Copy

I won’t beat around the bush.

Without a backbone, you’ll end up copying what others have made. Even when designing a simple button, you ponder over how to set the padding values and how much gap to add in flex to ensure there are no issues when clicking. Through such deliberations, you complete the design. As you accumulate know-how, you develop your own style, and it becomes art. Copying is an act that completely disregards that artistry, mocking the results of relentless effort and creativity.

Sure, there is no copyright on ideas. Unless realized with original technology and registered as a patent, they are not protected by copyright law. Therefore, it is true that they belong to the public domain. However, as the saying goes, “the tragedy of the commons,” if abused for personal gain, it can lead to the depletion of resources.

The same goes for ideas. No matter how good an idea I come up with, if the approach is simply to copy it, who would strive to create new ideas? Creativity will crumble, and we could enter an era of countless copies.

I hope for a society where copying is not justified or normalized, and a healthy maker culture is established. I’ll end my writing here.

backup from https://disquiet.io/@hhj/makerlog/카피-1703141660238