The most important ethical issue that designers in my field must cope with is according to the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA), to “uphold the highest legal, ethical and moral standards”. They elaborate by stating that they have strict laws and regulations, on of which is to, “refrain from any illegal, dishonest, or unethical conduct.” Therefore, I feel that plagiarism or consciously involving yourself in plagiarism is a major ethical issue.
This is an important issue as a company or individual may plagiarize in order to profit, without doing any of the actual work. In “Ethics in the Design Field”, we are told of young naïve designers who are taken advantage of when doing spec work, as they are allowing “infringement”, breaching of their rights, as the company may possibly incorporate parts of their design without paying them for it.
Another example which illustrates the importance that plagiarism can easily occur is in Berger’s example of Jack Brandis’s universal nut sheller.He gave the nut sheller to third world countries, as well as the actual mould needed to create it.He did this in order to help these people and in this case wanted his design to be copied and used all over in order to help as many people as possible.However, I feel that if this incident occurred under different circumstances, as in Brandis did not openly give permission for his designs to be copied then an act of plagiarism would have occurred.
Many people copied Brandis’s design exactly, and it was estimated that there was up to “two thousand shellers in use” in Mali, Africa and Asia.The design was not patented as he just wanted to help, but his design ended up being known as a “universal nut sheller”, proving its popularity. He could have profited a large amount from this design if he had patented it.Therefore, Brandis is a clear example that if you do not patent your design,you will be taken advantage of and stand to lose a substantial profit.This example has parallels to the naive young designers who give up their work freely, and unknowingly to be plagiarised.
