Thought Pirates !

Not more than a few days ago, a half page advertisement of an educational ( read tutorial) venture that announced its marine course carried a message from its owner. He began thus - "In his poem, Alice in Wonderland, Rabindranath Tagore said .............." or something very similar.

Piracy, be it of any sense, sound, light, smell or content for that matter is a serious offense. And someone making the other person do it as in case of making Tagore write the poem Alice in Wonderland, it becomes a crime to say the least.

In the advertising trade, we regularly come across incidents like release agencies wanting to write their keylines instead of those of the creative agencies. When it happened for the first time, I was enraged to say the least. But gradually, one mellows down and adjusts to situations. 

When a friend's agency released ads designed by us, the poor fellow did the same thing. He removed our keyline and inserted his, in the ad creatives. Presuming that he could fool the entire world and himself in particular.

Should wisdom be borrowed ? Should we not spend more time learning things the correct way instead of spending time copying others ? 

There sure is a high value to originality. The biggest proof is that - piracy exists.