Copying is Not Theft

Copying is simply, not theft.


Animation, lyrics, and tune by Nina Paley. Music arranged by Nik Phelps; vocals by Connie Champagne. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

Copying is not theft.
Stealing a thing leaves one less left
Copying it makes one thing more;
that's what copying's for.
Copying is not theft.
If I copy yours you have it too
One for me and one for you
That's what copies can do
If I steal your bicycle
you have to take the bus,
but if I just copy it
there's one for each of us!
Making more of a thing,
that is what we call "copying"
Sharing ideas with everyone
That's why copying
is
FUN!

Further everything we call art is a derivation of everything else.



Note: All Creative Work Is Derivative, is filmed by Nina Paley.  It was supported by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation.