WHY ARTISTS SHOULD NOT STEAL FROM OTHER ARTISTS

As I’m sure you noticed I don’t put any sort of copyright notice on the blogs that I write, and maybe I should. When I created this blog I decided not to do that, because I really wanted everything to be based on the Honor System. Everyone knows that it’s wrong to steal art from other people, or to steal other people’s ideas for their own personal gain, and therefore I felt it was unnecessary to even have to state that. I also figure the type of people who do steal from others will do it no matter if there is a copyright notice on the page or not, and those who are honest will be honest no matter what.

One of the most frustrating aspects of being an artist is when other people claim ownership of your ideas or projects. I’ve had this happen multiple times, starting back when I was in film school. In one case a male classmate claimed ownership over a project I worked on with him, all so that he could bask in the praise of our professor, never once mentioning that I was an integral part of the project, and was actually the one who had created the part of the film that was being praised. Another time it was another male classmate who blatantly stole my idea. He copied a film that I had just finished about a month earlier, however it was in a different class that we had together with a different professor so I guess he figured he could get away it. And he did. Then there was an acquaintance who pretty much was stalking me on fb and very aggressively insisting that I send him the script of a project I was working on. He kept playing it off that he was just curious about what I was writing and wanted to read it, in that way that at the time he was getting his master’s in film school and needed new material. It took me a little bit to piece together the puzzle; I was mostly just confused as to why he showed such a strong sudden interest in my writing. Well there you go.

The good news is that at the end of the day it becomes irrelevant if one person takes ownership over a project that they had nothing to do with. The universe keeps very detailed records of everything that you say and you do. Everything throughout every lifetime is recorded. If you are at a higher level of consciousness it becomes quite easy to access these records and to know how everyone has been using their life force energy. If one person is using another’s life force energy to manifest things for themselves, rather than using their own life force energy, it is a huge problem. And ultimately that person will be held responsible for their actions. Every exchange that takes place between two beings must be equal. One person must not walk away with everything, while the other person gets nothing.

So lets say for example one artist who happens to be a straight white man comes across something that was written by another artist who happens to be a racially mixed woman. (Where do I come up with this stuff?) This then leads to the male artist using her thoughts, ideas, to create his own art for his own benefit. Even before the interaction starts there is already an imbalance of power/energy just because of who these two people are, which happens to dictate their positions in our society. One has had infinitely more advantages than the other person, and because of that the exchange rate (in order for it to be an even exchange) will have to be even higher, than say if both artists were straight white men and were therefore playing on a much more even playing field to begin with. Then say you add to that that the first person is already a successful artist who has lots of money, fame, admiration and everything they make is going to therefore be seen and heard by lots of people. While the female artist is still an up and coming artist who is struggling financially and doesn’t have a support system/fan base already in place.

As you can imagine this only further creates the divide between the two in terms of their positions in the power game. One person is in the position to take whatever they want from the other person, while that person has basically been stripped of anyway to stop it. The female artist is pretty much powerless in this exchange. Than say the first artist decides to take advantage of that situation and does exactly that. They just steal their ideas, or copy their artwork from the second person, never once acknowledging them and not offering any sort of compensation to them. The second artist never agreed to have their work used in any way shape or form by anyone, but because of her position in that dynamic there isn’t really much she can do. All the while the first artist is using her work to gain more money, fame and admiration for himself, even though he clearly has more than enough of it already. How much more does one person need?

Well clearly this creates a huge karmic debt, because there was no even exchange on an energetic level. In this case the huge imbalance largely stems from the first artist receiving lots of money out of it (keep in mind money is just a form of energy exchange) and the second person not receiving anything. Especially since the female artist was not hired in the first place to help that person with their artwork, but instead just became a pawn in that person’s game, which they once again never agreed to.

The good news is if the debt was incurred unknowingly and there wasn’t a malicious intent behind it, but it was rather just an honest mistake, it can easily be fixed. As long as that person takes responsibility for their actions and than takes appropriate steps to amend the situation. However, if it was done in full knowledge that they were taking advantage of someone and their situation than no excuses are accepted and energetic consequences ensue. Which will be decided, and than handed out by the universe based on how much damage was done. These consequences haven’t been handed out yet, because of the messed up energy we’ve been living under, however they are now in the process of being handed out.

I guess the message is you should always be consciously aware of every exchange you have with another human being. If it feels wrong, like they should be benefitting from an exchange, but they aren’t than it’s usually because it isn’t an even exchange. And an even exchange can mean different things for different people. Ultimately though, it depends on what resulted because of the interaction of the two people and how large was it in terms of their life, and the affect it had on their livelihood. Maybe it sounds cheesy, but if it doesn’t feel right to your heart you probably need to find a better way of doing things.

***The reason I started this blog in the first place is because I wanted to hold space for half off the world’s population whose voices are not being heard. I imagine that most of the people who stumble across my blog are going to be women who are frustrated by the way things are and want change. I hope that it helps to empower these women, and to inspire them. I did not start this blog with the intention that anyone would somehow end up making money off of the content on here, with the exception of course being myself. And the irony is that if a man did show up here and somehow found a way to use this content for his own personal gain (other than of course it just helping him to become a better more compassionate man), it basically highlights the reason that this blog needs to exist in the first place, seeing that men genuinely believe they are entitled to just show up and take whatever it is they want from us with complete and total disregard as to how it makes us feel. Leaving us with nothing.

This article seems very relevant to this blog.

http://jezebel.com/5907225/when-making-deals-men-have-a-more-flexible-sense-of-right-and-wrong-than-women-do?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow