Building this website has been an interesting experience. I did not do it from scratch. Outsourced it to a company WebMechanic (www.webmechanic.in) in India and they very quickly grasped the vision I had and helped me complete Phase 1 of this website. Hoping I can take it to Phase 2 :). To make the first phase come alive, I had to train myself to think of the different angles and this time as a user. Amazing what happens just by sitting on the other side of the table 🙂
One of the things I started thinking about was “copyright statement.” Should I just take it easy and insert the standard cliche’ statement that basically says if anyone tries to copy anything, they can be sued. Yes, it’s okay to laugh at this point. The copyright statement on most personal blogs is laughable. How many of us have the time to follow up on a person who downloaded a recipe or picture and posted as their own. I know I don’t. If I had that much time and money, I would be vacationing in an exotic land faraway.
I also thought about this seriously because recently I got an email from Pinterest that they have removed two images of Hawaii from my board titled – Places to travel, because someone reported copyright infringement. Thank fully the person did not go any further. It got me researching, so yes, unless it’s your own creation, anything that does not belong to you and you Pin it is copyright infringement. Â Now, I am not a lawyer or a brainiac, but that too me defies the whole purpose of having a Pinterest account. But anyways… lesson learnt – I have stopped Pinning.
So to keep everyone and myself sane and so I don’t have to watch my space like a hawk all the time.
Here’s what the copyright statement on my space is going to be.
“Let’s Conspire to Inspire and Aspire!Â
From Khan Academy to Tesla Motors it’s about creating minimum barriers. It’s the era of Open Source and copyright law is obsolete. It’s about enriching ourselves and all around us. Imitation is the best form of flattery, said the wise.
So go ahead, if you like something; copy it with a tip of the hat or not, improve it and share the improved version right back.”
That’s my copyright law. Some say “Imitation is the best form of flattery” and some say “It’s better to fail in originality than succeed in imiation.” No right or wrong, it’s a perspective.  Make no mistake though Plagiarism is a different thing. Taking an idea and improving upon is not the same as taking someone’s poem and doing a copy and paste. That is wrong.
The above twist to the copyright law applies to my other territories too. Friends in the past of told me to start selling the tests and quizzes I create for my kids so my kids could ace the school tests and get the much needed A’s and A+’s. Â Standardized tests are definitely obsolete but that’s an other blogpost. For now, selling education an absolute no no for me. Sharing knowledge is what made all the advances possible. From the different fonts in Apple to the word processor in Microsoft, copyright infringement was not able to stop the transfer of knowledge. Sure you can fight and argue about it, but with zero results. The only winner was knowledge itself. Modern man lucked out for the fathers of science and the writers of the past did not know about copyright law. 
Education and knowledge cannot be valued and that is why I have a high level of respect for companies like Khan Academy. It is exactly what the education world needs and now if only this could be applied to a college degree also. Â There are companies like Udemy and Coursera that are changing the world of higher education too. The paradigm shift in educaiton will happen, but will take a little longer.
Meanwhile, in my own little space I want to build a community where the collaboration happens. Â A place where we can tell each other, that, yes what you did was brilliant but I found a way to make it better and here is the secret. A place where there are no secrets.
Copy right law may not be completely obsolete as of today, but obsolescence is knocking at it’s door.
