What you sow, the others will reap

I used to be afraid posting my ideas online (actually I still am but not enough to prevent me now) because I'm afraid someone might use that idea and claim that it was theirs, while they go smooching the fame, I'm just here rotting in regret.

These kind of things mostly holds into account of plagiarism and credit

pla·gia·rism 

 an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author

pla·gia·rized pla·gia·riz·ing

transitive verb

 : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb

: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

cred·it

: recognition by name of a person contributing to a performance

It's everywhere yet we are unaware. We think that just because we got it from the internet and used it in a school project or whatever, we will get away with it, well most of us do but I've also seen people getting caught in the act that it doesn't end very well.

When it comes to crediting, I make sure is as a truthful as it is. I never liked taking credit of something I didn't do because once someone questions me about it, I might fail to prove it, specially when my dad likes to brag about my achievements, I tend to correct his exaggerations, even though it will make me less amazing to people's eyes, I'd rather lay the truth in the first place.

Now, there are a lot of people who likes to take credit of something they didn't do, specially in forms of plagiarism. It's stealing, but this time, they are stealing intellectual property.

Definition

 Intellectual property is any innovation, commercial or artistic; any new method or formula with economic value; or any unique name, symbol, or logo that is used commercially. Intellectual property is protected by patents on inventions; trademarks on branded devices; copyrights on music, videos, patterns, and other forms of expression; and state and federal laws.

The Crime

 Stealing intellectual property is cheap and easy. All a thief has to do is copy someone else’s ideas or product. The other person or company—the victim—has done all the work, but thieves can reap huge profits. Intellectual property theft can cost people their jobs, damage the reputation of the original maker of the counterfeited product, cause sickness and bodily harm, deprive governments of desperately needed tax revenue, and even result in the spread of organized crime and gangs—which in turn can damage more lives and destroy neighborhoods. It isn’t a victimless crime

In graphic properties such as art, stock photos, images, and even videos and audios, they have a way in preventing their work to be stolen by adding watermarks

A watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations in the paper.

while a digital watermark is a kind of marker covertly embedded in a noise-tolerant signal such as audio or image data. It is typically used to identify ownership of the copyright of such signal. "Watermarking" is the process of hiding digital information in a carrier signal; the hidden information should,[1] but does not need to contain a relation to the carrier signal. Digital watermarks may be used to verify the authenticity or integrity of the carrier signal or to show the identity of its owners. It is prominently used for tracing copyright infringements and for banknote authentication.

here are some examples of watermarks



some may be a form of signature, but that can be easily erased or cropped out, it depends on where the signature is placed. Here're some examples of my signatures/watermark, sometimes its barely visible

These people who commit such crimes are called Credit Alligators, they have ways to take your lunch money (its a figure of speech), but you also have your ways from stopping them.

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reference:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize\

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/credit

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/intellectual-property-theft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_watermarking

image sources 

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