Something I starkly remember as a middle-schooler is my teachers’ drives to see us use Microsoft Office, specifically Powerpoint, as much as possible. It makes sense, in retrospect; our teachers wanted us to immerse ourselves in the easily accessible technology available at our fingertips to prepare us for our futures. 

When we made these slideshows, these teachers encouraged us to surf the web and find pictures to complement our slides and the information within. But how many seventh-graders know how to find free media to use, and afterward properly attribute it to their source? Most times, the usage of these images was illegal.

The generations rising through our education system are those that grew up being able to select, copy and paste images straight from Google onto slideshows all in five seconds. We live in a time in which it has become exceedingly simple to use someone else’s work, not give credit and act as if the final result is an entirely original product. 

All published content is protected under United States copyright. We first saw meme-sharing begin to grow exponentially across the internet in the 2000s. Today, it is as simple as mashing the “Home” and “Lock” buttons on my phone screen to capture someone else’s meme on Reddit. But as we do this, very little do we think we are violating copyright protections. 

Those who truly suffer are unlike the everyday meme creators that post Reddit’s top images. Professional artists — the resilient few who attempt to make a living on their art — are dealt a blow every time someone plagiarizes their work. 

Our very own Multimedia Editor, Meghan Schiereck, sees this all the time when she posts her graphic designs and photography to websites such as etsy and flickr. To her credit, the designs are often trendy and well-done, but unfortunately, in the highest form of flattery available, others will steal her work without crediting her and then attempt to sell it for profit. 

How is this fair to Meghan, or artists out in the professional world trying to make a living? Where is the reward for technique, skill and mastery that requires years of honing to create images people truly love? 

Plagiaristic acts have caused some artists to begin using watermarks to cover images and mark them as theirs. Meghan does not do this for her work — she feels it “ruins” her pictures and designs. After all, nobody wants to look at a beautiful landscape filled with rolling hills, babbling brooks and threshing pines that is marred by transparent white text reading “COPYRIGHT MEGHAN SCHIERECK 2019.” 

I say all this not because I want voters to implore Congress to ban the “Copy and paste” keybindings or anything of that nature. I say this because in today’s day and age, plagiarism happens without us even being educated to identify it when we do it ourselves. The solution is not to implement laws or bans, but rather attribute others for the work we may wish others to credit us for were we in their shoes.  

So next time someone takes a picture of you and a group of friends while you’re out on a weekend, consider tagging the photographer and placing an emoji of a camera next to their name. 

"Your World Today" is a weekly column written by the editor-in-chief of The Slate. It represents solely the subjective opinion of the individual who wrote it. For Staff Editorial opinions, see this week's "The Slate Speaks."

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