The hardest part of debating intellectual property is the widespread misconceptions people have.  Many people I talk to who don’t even realize they are copyright holders (of their doodles and term papers) fall into thinking people should own ideas so they can make money without considering why.  Ideas don’t happen in a vacuum. They build on many ideas before.

I became more frustrated by Forbes’ magazine’s praising of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, exacerbating the misconceptions .  Kotick has become a business press darling overseeing the merger of the largest video game company with an obvious eye on profits (to the chagrin of video game fans). Forbes writer Peter Beller explains “EA also teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars.”

First, Guitar Hero wasn’t an original idea unto itself. It built on many, many ideas before it from people who enjoy air guitaring to the many previous versions of plastic musical instruments. I had a toy piano when I was a baby only a short, few years ago.  Did Activision shamelessly knock-off all these ideas too?

Second, why not look at what Rock Band did differently. The interface is very similar and even the controller instruments look alike, but Rock Band added many features, namely singing and drums. That’s building on someone else’s idea, just like Guitar Hero did.  Rock Band improved the idea so much, Guitar Hero shamelessly knocked them off with its new edition, featuring singing and drums.

Everyone copies everyone. It’s natural and a major part of how innovation happens – people see what works and make it better. This is why copying is good thing. Everyone does it and it makes everyone else better. The sincerest form of flattery is imitation. Don’t be scared of stealing ideas. Just be scared of not making them better.