I feel like this article is quite similar to the Molotov Man one. Even though everyone is brought up differently and thinks about the world and what they experience differently, there are only so many different ways to present ideas. Because of this, I am not surprised that the term ‘cryptomnesia’ exists. There’s been plenty of times where I’ve thought of something and it turned out that it already existed. Perhaps this is an indicator of how alike we can be even if we’ve been brought up differently.
While I do think that copyright is necessary for creators to benefit from creating something original (as opposed to allowing everyone to use it and potentially pulling the spotlight away from the original creator), I also think that it can unfairly stifle original ideas. Take, for example, Joy’s artwork being under scrutiny even though her use of the source material was completely different from its original purpose. I think another example of this, which is a bit more familiar or relevant to me, is Sony’s copyright or rights to certain superheroes (like Spiderman). While they do have the rights to make movies about him (and preventing any other companies from doing so) it also results in rather mediocre movies that seem more like they are just producing movies just to keep the copyright to Spiderman. Another example is FOX’s rights to the Fantastic Four. While the Sony Spiderman movies haven’t been outright horrible, the same can’t be said for the Fantastic Four. Examples like these are reasons why I think copyright can stifle good content and can be used as a way to secure financial gains rather than protecting intellectual property.