No Copying Please!

The big round eyes of my Grade 4 teacher have the resolute power to make us focus on our own paper during daily quizzes and long exams. She would roam around the four walls of the classroom with her elongated brown stick as she executes careful, calculated steps following a certain rhythm. Not one of my classmates would dare to move his head sideward as that is tantamount to peeking someone else’s answer. The only allowed movement of the head is moving it up and down. When she feels suspicious, she would blurt out in a firm deafening voice, “No copying please”. With that, even moving the head up and down, is a mortal sin.

Yes, copying is taboo when we are inside the portals of the academe. And after being away from that institution, I realized that copying is not that atrocious after all.

I watched ASAP yesterday and saw Nina in tears after she was conferred the Diamond Platinum award or ten time Platinum reaching a total sales of 200,000 copies of her album Nina Live. I can’t blame her for being melodramatic. Her tears are not part of a script. Indeed, it was very monumental as she is the first Filipina to receive the feat after Jose Marie Chan. But its is public knowledge that Nina Live contains all revival tracks including popular hits like, Love moves in mysterious ways, Through the Fire, Burn, among others. You see, copying can give you a Diamond Record Award. Not bad after all.

When you plan to open your own business, franchising is the “in” thing. A colleague at work bought a Smokey’s franchise which makes business for him a lot easier. The brand name is already established so business is just a breeze. One will just buy the brand or to put simply, one will just copy the brand, and he will make money out of it. Copying is not bad after all.

Soap opera in television is not spared from copying too. Lovers in Paris, Pinoy Big Brother, Survivor, Stairway to Heaven, and many others are not created by Filipinos. And yet, Pinoys patronize them. To some extent, adaptations even rate higher than the original stories. Copying is not bad after all.

To copy is to make work easier. Does this mean, the modern human psyche is degenerating? Does this mean that creativity is passé. Does this mean that society does not anymore put premium on hard work, industry, and ingenuity?

No copying please!