, is given a special place in the symposium, as it provides one possible answer to the question of copyright. This practice began in the software world, where people found out that an “open design” is simply more solid, easier to repair, and more innovative than closed software. Although it is impossible to compare a lot of product design to software design, open design is an interesting development that is closely linked to our copyright theme. 

We aim to place the discussion into a wider cultural context, refining and reviewing our views on copying, imitation and inspiration, suggesting entirely different sets of moral values and ultimately proposing updated global economic and socio-cultural cooperation models.

Lucas T. Verweij, co-conceptioner of the Copy Culture Symposium presented by DMY Berlin and Premsela