It's the Real Thing?

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Graphic designer Karina Nurdinova, from Milan, has come up with a new twist for the much heralded Banksy quote that takes aim at the evil attributes of the advertising world. The not-so-original quote (read on) was published in Banksy's 2004 publication, "Cut it Out." Using the words from the essay as filler, Nurdinova has repurposed the words into the iconic shape of a Coke bottle, further driving home Banksy's original point.

What makes this interesting, beyond the clever idea to shape the words into a Coke icon, is the level of plagiarizing taking place.  Taking a cue from Pop Art, Nurdinova has taken the Coke bottle and made it her own; but what you might not know, is the quote itself wasn't originally generated from Banksy. With so much love being thrown his way by band-wagon enthusiasts of street art, this is a bit discerning, but regardless, it'll continue to find it's way into the temporal waters of viral media.

The original essay was written by Sean Tejaratchi in his zine Crap Hound No.6. If you go to the link here, you can see a blow by blow account of what parts were referenced and what parts of his essay were copied word for word by Banksy. This is nothing new for Banksy.  For years, critics have accused Banksy of biting the style of Paris stencil artist Blek le Rat, who was painting stencils of rats on the streets of Paris a decade before Banksy started using rats to make waves in his hometown of Bristol, England.

With the Internet offering up an endless abundance of imagery and content, the moral and legal code for swiping intellectual property seems blurred by the shear numbers of people claiming others content. Unable to resist, people continue to post, tweet, download and blog, knowing full-well that they are running the risk of losing control of their original content. Watermarks and copyrighting icons may seem like a reasonable way to protect yourself from would-be thieves, but with a couple clicks of the rubber-stamp tool, they can be easily removed.

Much liking rolling through a stop sign at four in the morning, stealing content is just too damn tempting, and more importantly, too easy.

Fuck That!