Being robbed of intangible property can be more damaging than being robbed of physical possessions. For example, a woman is in the process of writing a children’s book. She shows her nearly-completed book to a colleague, who is impressed by her work. The colleague then decides to start making his own book as well. This would not be a problem if he had created original content. However, his new book was based largely on what the woman had showed him.
Because the two books were very similar, the woman was not given as much credit for her work as she might have, had her colleague respected her intellectual property. Many people thought her book was “nothing special” or “reminiscent of another book”. This affected the woman greatly because she had poured her heart out into her book. She did not care for the money -she felt robbed of the credit that was due to her.
When you use other people’s work, you must be careful about plagiarism and piracy. Sometimes, intellectual stealing can even be done unconsciously, simply because those who commit the crime are too careless when it comes to citing their references or seeking permission from the original creators. However, it is every person’s responsibly to ensure that such a crime is not committed. All people must be deliberate and cautious when it comes to preventing cases of intellectual theft.
