After reading an article titled Creation and copyright law: the case of 3D printing from The Conversation,it lead me to many other online articles about copyright, and of course I then wondered if the topic was worth of a blog. I have often wondered about copyright in relation to a conversation you might have with someone, as many times over the years, especially when in paid employment, I would hear either my own idea, or someone else’s, being touted by someone else as their own. This is frustrating, as sometimes it might have been an idea rejected by a team, but then taken to management by the team leader as their idea.  Maybe this is why I ended up running my own business, one way of stopping idea plagiarism!!??

In the online world, it seems an impossible task to stop plagiarism, but at least with online publishing, your words and ideas are in print, dated and authored as your own, and even if someone does ‘borrow’ your words or ideas, if you discover it, you have some way of proving it! There does seem to be a ‘handshake agreement’ or assumption others will reference your work if they refer to it, but humanity being what it is, no doubt there are many cases this does not happen. If I was overly worried about it, I guess I’d just stop writing online?! In my business Cafe Cafe, where I supplied cakes, biscuits and desserts to restaurants, pubs and cafes all over South Australia, there was one restaurant who refused to buy my product, and instead used to try to copy my recipes. I simply took this as a compliment!

If you are worried about copyright, and live in Australia, you might be interested in reading about it on The Australian Copyright Council or may even want to seek legal advice. As a blogger, if it really worries you I’d suggest you stop writing online now, but keep writing and publish our own book. This will probably get plagiarised occasionally too, but my point is, you’ll rarely know about it. Living with the symptoms of dementia, I regularly feel as if I’ve plagiarised myself, a strange and unsettling experience. At least with this blog, I know I thought it and then wrote, even if it is rubbish!!