Your untrusting (possibly thieving) subconscious and copyright

[eggler]

You just finished this lovely little logo, it seems almost too good to be the result of your meagre talent. Then you get worried, just like you always do, that your subconscious has ripped it off from somewhere.

What I want to know is, does this happen to everybody? (Or only when you actually have pinched someone’s idea, which you find out to your horror later?)

It’s just starting to bother me.

Peace
Shan

[Brainiac]

I read somewhere that the web consisted of over 2 billion web sites. Even if that is fictive number you still can't avoid the fact there are plenty of web sites around.

Internet users that surf around on a regular basis see a lot of different sites. We designers are probably some of those that visit many sites in order to find inspiration.

In this process I beleive that it is impossible not to "steal" at least a little.

And sometimes, then I've just designed a site, ready for customizing it to my back-end I go online and surf around a bit and find myself ending up on a site that looks almost like my own.

The web is so large that works that look similiar will arise, even if developed in 2 different parts of the world by 2 different people who have never seen each others work.

Think about that if you think you have unintentionally stolen something...

[phacker]

As Einstein stated everything is relative--we all come from somewhere and we all end up in the same place. If you didn't intentionally acquire something....oh well. It happens to all of us at some point or another. If you realize it before you represent it as totally your own, you should own up to the inspirational source.

[eggler]

Thanks for replying. It would be just nice to _feel_ like you've done something that's all yours. Maybe I should stop surfing so much?