A freelancer has caused a major controversy by citing admiration as her reason for work plagiarism. The Freelance Valley Supreme Court has heard the unusual defense as part of the long-awaited trial. Both parties, who do not wish to be named at this time, have fought long and hard to have the matter heard. Judge Freely Gavel is presiding.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-a-wooden-gavel-5668481/
What began with a cease and desist letter from one concerned freelancer to another about the use of layouts, templates, font, colour, and graphics has taken eighteen months to progress to the Freelance Valley Supreme Court. After mediation failed, the concerned freelancer filed a statement of claim, which led to both local and district court trials that similarly escalated.
Lawyer for the plaintiff, Lauren Order, believes that few options were available to the aggrieved party.
“You build your entire freelance business on originality. From the colour choices through to every line of copy, this freelancer worked hard to create something that was unique. To have someone study the website and the branding and copy it, to take it so close to the line as the law allows, is criminal. These two individuals were in the freelance trenches together, for chrissake.”
The defendant’s lawyer, Kai Ting, shared a different perspective.
“Nothing is original in business. Everything is a copy of something that came before it. To claim that it is original thought ignores decades of years of internet culture and hundreds of years of marketing. Besides, isn’t everything we do admiration for the person who came before us? Where would Warhol have been without his love of Campbell’s soup? And where would the Queen have been without Banksy? To claim that this is anything but one freelancer paying homage to another is just plain territorial silliness,” defended Ting.
The trial is expected to finish in seven weeks’ time, or when one freelancer finally gets their head out of their ass.
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