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Creative Content – Inspiration or Imitation?

Guest post by: Rob Lawson

Article Overview: In this era of mash ups, appropriation, homages, re-makes, the boundaries of creative content ownership are getting pretty blurred. A recent billboard campaign in Times Square, New York sparked a massive online debate recently. The eye-catching advertisement was a live video of Times Square. Into shot now and then walks an attractive young woman (wearing clothing from Forever21, the brand being advertised). The women interact in various ways with the video – such as take a polaroid photo, pick people up and put them in their bag. It is exciting augmented reality (AR) technology. But it was not the first time the same concept had been used …

Creative Content – Inspiration or Imitation?

In this era of mash ups, appropriation, homages, re-makes, the boundaries of creative content ownership are getting pretty blurred. A recent billboard campaign in Times Square, New York sparked a massive online debate recently. The eye-catching advertisement was a live video of Times Square. Into shot now and then walks an attractive young woman (wearing clothing from Forever21, the brand being advertised). The women interact in various ways with the video - such as take a polaroid photo, pick people up and put them in their bag. It is exciting augmented reality (AR) technology. But it was not the first time the same concept had been used ... It quickly came to light that artist Chris O'Shea had created a very similar installation, his piece called Hand from Above in 2009. So the question here is, should the advertising company who made the Forever21 billboard (Space150) have asked O'Shea's permission before using the concept, paid him for it, asked him to be involved or acknowledged his work somewhere in the ad itself?

According to this Vimeo post from O'Shea, space150 did contact him in March 2010 with a general query about contracting his services. He was too busy to take up their offer. At no point did the company say they were planning on using such a similar concept to Hand from Above for a campaign. The thread of discussion and debate that the incident sparked is worth reading. It gives a great cross section of different points of view.

You can't copyright an idea, but you can copyright the expression of that idea. This includes expression across all forms and in all media. Being inspired by somebody else's artwork, article, blog post, advertisement, song or video is fine. As long as you seek the copyright permission you require in order to reproduce it (in any way), or give appropriate acknowledgement if you are using it as a source.

AR technology is not the only area where copyright can get slippery. The internet is a social web. The whole idea of it is sharing information and cross communication. It is impossible to guarantee others won't infringe your copyright when you post something on the web (whether it is on a website, blog or social networking site). But you can take (and should) take precautions.

One of the most famous cases of online copyright infringement was A&M Records vs Napster in 2001. Napster had to close their site and settle around US $26 million to songwriters and companies (Source: Bright Hub).

The best thing to do is have copyright notice somewhere prominent on your site that says what can and can't be done with your material. A creative commons license is something that many web publishers issue, which generally means that others can use material, so long as they acknowledge its source. You can read more about it at Creative Commons Australia website.

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Article Tags: augmented reality



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