Plagiarism Kills Soul of Culture
Dear editor,
Regarding an April 26-27 article written by Walter Long, ``Casual Theft Kills Soul of Culture,'' I would like to present some more examples here.
About 20 years ago in the late 1980s, there was a popular commercial for a soft drink featuring a South Korean pop star. It was a blend of live-action sequences and animation.
The pop singer sang and a girl watched him on the big screen, giving him an admiring look. Suddenly, the singer leapt out of the screen and was dancing with the girl. Their dancing scenes morphed into animation, mirroring the live action.
The commercial was very appealing to consumers. But the truth is it involved the plagiarizing of the well-known music video clip ``Take on Me'' by pop group AHA. The worst thing was the commercial got the prize as the best one of the year.
Even though it happened 20 years ago, the best commercial was made by means of plagiarism!
The producers of the commercial, the committee for choosing it, and even a pop singer didn't seem to realize that creativity is the most important thing in making advertisements for a product. Plagiarism should have been punished. On the contrary, it was rewarded.
Some may say it happened 20 years ago. Surprisingly however, it occurs even in present South Korea. Many pop songwriters are still claiming songs of others as their own.
A large number of professors in South Korea don't seem to feel guilty using their student's ideas in their published works. Many people of high social reputation have been caught falsifying their educational backgrounds.
Some may claim it is de facto legal in South Korea as Long wrote. But, I strongly agree with the idea that this is the proper time to teach our children casual piracy or copyright theft is absolutely immoral. We ourselves should be providing a good example. South Korea is no longer a developing country.
Park Seo-kyung
Seoul