Skip to main content

Plagiarism rules

an ORANGE logo defined 


Cake wars are on fire:  claims of plagiarism unfold on Twitter.  It is a cake boss of the inauguration kind.  


Sadly, if you are renowned in some way and your craft is shared online you are exposed to plagiarism.

But what do you do if you are not renowned in any way, a mere blogger who shares ideas openly to help others?

What if your blog logo, an orange, is used as a logo for an internal initiative by the company you work for?  How do you prove that the idea stemmed from your own creativity and borrowed or used?  

The same logo I unveiled on my blog was adopted for a corporate initiative:  coincidence?  Recourse? 


Aren't you glad I chose orange?


Does it even matter?   Coincidence or not?  How can one make such claims when the logo is used internally and not for public scrutiny?

I can certainly say that I was not, am not, involved in any form of marketing, messaging or creative for said company.  

Every day I go to work, this logo is paraded in front of me.  In fact, my paycheque depends on that logo.  I've struggled with this observation for a while now.  Perplexed by how anyone can make such claims without coming across sounding like whining?  

Outrage?  Controversy?  Not me.  I probably was naive initially, taking it as a compliment that one of my ideas would be adopted by the company I work for, under the umbrella of my own opinions that I continually safeguard my opinions as my own and not that of my employer.    Do I really own my ideas while earning a paycheque for said company?  

If you are an online personality or enthusiast who's ideas began long before working for the company.  Still, you have to ensure that you remove your opinions from associating with the company you work for ... now or in the past.   What about while various policing by companies to ensure you are not slandering the company, disclosing confidential information, or saying anything negative, they have you on their watch list that you cannot prove, as it is undercover cloaked in disguise.  


ORANGE


Then voila, your idea, information, logo is adopted by the company.  You are really handcuffed to not say anything: avoid appearing negative or open for discipline or loss of job for making claims that would not appear to be obvious, unless one works for said company:  just about everyone employed there has seen such image of an orange.

Intellectual capital ownership really belongs to you or the company you work for?  

There are safeguards in place for artists, musicians, writers for their protection from plagiarism.   Safe to say, it protects their intellectual, artistic capital.  If you read many Code of Ethics you sign with an organization you are paid by, you relinquish any creativity or ideas you come up with.  Doesn't that cover those that are credited, recognized and are compensated for coming up with ideas and not a lowly person on the totem pole who expresses ideas unrelated to the company?  

I'm curious what others think about this?  Would an employee be barking up the wrong tree, be exposed to termination if they disclose such potential controversy?  Try to claim ownership rightfully.  Ask to be recognized properly.  Or, just come across as a whiner or wannabe?









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Triumph over struggle

This blog was originally written earlier today (Saturday, March 4, 2017) on my optioneerJM blog on Word Press ~ where I find an atmosphere of support and celebration of original writing among those who write themselves.  It is the highest compliment any fledgling writer can have. Like most of us at the tail end of Baby Boomers while being drowned out by Millennials, we're trying to get ahead.  Achieve success, notoriety or acclaim.  Subsidize our career choices with our inner voices.  To help others, to help ourselves.  To exhaust our demons by writing and exhuming scars that life has left on our brains. Confidence or competence A struggling battle between what we want to express and be appreciated for our words.  So many of us write to right the struggles we have fought, the wars we have lost, the lessons we have learned. Gratitude: pitiful compensation We appreciate the acknowledgement by others who are in chained to the commo...

A topic that is too judgMENTAL ::... transgenders

Too few role models:   SOURCE A question was posted on QUORA and I felt compelled to respond: Why don't transgender people use the restrooms corresponding to their genitals to try and end the needless transgender bathroom controversy? It is none of our business. This reminds me of things we have to struggle with growing up::…. what IS our identity? What IS our moral standard? Should others have THE right to determine what is best for US? Almost ALL of us in the age of inBETWEENers (born 1960 to 1965, neither Baby Boomers, Generation X, nor Millennials) must REMEMBER what the biggest questions of our day were? If others forgot, I can share with you: Do you or don’t you circumcise your newborn son? SOURCE :  "Boys" by William E. Rochfort  Remember that?   I do. Is it necessary or more to do with mental well being our our son: likeness to daddy. It was something I read avidly read about because sometimes reading becomes “PEACE of MIND”. In this inst...

A mom's brag book of her #A+mazing millennial children

None of my kids read any of my blogs so it is pretty near 100% guaranteed that it is true.  However, my one daughter told me that at least one of her friends reads this blog Out of the 6 or 7 blogs that I curate and/or I write about varying topics that interest me or developed or furthering knowledge on something that grabs me. Having grown up conversations with a daughter is a new and wonderful experience.  How far we've both grown from a nervous wreck of a mother, tasked with an ailing son who needed additional care and attention while she was a bright shining star, oozing with talent from every pore.   A mother's gift is sometimes recognizing the gift in her children.  Why else would Elvis Presley's mom have been the subject of his first recording?  A miracle talent nurtured and encouraged by a mother's love.  There are far too few examples shared in the world these days.   SIDEBAR:  (I haven't done one of these for quite so...