Copyright and how is applied to everything around us has a tremendous impact on the manner in which we approach and interact with no only the copyrighted materials but how we apply ourselves to the ideas and concepts involved. There has always been two polarised schools of thought on this, one school standing up for the right of copyright, stating that it protects and idea, fosters entrepreneurship and promotes innovation. The interesting thing is the school of thought that opposing copyrights says exactly the same thing, in fact both schools say virtually the same things but with subtle differences.

Johanna Blakely , Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center, at a TED talk spoke on copyright in the fashion industry and how there really is no copyright.

Now whats interesting is that looking at the information she puts forward, the lack of copyright helps, even forces, innovation it forces us the professionals to move toward being creative in how we define ourselves, our work is no longer simply the work we copyrighted and thus protected from every else, our work is an extension of us and we have to work to set ourselves apart find and enhance that which sets each artist piece apart from everyone else.

It is not the answer, it is an answer. It is a way of looking at the glass, not as half full or half empty but rather simply as full of potential. There is so much variety and change in the world today, trying to hold onto an idea or concept is somehow more work than its worth. I would rather work to recognise the artist behind the work, acknowledge the mastery that makes an item or idea special.

So often people do not succeed, not because their work is brilliant, they succeed because they innovate and create. These people back up their work with unique an interesting approaches, they approach everything in a way that somehow sets them apart from every single other person, and copyright has nothing to do with it, we cannot copyright an individuals unique approach or complex mind and why would we.

So from now on I aim to worry less about who “steals” my ideas and more about better ideas. Its time I started being that person who steps out of the line, in fact isn’t it time we all thought about stepping out of the line and being who we should be.Innovate and photograph - dewandemmer.com