How public opinion on artistic practices changes
First it was "Rip! Mix! and Burn!" Now it is simply just "Burn!"
It is the second time in a few weeks when an artist is caught "red-handed" using, remixing, appropriating another artist's work. Last December Shepard Fairey aka Obey was blamed for borrowing an image from the public domain, now rapper Timbaland is caught "stealing" from another artist.
What's disturbing is not the cases themselves. Anyone with an average visual literacy knows that Fairey works from whatever he finds and places his works back to the urban visual fabric. Also the name Timbaland that plays with the brand Timberland hints a tendency to borrow. These people do what they are supposed to do: low-level cultural recycling. (I don't mean this as something negative or worthless. On the contrary: without maggots the whole food-chain would collapse. Inspiration works in mysterious ways.)
