Plagiarism, The Sincerest Form of Flattery?

I get some strange requests! Actually, due to the way in which we all think, most requests to ourselves results in some form of counter-questions such as Why? What for?, and in my case How Much (big grin!). Forex, and in particular technical analysis, is a diverse sphere of interest, so big that knowledge of all the techniques and studies is beyond the limit of my memory. Following each customer request therefore comes a period of research/review, call it what you will, so that I can better understand the customer's problem. Now, sometimes there may be a language problem (which i see as my problem since I am not effectively communicating with my client), but generally one party is at a different level of understanding than the other, so I must make amends to get on the same level.

I firmly believe that there are not many original ideas in any subject, and that most innovations are a rehash of a previous work, maybe with a different bent. Only by sharing our original work I believe can we grow at anywhere near an acceptable pace.

Passing this work off as one's own, however, transcends, in my very humble opinion, even straightforward copying. It diminishes the reputation of both the original writer (who gets no credit or reward) and that of the plagiarist, who, once found out, has any credibility as an original artist, destroyed.

Given the availability of modern net-based delivery systems, and also the nature of the media to be copied, it is relatively simple to pass off a previous work as one's own. If ever I am asked to construct a forex robot/indicator/script, my very first course of action is to search the massive archives for something similar which already exists. If such a work exists, I can then inform the client that a free work is available (saving them time and money) or offer them a newly created work of my own device. If a client comes to me with a work which they want changing, I first investigate as thoroughly as possible the existing copyright notices in the current work, if any, and steer clear of anything that looks like its been wrongly obtained or copied.

So whats the point of this article? To show I am a goody two shoes? Nope (though I am - bigger grin). I want folks to use that great free internet firstly to understand what it is they really want, then to ensure no similar free work is available that does exactly what they want. And lastly, if you do find a commercial enterprise selling a work that has been clearly copied from someone else, remind others through whatever mechanism you see fit how they are being ripped off!