Why are people so unoriginal? Having just surfaced after the copycat
behaviour from The Man from Down Under I was alerted the other day to someone
who had copied my website in Holland.
It was a moment worthy of reality TV as I stared at the screen to see my words
carefully translated into Dutch and the beaming face of a young girl proud of
her achievements.
‘What!’ I shrieked (John Cleese style), ‘You highlighted my text,
clicked copy, moved the arrow over to your page and pressed paste! PROUD! I
could teach a three year old child to do that, come to that a three year old
child taught me in the first place! What is the matter with people?’
A carefully worded email sorted the problem in a few hours but I’m
afraid I find this behaviour beyond my understanding. Not only because it’s
infringing the laws of copyright it’s just so unimaginative. Here are these
people copying me when I have so many ideas everyday I cannot possibly ever
have time to develop them all. I think it’s the pride with which they present their
finished work which bemuses me so much. Do they not think someone might notice?
I suppose if you get a good idea people will want to copy it. When I was
a greetings card designer (previous life and no less uneventful) people would
copy my designs but never very well. They entered the market place with a
substandard product and just as quickly left it! If I ever had time to copy
someone I would at least try to improve the product otherwise what’s the point?
But maybe people who need to copy will never improve on it because they just
don’t have the skills. I’ve always said that if you’re a copier you’ll always
be in second place. Beyond me I’m afraid so time to move on.
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