Techdirt Podcast Episode 36: In Defense Of Copying

from the ideas-and-execution dept

Tue, Aug 4th 2015 12:45pm — Leigh Beadon

We live in a world that venerates "ideas" but ignores the fact that even the best idea is worthless if it's poorly executed. In turn, people who "copy" ideas are often demonized, even when it's their superior execution that is responsible for their success. But the truth is that copying is a critical part of innovation and progress, and the instinct to ignore or refute that idea has left us without many clear measurements of its impact — not to mention lots of bad policy, and a highly problematic "ownership culture" when it comes to ideas and creative output.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via iTunes, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copying, copyright, ideas, innovation, podcast

5 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Beever, 5 Aug 2015 @ 6:55am

Iteration
You spoke a bit on this podcast about large companies iterating on independent or small time companies. As you were searching for a proper example, I couldn’t help but think apple music is a good example of this. They iterated on Spotify's model, succeeding where Spotify failed. (Taylor Swift Letter)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CrushU (profile), 5 Aug 2015 @ 11:28am

Counterpoint?
Have you considered the argument that the reason the 'top 10 stolen ideas' is so mediocre, is because of strong IP laws, punishing attempted stealers?

(I don't buy it myself, but it would be the first thing a devil's advocate would bring up.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 6 Aug 2015 @ 7:13am

Re: Iteration
You spoke a bit on this podcast about large companies iterating on independent or small time companies. As you were searching for a proper example, I couldn’t help but think apple music is a good example of this. They iterated on Spotify's model, succeeding where Spotify failed. (Taylor Swift Letter)

Have they succeeded? Just this morning I saw someone point out that Spotify has more *paying* members (20 million) than Apple Music has trying its service out for free (11 million). So I'm not sure the jury has come to a verdict on that one just yet...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 6 Aug 2015 @ 7:14am

Re: Counterpoint?
Have you considered the argument that the reason the 'top 10 stolen ideas' is so mediocre, is because of strong IP laws, punishing attempted stealers?

That's certainly a possibility... but I don't buy it. At the very least there would be some lawsuits of people who tried and failed...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Ho (profile), 14 Aug 2015 @ 7:43am

Just remembered this example: Rocket Internet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet

It isn't exactly a household name, but it seems to be making money. Is it innovative or just a copycat incubator?
[ link to this | view in thread ]